Killers’ Breed, comprising of Arvind Achappa (Guitars), Dharni Chengi (Guitars), Anthony Hoover (Drums), Adarsh (Bass) and Sriram (Vocals) isan amalgamation of a bunch of Iron Maiden fanatics. The metal heads make music as they come together to pay tribute to their favorite and most influential band. Read further to know more about them.
- Your band comprises of musicians from various backgrounds. How did you all come together to make some metal music?
Adarsh: Well, it was Arvind and I who had this idea about 2 years or so back, but things never really materialized until late last year, when we started to take it a lot more seriously and I talked it out with Sriram and he brought Anthony on board. And kudos to Sriram for steering the band forward and making us take ourselves more seriously. After our first show at Evilution we felt the need for another guitarist so Sriram could switch to just vocals. And we could not think of anyone better than our longtime friend Dharni, guitarist of the mighty Dark Desolation. We are set as a 5 piece band now.
Sriram: Hey there! That’s an easy one! Killers’ Breed is a unit formed for the sole purpose of paying homage to one of the true titans of heavy metal – Iron Maiden. And yes, like you mentioned, there are musicians with fairly diverse leanings in the band. Arvind (guitars) is part of a neo-thrash outfit called Ontologus. Dharni (guitars) is an axeman with raw black metallers Dark Desolation and Anthony (drums) also plays for melo-thrashers Neolithic Silence and black/thrash perverts Witchgoat. Theone thing that united all of us was that we loved listening to and playing Iron Maiden songs and we decided to form a band to do just that. Well, that and cracking poor jokes, I guess, haha!
Dharni: I would just like to add that for me Maiden has been huge influence and all three guitarists Adrian, Dave and Janick have inspired me in various ways. It was a real treat when I watched Iron Maiden live all three times in India. When Killers’ Breed approached me to play guitar for them I was more than happy as would get to play all my favorite songs and I thought it would be great fun!
- All of you are proud Iron Maiden fanatics! How does it feel when you perform their songs on stage?
Sriram: It’s an unbelievable rush! Maiden was and continues to be one of the biggest reasons I am a metalhead and playing their songs on stage is my way of reaffirming my allegiance to the altar of Eddie!
Adarsh: It feels insanely fulfilling. I personally picked up bass after being a Maiden fan for years, inspired by the legendary Steve Harris of course. It’s a tremendous feeling when you perform on stage and the crowd sings all along and you know that we all worship the phenomenon called Iron Maiden.
- What is your comment on seeing “Music as a language”? What do you think is the “communicative factor” in your music?
Sriram: Music is a language and Iron Maiden is one of its most powerful and ubiquitous dialects. As for the “communicative factor” in our music, I reckon it’s that feeling of solidarity you get when you see every person in a venue raise their fists and hear them join in on a chorus.to an Iron Maiden song, regardless of where you are and where you’re from. Iron Maiden is one of the few bands capable of evoking that sort of reaction.
Adarsh: The only thing I can think of is the language of Iron Maiden. I think that’s how we communicate with our audience. We don’t expect a non -Maiden fan to like us.
- Which emotion according to your band is the best way to be brought out by music?
Sriram: If we’re doing it right, our shows will have you pumping your fist, banging your heads, singing along to every song and reminding you of why Maiden are one of the best things to have happened to heavy music.
Adarsh: I guess that varies from person to person. We all come from various backgrounds and it’s not just one emotion we’re going to express.
- On an average, how many hours of practice do you think is needed for the budding artists to thrive in the current scenario of music? More advices?
Sriram: You need every bit of the time you can spare, really. You practise till your fingers blister, and then you start REALLY practising.
Adarsh: A good 2 hours a day is a lot of practice, for anyone who plays in a band and on stage. Not that everyone follows this, haha. We definitely put in a lot of hours as we have to replicate stuff written by the Gods. No advice as such, we’re not here to advice people, just a suggestion would be come to our shows, and listen to Iron Maiden – on your CDs, tapes or any other format.
Arvind: An hour of really good practice is better than 6 hours of mindless fooling around. Having said that, doing just about anything on the guitar helps. And of course 8 hours of really systematic practice is better than just that one hour, haha! Basically, the more you play/practise, the better.
- Where do you see yourself as a band in the next three years?
Sriram: Still playing Iron Maiden songs, of course! The Maiden catalog is a vast treasure trove of essential heavy music listening and our aim is to keep that legacy going strong. In plain terms, we want to hoist the banner of the Eddie Empire at as many stages our schedules would permit!
Adarsh: We hope to do a lot of shows, as many as possible. Cover at least one song from every album, and we certainly have a good platform, so we obviously can play in pubs and stuff, where other bands with a niche audience cannot. And we obviously hope to build a firm fan base and be a well-known tribute band, the only one from the country.
- As a band which Iron Maiden song is your personal favourite?
Sriram: So far, my picks among our set list would be “The Evil That Men Do” and “From Here to Eternity”. I would love it if we played “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in its entirety someday!
Adarsh: Cannot pick a song, but an album would be Powerslave. Also note that our band name comes from the pre-chorus of 2 Minutes to Midnight
Arvind: I love the whole “Number of the Beast” album!
- What is your understanding of the metal scenario in India? How do you think the scene of ‘metal music’ has changed over the years?
Sriram: The scene is a lie. The scene is you! Scene after scene! Scene of the Southern Cross! This scene. That scene. Obscene. Seriously, though, there are a bunch of terrific bands across various sub-genres of metal spread over the length and breadth of this country and that’s it. There is no scene. In that sense, it hasn’t changed much.
That being said, what HAS changed is that metal audiences today are much more receptive towards bands’ original material. Bands are more confident of performing their own music and that is a fantastic trend. It’s great that we’ve gotten to stage where a tribute/cover band like Killers’ Breed is a novelty and not the norm as it was 15 years back, when a band like Parikrama would play an all-cover set or play one insipid “original composition” in a 90 minute show and shamelessly charge a lakh to do so.
Adarsh: It has changed a lot over the years, with a lot of ups and downs. Most of us play for other bands and we all share the same sentiments. What we’d like to see is more venues and better sound. I think the number of fans and bands keep increasing steadily anyway, it’s the venues and the sound and the gigs that matter.
- If you had to ever rework one track of Iron Maiden’s, which one would be it?
Sriram: Haha,Adarshis going to go all Eddie Nazi on your asses for this one. He hates changing/reworking Iron Maiden songs and to a large extent, I think the band reflects this view. We generally try to keep it as close to the original as possible because honestly, you can’t rework perfection! I’d love to do a slowed down, doomed up version of “Remember Tomorrow” sometime, though.
Adarsh: I personally would never want to do that, Iron Maiden is Iron Maiden, what they write and have written is not to be messed with. We’ll cover them because we love them, nothing more.
Videos
Killers’ Breed – The Trooper (Iron Maiden cover)
Killers’ Breed – Wrathchild (Iron Maiden cover)
