Eight Octaves: Tell us about the starting days of Mortar.
Mortar: Well we began late in 2011, when Nilabja came down from Bangalore and met up with Sam and found a lot of similarities in their musical taste. After a few line up changes Soham joined the band in Jan, 2012 and again after a few more line-up changes Sayak joined the family in Nov, 2012. And right now this is where we stand – Ground Zero.
Eight Octaves: Your sound has a mixture of 80’s Thrash, with a predominantly yelling vocal style like Tom Araya. What did you guys want to sound like exactly when you decided to form the band?
Mortar: Thrash.
Eight Octaves: Your first single –Ground Reality; which was released just before Ritual Ascension Fest 2012, got a tremendous response from listeners all over the country. You were on the radar overnight. How has the road been since?
Mortar: Frankly it’s been quite horrible! It’s really tough for an old school thrash band to get gigs in a city like this. Most of the youngsters are into Bollywood or other mainstream genres. And the ones who like heavy metal prefer the new age sound. So…
Eight Octaves: Coming to the Kolkata scene. 3 years ago when I wanted to start my band, the first problem I faced was getting musicians. It is hard to set up a band in the first place, but to top it all no one was interested in playing in a Metal band back then. How is the scenario right now?
Mortar: Well right now if you got Lamb of God or/and Meshuggah amongst your influences you can form a band overnight. But ask people if they wanna play Maiden, Priest, Sabbath, Exodus, Slayer and the likes – NO! It took us almost two years to reach a steady lineup, and even now we don’t have a permanent bassist! So the scenes pretty fucked up, but definitely better than what it was 3 years ago.
Eight Octaves: As far as gigs are concerned in the city, there are gigs being organised on a regular basis; which was not the case maybe a couple of years ago. How much has the mentality of the crowd towards this “Devil Genre” changed with the sudden evolving of the scene?
Mortar: Well some people actually took to the sound and started worshipping these bands and the others just tagged along in the bandwagon. ‘Cause after a point of time you can’t really deny heavy metal music. But many among the so called ‘metalheads’ of this town might fail to name two tracks from ‘Holy Diver’. New age heavy metal seems to be turning into a fashion statement (a pretty horrible one)!
Eight Octaves: Now coming to the Motorhead tribute album. Mortar is featured in the list with giants like Millennium, Dying Embrace, Albatross and your brothers from Kolkata – Purgation. How big is it for you as a band?
Mortar: HUGE! This is the first chance we are getting from a renounced record label and seeing our name on the CD with bands that we grew up with is like the first gulp of an ice cold beer!
Eight Octaves: What are your plans for 2013? The EP is set to be released during Forged In Fire. Any plans of performing in some other cities?
Mortar: We don’t really have a tour planned out. But if any of the organizers out there is reading this interview make sure your city gets Mortared!
Eight Octaves: Okay, let’s talk about the EP. What can we expect from it?
Mortar: 17 minutes of raw thrash and a three day lasting neck ache!
Eight Octaves: Incanned Productions. How did the partnership start?
Mortar: The guys from Incanned heard our demo of ‘Ground Reality’ and they liked it. So they called us up and we could strike a deal! Next thing you know – Ground Zero!
Eight Octaves: Next five year, what’s on your “To Do” list?
Mortar: Beer, thrash, chics, ****, wacken etc. Well actually, playing better music and not selling out!
Note: To go along with the interview post on our website, please send us one large band portrait, 4-5 pictures from your live gigs and links to your music/videos.
