Hoping to carve a niche for themselves with their edgy Hindi rock music, Antariksh, all set to release their debut album Khoj, join us for a chat about what to expect from them. Read on!
Eight Octaves: Greetings from Eight Octaves! You’re getting close to launching your debut album Khoj! How excited are you? What are you expecting out of this album?
Antariksh: We are tremendously excited. We hope this album will disrupt the world of Hindi rock, and help us establish a unique identity for hard edgy Hindi rock music.
Eight Octaves: How did you guys first come together as a band?
Antariksh: We (gT, Varun, Mridul) met about a year ago. We knew each other from our previous bands (Feedback, Prestorika, and Decibel) and somehow the time seemed right for a new musical venture. We really wanted to take the Hindi rock route as we felt there was some great work coming out and still a lot that could be done in the space. So we decided to form Antariksh. Vipul, the prodigal drummer joined us later, followed by Raghav on the bass, to complete the band. At present, bass duties are handled by Varun Kapahi.
Eight Octaves: How did Khoj come about? What are the main themes on which it is based?
Antariksh: We hadn’t really taken it up seriously until we released a video for our first single, Dheere Dheere. We were completely overwhelmed by the fantastic response we received, both from the music critics as well as well as common listeners. This is when we started taking the writing process a lot more seriously. It had always been a dream for all of us to put out a coherent piece of work, and as we gained momentum, we decided to push forward on an album.
Khoj is focused on the process of discovering and learning about yourself. The aim of the album is to highlight life situations where we feel strong emotions like doubt, frustration, desire, and guilt, and use those situations to understand ourselves better.
Eight Octaves: Tell us a little about your song writing process.
Antariksh: Very iterative. The band is usually bubbling and full of ideas. Mridul, Varun, or gT come up with an idea/guitar riff/melody; they record a demo and send it across to the entire band.While rehearsing, we all throw forth our ideas which we capture. Mridul then usually gels them together and records a quick demo, which the entire band works on. For the lyrics, Mridul usually writes the first draft after which the band helps in iterating.A lot of cool ideas come actually came and were incorporated while recording the songs (for Khoj).
Eight Octaves: What’s your first single, “Dheere Dheere”, about?
Antariksh: Dheere Dheere is about being trapped. It is about slowly losing your own identity, giving in to peer and societal pressures and becoming one of the million faceless, nameless people out there. It is about forgetting who you are and why your heart beats.
Eight Octaves: You released your second single of the album, “Tum”, a few days ago; tell us about the song. Baiju Dharmajan (ex Motherjane) has played a guitar solo in it – what was it like working with him?
Antariksh: It was fantastic. We were very pleasantly surprised to see how happy and excited he was to play on Tum. We met Baiju at a previous gig where we’d opened for the “Baiju Dharmajan Syndicate” and he was extremely gracious. Tum was the perfect song for him to play something on and we think his solo has taken the song to a whole new level.
Eight Octaves: What was it like working with the other guest artists featuring in the album?
Antariksh: It has all been excellent. Gaurav Chintamani (Advaita) has been a strong force behind the album, giving us a fantastic mix, doing additional production work on Parichay, and Tum, and playing some awesome guitars on Aashayein. Sid Mathur did an awesome job on the bass for the same song. Kartik Dhar (Nasya) helped uplift Tum with some great string sections. We are very grateful to have all these talented people involved in Khoj.
Eight Octaves: You spent a lot of time together for this album – recording, doing photoshoots, etc. How was the experience?
Antariksh: Crazy. First thing, I think none of us realized it would be so much work! Between co-ordinating recording, sitting in the studio and mixing, pushing to get everything done on time, to printing CD’s and designing the album inlays, it has been a rollercoaster ride. But I think we are all very proud of the final output. It just makes everything worth it.
Eight Octaves: Any personal favourites from the album?
Eight Octaves: What’s next on the cards for Antariksh?
Antariksh: We are playing a launch show at the Blue Frog in Delhi, on the 8th of September. After that, a tour and lots of shows to promote the album!! J
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. Please mention photo and video credits too.
INTRODUCING THE BAND MEMBERS
Antariksh is:
Mridul Ganesh (Vocals/Guitars) – The front man of the band is renowned for his brilliant singing, guitar playing and music production abilities. A singer with a great vocal range, Mridul can mesmerize you with his singing in English, Hindi and even Spanish. An alumnus of IIT Delhi, with years of experience in Management Consulting, Mridul is also known for his strong work ethic, affinity for ‘chai’, and a sharp sense of humour. Mridul also directed the music for a Bollywood movie, ‘The Bet’, released in 2010.
Varun Rajput (Guitars/Backing Vocals) – Founder and guitar player of the band, he loves to try his hand on various instruments, record and produce music. Varun is best known for his work with progressive rock bands (Feedback, Under Siege) and folk-fusion band Nasya. He also directed the music for the Bollywood movie ‘The Bet’, with Mridul. Other than being a versatile musician, he is also an engineer from DCE, a former Management Consultant, and a state-level hockey player.
Gurtej Singh (Guitars/Backing Vocals) – Guitarist. Composer. Lyricist. With over 10 years of guitar playing under his belt, Gurtej aka gT was primarily linked with the Delhi-based metal band Prestorika. gT has spent the last few years composing and recording tracks for his solo album titled Inertia, before founding Antariksh with Varun and Mridul. gT is also an expert level Flash/Flex developer and an experienced graphic designer.
Vipul Malhotra (Drums) – Though just 20 years of age and the youngest in the band, Vipul has been playing drums avidly for the last 10 years. Self taught, Vipul believes in versatility and focuses on being the groove master and backbone of the band. Although a hard working musician, he ensures that the atmosphere in the band remains pleasant and fun. He is currently pursuing a B.Tech in Computer Science from NSIT Delhi, and is a semi-pro graphic designer.
Hailing from Sri Lanka and headlining the inaugural edition of Echoes From Beneath, Genocide Shrines are a force to reckon with. While they plan their signature on-stage brutal live attack for the gig, we caught up with the band for a little chat:
Eight Octaves: Greetings from India! How have you been?
Genocide Shrines: Ayubo! Busy with preparations for future attacks!
Eight Octaves: Your EP – Devanation Monumentemples got rave reviews and earned you a very good fan base. Any plans of releasing a full-length anytime soon?
Genocide Shrines: We are honoured to read the words of praise regarding the Devanation Monumentemples EP. Yes, new hymns are being composed as we speak for a couple of upcoming split releases as well.
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Eight Octaves: Tell us about your song-writing process. How do you go about composing a new song? Does the riff come first? Or, is it the lyrics that is written first and the riff is structured according to it?
Genocide Shrines: We do not have a set structure for this. Most of the time, I usually have my hate speech penned down in advance for future compositions. Depends upon how exactly we want the aura of the said composition to be communicated.
Eight Octaves: Tell us about your lyrical themes a bit. What are the main inspirations behind the lyrics?
Genocide Shrines: Maha Raavan, Spiritual Death and Eternal War.
Eight Octaves: Coming to the gig in Bangalore, what can the crowd expect from you? Any kind of exclusive set list planned for Echoes From Beneath?
Genocide Shrines: Although, it will not differ much from our signature live attack, we have decided to honour the special occasion by revealing yet another new hymn from the full length, and we will be doing a couple of special cover tributes as well. So yes, an “exclusive set” is what we will be blessing Bangalore with.
Eight Octaves: How is the local scene in Sri Lanka? How easy or hard is it to establish a new band from scratch?
Genocide Shrines: Although, the lack of resources may confuse and slow down progress for the new comer; we, who have been around for more than 10-15 years doing what we do know our ways around to get things done. This is why you don’t see many officially recorded releases from our lands as most of them are massive amounts of live attacks. Manifestator, Goatmunition, Serpents Athirst, Pariah Demise, Plecto Aliquem Capite, etc. are highly recommended.
Eight Octaves: Coming to your stage appearance. What is the reason behind the war/apocalypse armour look? How and when did you come up with the idea and what made you stick to the decision?
Genocide Shrines: Sri Lanka is a country which is famous for a few things, and amongst them is the practice of the art of war. We were born into an environment of an on-going full scale ethnic conflict which has been brewing since ancient times and due to this we have not known Sri Lanka at peace and neither will we be able to envision it or see it happen anytime soon considering the rate of on-going domestic conflicts. So since our audio creations are of barbaric and unforgiving nature, what manifestated as the aesthetic of GS was quite natural.
Eight Octaves: Let’s have a round of 5 quick-fire questions. Write down the first thing that comes to your mind:
One band from Sri Lanka everyone should check out would be? (any genre) At the moment:
Coming from Aamchi Mumbai, Devoid have been one of the leading Metal bands in the Indian scene. Having opened for the likes of Cradle of Filth and Decapitated and touring almost all corners of the country, they recently qualified for the Wacken Metal Battle India leg and played in the 24th edition of Wacken Open Air. We caught up with lead guitarist Sanju and drummer Shubham in the green room, just before their maiden show in India after returning from Wacken:
Eight Octaves: You guys started in 2005, you have been through some line-up changes and complications as a band. So, tell us about the journey, how has it been as a band in these 8 years?
Shubham: We actually started in 2004, we played this show called Campus Rock idols and we fucked up. We covered Master of Puppets and a song of ours called Poems of Death, which does not exist anymore.
Sanju: Oh! I need to hear this!
Shubham: Yeah (laughs). Back then we were kids. We had a bass player called Abbas; I don’t know where he is now. And then, I don’t know how we met Frank (Pawar); our bassist before Abhishek. We met him through Rahul Hariharan’s contact. I don’t know; he just came down from (looks at Sanju) where did he stay? Meera Road.
Sanju: I like how you say came down. (Both laugh)
Shubham: Meera Road to Chembur to jam, and we jammed some Slayer songs and that was it, that was like – Yeah let’s do this! Then Arun, I and Keshav were in the same colony. So, we grew up together and sort of listened to the same music. And we just started the band. We’re in the same colony, listening to the same music, so we better do something about it. So Keshav had this problem – he used to play too fast. Any song, he’ll play double or triple the speed. He couldn’t play slow. So, we said, “Let’s play Slayer that should be comfortable for you”. That’s how the band started. And then, we started writing our own songs. Possessed is one of the first songs we wrote. It was called Suicidal something back then, I don’t know (smiles) it was completely different then. And after that, the complications. So, Keshav and the band had some musical differences, let’s put it that way. He’s still a very good friend and we’re still in touch with him. Actually, I spoke to him like 2-3 days back. He’s pretty chilled about it. And, he went to UK in between to study, and this guy filled in (points to Sanju). We found him through YouTube, and he was covering Glasgow Kiss (by John Petrucci) and he nailed it. When I saw the video, I was like – “What the fuck! Is there a guitarist out there doing this? Let’s call him!” So, he used to stay in Thane, so we went to Thane to jam; because we wanted him to fill in for one year, we didn’t want to stop. We were playing and we really gelled along! It really clicked for us! And then Keshav came back, and those musical differences still continued. They were not evident back then, but after some time it was like the sound of the wall. It was good. Keshav is a brilliant guitarist; he is coming up with a band very soon. And I’m sure he’s going to fuck it all up. I mean he’s a very, very technical guy. He is fast, but his technicality was different. That’s why we didn’t gel in so well. So, we called him and said – this is the way to go. And Frank, again musical differences. Not just musical differences, I don’t know what to call it.
Sanju : It was just not working out. He was not showing up at a couple of jams because of a couple of things he had. Like, he was working plus he has a wife and a couple of commitments. As much as he loved the band and all that
Shubham : He was very passionate about the band
Sanju : Yeah, very passionate. But the thing was like, we couldn’t meet up, we could just meet on a Sunday. And that was not enough for us. And couple of Sundays he couldn’t make it.
Shubham : Basically, he wasn’t able to practise, because of which playability was affected. The band was really progressing fast and he wasn’t catching up. I don’t want to doubt his skills or anything. He’s a very good bassist, everyone knows that. But, again, sort of a musical scene and it wasn’t working out. It’s like if we have to take a tough decision for the band, then we have to. There’s no stopping it. That’s it.
Sanju : Kamdar has been a really good friend of ours.
Shubham : Oh yeah! I forgot!
Sanju : Yes, you’ll forget him obviously
Shubham : Kamdar was, he came into one of our jams, when me, Keshav and Arun were jamming and Frank wasn’t there. So he just came down to check out what was going on and he had his Bass with him. He picked up a song on the first take, one of our own songs. And we were like “Whoa!”. And he was very good; we didn’t feel like that thump of the bass ever! And we were like “Okay, this guy is good”. So after a year later, when Frank left, he was our obvious choice.
Eight Octaves: Tell us about your song writing process a bit. From “A God’s Lie” to “The Invasion”, your sound has changed a lot.
Shubham : It wasn’t a conscious effort to change our sound. Our sound has been changing. We listen to different bands every day and that influence maybe kicks in. We just play what we want to play, it’s about having fun. If you’re not having fun as a band then you need to stop playing. “The Invasion” specially was a very combined effort. Everyone has pitched in. These guys were coming up with the riffs and Kamdar and I would be patching them up.
Sanju : Yeah, like stitching them together.
Shubham : The guitarist worked on the guitar parts and we add the drums and bass and everything changes.
Eight Octaves: But while composing, what is the main procedure? Do the lyrics come first or the riffs?
Shubham : I guess the lyrics came side by side.
Sanju : There is no fixed procedure as such. In fact the second song in the album – Pandemonium is Now, was started with a drum pattern composed by him. He just wrote down a drum pattern from something in his mind, which he couldn’t tell us. So, he gave us these like – “Hey guys, here. This is something I have”
Shubham : And then they added the guitars and bass and made it something else and sounded better. And we were like – “Yeah, let’s do this”.
Eight Octaves: So, basically it depends from song to song?
Sanju : Yeah, it’s like sometimes Arun writes some parts, I add some parts and Kamdar comes in with some parts. It’s a combined effort.
Shubham : And it’s a challenge most of the times. Like whatever parts Arun makes, he has this weird thing going on in his head, we have to stop to understand it. When he makes a song, he writes the whole song. And we don’t really add on much to that. And this guy, when he writes, Arun just can’t play those riffs for 2 weeks. We keep challenging each other.
Eight Octaves: Tell us about your gear a bit. The gear you use live.
Shubham : I don’t have anything. (Everyone laughs)
Sanju : I will tell you a short story about this guys sitting in front of you. Our man here does not have a drum kit at home, practises on pillows till date and has just the double bass pedal, a couple of cymbals and he works his way through that. Other than him, Arun uses a Schecter Hellraiser Solo 6 and a Line 6 POD HD500. Kamdar uses an Ibanez bass and a couple of pedals, like a compressor and all. And, for me, I use a Line 6 POD HD500 as well and I’m endorsed by Gibson.
Shubham : He got some really special treatment at Wacken. He didn’t carry his guitar there. Gibson was there and they had given him a guitar.
Sanju : Yeah, I just went to the bus and collected it. It was epic.
Shubham : That’s where the endorsement really helped us.
Eight Octaves: Now coming to a major factor – there is always some kind of stage fright or nervousness associated with it. Sometimes it depends on the crowd or audience, sometimes on the person.
Shubham: It’s still going through me right now.
Eight Octaves: But, how do you cope up with it? Any tips for the young bands?
Shubham: As a drummer, I don’t know man, just keep playing and enjoying it. What I do is keep myself warmed. I don’t know, that one snare hit is enough for me to forget everything.
Sanju: Once you’re on stage, when you are together, you can hear yourselves; you forget it.
Shubham: You just have to feel your music. I just try to feel my music on stage, that’s how it goes and then I’m in the groove.
Eight Octaves: You’ve been around for 8 years now, so how much has the acceptance of the Indian crowd changed in these 8 years?
Shubham: Indian crowd has a very long way to go. Bangalore was the Mecca of Metal at one point, but it’s still stuck to that era. We have Old School-New School wars in India; that never happens anywhere else. The current bands under Old School were New School too at one point of time. So, you have to accept things as they are coming. Even in our music, you might see some Core influences, I don’t give a fuck. If you like the music, listen to it. But, I don’t know, the war has to stop. This is Metal. You’re being un-Metal if you’re saying New School is bullshit. People are listening to it, so shut up. Even in Mumbai it happens at times, and they are really nice people in general, but when it comes to music, they are these walls. Like – “No no, these are not good. You guys are un-Metal because you listen to these stuff”.
Eight Octaves: Who would be your major influences?
Shubham: Well, it has to be the great Thrash and Death Metal bands – Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Vader, Megadeth, and Carcass. We listen to everything, we take inspiration from everything.
Shubham: The band was supposed to be named Demised by the way, but then we went on Google and saw there are 55 bands named Demised. So, we said fuck Demised, we won’t name it Demised. Demised was like cool, as we were back in 10th standard and all. Then Arun came up with Devoid. I didn’t know the meaning of the word then. I asked him what is Devoid and he gave me some funda about emptiness, which I don’t remember. But it looked good on the logo and well, that was it mostly.
We had Devoid speak about themselves, the band, the Indian scene and a let out some secrets too. But you can’t complete an interview with Devoid without asking them about their recent Wacken experience. Cashing in on the opportunity, we got them candid about Wacken a bit:
Eight Octaves: So, you recently qualified for the Wacken Metal Battle. Firstly, congratulations on that! Tell us the preparation process that went through before the qualifications.
Shubham: Salman told us that Bangalore Open Air is coming up and we need some established bands in the scene to play, obviously as he wants to pull in some crowd to the competition as well. We told him that we don’t do any competitions; we’ve come out as a band through shows and not competitions. Competitions have not been our style or it’s like any competition we play, it’s not our style of music. We told him no, but then we said – Zygnema gave it a shot, they were there last year. They were one of the inspirations for us to apply for the competition. So we did, we got in. We played the first round in Mumbai.
Sanju: In Thane, my hometown.
Shubham: I don’t even remember the show, United 21? (Looks at Sanju)
Sanju: Yeah, United 21. There is only one venue there.
Shubham: Fucked up sound, everything was fucked up. But again…
Sanju: Yeah, in fact I broke a couple of strings. Like back to back two strings in one song.
Shubham: Yeah, and then we were like – This is already fucked, so let’s just have fun.
Sanju: And Arun says – “I’m not going to play, take this guitar and play” and he jumps into the crowd and gets beaten up a little (laughs). We went for it and somehow it worked for us. We got through along with Providence. Actually, that day only one band was supposed to get through, but they really liked us both. Providence were really very good. We went through it and then we came down to Bangalore at Bak Bak Bar. That was also a pretty chilled out scene. All the other bands were good at that point of time.
Shubham: And Providence really killed it that day.
Shubham: And we were surprised, we were like “Okay, they are definitely going in”. It was one of our, kind of, in recent times one of our bad shows. It wasn’t the best show. I don’t know why Providence didn’t get in, obviously they had certain criteria under which they were judging, but we really wanted Providence to get selected. They were amazing and they really need to perform a lot more. So, once we got through the second round in Bangalore, we were like “Oh shit”
Shubham: Till that time we were just having fun, but after getting qualified we were tensed. Like – “How the fuck will we do this?” We never play competitions; we haven’t played one since our starting years. So we were confused what to do here. We just had 20 minutes. But it was good. It was not like other competitions, we had a proper sound check and all.
Sanju: And Animals As Leaders were there, we were doing our sound check before them and we were playing just before them and all that.
Shubham: During the sound check we were at the side of the stage and all and we were like “No one is there, nothing will happen”. We just saw Sycorax finish their set there and people came running in towards the stage and I was like “Whoa!”.
Sanju: I think that pushed us really. We owe it to our fans. We gave it our best shot and luckily it worked out.
Shubham: That was the Indian part of it; I don’t even need to tell about the German part.
Eight Octaves: Still, how was the experience there?
Sanju: 10 on 10. That’s all. The performance there was great. Even there we got 20 minutes on stage. The gear was something we had never played with in our entire lives. Really really good stuff. The vibe over there was awesome. Everyone’s metal, everyone’s great.
Shubham: We got Wacken condoms by the way (everyone laughs). In a goodie bag they gave Wacken condoms, we guys went mad (laughs). There was so much metal there.
Eight Octaves: What is it like in Wacken for a band?
Shubham: It’s not a band scene; it’s more of an experience scene. When you go there, first of all everyone is so nice. We’ve heard so many shit about the Germans, but they are not that. They are very nice.
Sanju: They are very nice and everyone is so supportive. There is no hierarchy there, nobody looks down on you. There was this tenting area where we got to know everybody and this artist area and having some coffee and cup noodles and there was Randy from Lamb of God and Tomas from Meshuggah.
Shubham: They were just chilling!
Sanju: Everyone was just walking by and we were like “Oh my god!”
Shubham: You can’t explain it in words, you have to be there. Everything there was metal. They live their metal. Even the fans there are so organised.
Eight Octaves: How different would you say the scene is there compared to India?
Shubham: The scene? Well, it’s different but you know what? The Indians bands are really coming up. The quality of bands here are increasing. There are so many bands who can kick the asses of foreign bands. But at the same time we had seen Legion of the Damned and Whitechapel who raped our asses.
Norig is a French artist, whose music beautifully amalgamates elements of traditional Balkan music, swing jazz, tango and classical music, putting on a fantastic bridge between classical and contemporary music. After selling more than 10,000 copies of her debut album, ‘Gadji’, she’s coming back with another release in October, titled ‘Ionela’. We caught her up for a little chat regarding her Indian tour (dates mentioned at the bottom), her musical journey and her general interests. Read on!
Eight Octaves: Greetings from Eight Octaves! This will be your first visit to India, I believe so. You will be playing across many cities. What are your expectations from the crowd and the country?
Norig: I’ve been to India more than 10 years ago, though not for singing. That was in Bangalore. I met new people, discovered so many different things, another culture, another way of living… I never forgot the jasmine perfume and the incredible food.
I don’t want to have any expectations. I prefer to live and see what comes to me. I just hope the audience enjoys our music.
Eight Octaves: ‘Gadji’ offers us a beautiful, artful sound which is so melodious and easy to listen to. It sold more than 10,000 copies too. How did you feel after your debut effort reached to such a successful point?
Norig: It should have sold more (I’m just joking!). I just feel that I worked with wonderful musicians like Sébastien Giniaux who wrote the music for the album. He also played lead guitars and cello; he made the sound very special as he comes from classical music and jazz. Also Victor Coman, who is a gypsy musician! He played the accordion so beautifully with soul of Tango and Moldavian music.
Eight Octaves: You collaborated with Tony Gatlif to work for the soundtrack of the movie ‘Exiles’ this year. How was the experience of working with him?
Norig: It was a rather unique experience, I went into the recording studio to listen to a friend who was singing for him and when he knew even I was a singer, he asked me to sing a cappella in front of everyone. He offered me to come back the next day to sing in the soundtrack. It was improvisation but more than all, we worked again together in a magnificent spectacle “Django Drom” about Django Reinhardt with great musicians from Jazz Manouche.
Eight Octaves: Tell us more about the upcoming album, ‘Ionela’. What can fans expect from it?
Norig: It will be very different from the first, it was necessary for me to write my words in French. The music had to be different, to be right with the texts. Sébastien Giniaux who composed and arranged every song worked a lot on the disc’s different colors of melodies. There are Balkan inspirations, but we wanted a more rock sound, which is we included drums. The guitars used are electric, but you will still find a cello and a piano in the set-up. This album is a continuation of the first but also the result of a long artistic work. It was made with sincerity and dedication.
Eight Octaves: Everyone has a story which tells us about how they grow up to being what they are. What is yours? How did you end up being a musician?
Norig: My father was a teacher who taught classical guitar. So I grew up listening to a lot of music. I have always loved to sing. Chance encounters bring me to my singing teacher Martina Catella, musicians who accompanied me on the road I chose. I did not expect to be a singer. I just liked to shout something once; the gypsy song was like my cry.
Eight Octaves: Your music is an assortment of traditional Balkan music and swing jazz. Who would be your primary influences?
Norig: I think the influences are more than Balkan music and Jazz! There are essences of classical music and tango as well… These are not just my influences but also influences of the musicians who have written the arrangements and composed the songs… Basically, I listen to all kinds of music, and each one of them can be an inspiration.
Eight Octaves: What other interests do you have besides music?
Norig: My interests are to do creative stuff with friends or alone, but to do it with pleasure! And passion!
Eight Octaves: Have you heard any Indian artists, lately? If yes, do you have any favourites?
Norig: Not really, but I have watched a lot of Indian movies from Bollywood with my gypsy friend. For example, I loved Devdas.
Also, I know a French dancer; her name is Céline Pradeu. She’s Half-Indian, and she mixes contemporary dance forms with the Indian ones. It’s very interesting to me personally.
Eight Octaves: What’s your schedule during the time you are in India? You have planned to go sightseeing or it’s just going to be a trip back home after the concerts?
Norig: We’ll have a concert in France 3 days after our show in Delhi, so we aren’t going to stay for much long. I hope I’ll discover places between our concerts in Pondicherry, Hyderabad and Delhi, if I can.
Norig is coming to India on a 5-city tour. So if you are dying to listen to some good music you’re somewhere near the undermentioned places, make a visit.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013 – Museum Theatre, Chennai
Wednesday, September 4, 2013 – Lister Square, JIPMER, Pondicherry
Friday, September 6, 2013 – Alliance Francaise, Bangalore
Saturday, September 7, 2013 – Hotel Taj Banjara, Hyderabad Tuesday, September 10, 2013 – The Flying Sauceur, New Delhi
The guy wears a Pantera t-shirt; slays with a Dime Dean axe; heck he even plays as killer as Dimebag! But don’t get me wrong, he doesn’t emulate what Dime did, rather he picked up his legacy only add a fostering soul of his own, making the music altogether “chaotic”. I’m talking about Nikhil, the strenuous guitarist of Chaos. Hailing from Trivandrum, Chaos is a four-piece thrash metal band who believes in playing thrash metal in its purest and aggressive form. They won the awards for ‘Best Metal Artist’, both Judges’ and People’s choice. We caught up Nikhil for little chat about the band, their album and other things in general. Check it out!
Eight Octaves: Greetings from Eight Octaves! So it appears that the year is turning out to be pretty good for you guys; you put an album on the table and bagged a couple at the Radio City Freedom Awards. How does it feel?
Nikhil: Yes, this year is turning out to be pretty good for Chaos. The radio city freedom awards were indeed an absolute honour for us. It feels amazing.
Eight Octaves: ‘Violent Redemption’ offers us powerful mid tempo paced thrashy riffs, laden with heavy grooves and frantic harmonies, very easily pleasing any person who’s into Thrash Metal. How satisfied are you with the album?
Nikhil: We’re more than satisfied with the outcome. We’ve been working on this album ever since the band was formed and it has been a fun ride till where we stand right now.
Eight Octaves: ‘Violent Redemption’ received a massive thumbs-up from the fans and critics across the country. How was the response outside of India?
Nikhil: We’re really happy that we’re getting a lot of support from within the country. We’ve had quite a few nice reviews about us, coming in from outside of India as well. Now we’re trying to make a few shows happen and push our music to even more metalheads across the country.
Eight Octaves: Chaos has been following the DIY technique and is currently not signed to any label. Do you prefer it that way? Have you ever been approached by any label?
Nikhil: To be honest, we didn’t have any other option when we started off. And now things are better, and we’ve been approached by a label from Sweden and one from Germany. We’re in talks with them. Nothing’s decided just yet.
Eight Octaves: The band was formed back in 2004 but it took you almost nine years to come up with a release; but in the end, the result was rather gratifying. Would you say that taking things slow kinda helped you in attaining the apt sound which you must’ve initially wanted to accomplish?
Nikhil: Well, the ‘taking it slow’ part wasn’t really intentional! It took almost 9 years for things to fall in place. But I do believe that the amount of time that we’ve invested in this record did play a major role in how it has turned out to be.
Eight Octaves: So… Coming to a very basic, boring, yet vital question, how did you guys meet up?
Nikhil: This is in fact a funny story. I’ve met JK at a local college fest. I was fooling around with a guitar, and JK walked up to me and asked me, “Dude, do you listen to Metallica?”. My answer was obviously, an emphatic ‘Yes’! And, much like most of these conversations go, his next question was, “Let’s start a Band!” And that’s how Chaos was born!
Eight Octaves: What is the story behind the name “Wartooth”?
Nikhil: That Facebook name started off as a joke! And it still is! We’re huge fans of the animated series ‘Metalocalypse‘. So, while we were creating Facebook accounts, JK, who we call Jaaga, named his account ‘Jaaga Explosion’ after ‘Nathan Explosion’, Pappu, our bassist at that time, took ‘Pappu Murderface’ after ‘William Murderface’ and since ‘Skwisgaar Skwigelf’ is too much of a Guitar God, I took ‘Toki Wartooth’ instead. That’s how my Facebook account name turned out to be ‘Nikhil Wartooth’. And that name just stuck like anything! At this point in time, let me just confirm that Old Monk Rum had nothing to do with these names!
Eight Octaves: I’ve seen you sporting a Pantera tee and playing a killer Dimebag Dean. Would I be too obvious if I ask you who your biggest influence is?
Nikhil: Dimebag f*ckin’ Darrel it is! I’m a huge fan, and I’ll always be. And I really can’t say anything about the man that hasn’t been said before! Such a legend!
Eight Octaves: As a band, is there any Indian artist you look up to as an idol or a great influence?
Nikhil:Motherjane and Avial had had a huge influence on us on a personal level rather than on a musical level. They were a huge inspiration for us in our early years and it was their success that had fuelled our band for a long time. Apart from that, we’re huge fans of PDV, Zygnema, Eccentric Pendulum, Deviod and the list goes on and on!
Eight Octaves: So finally, we hear that you’re almost done with the material for your next album already. You must be like a riff machine then, haha?
Nikhil: It’s been a long time since we were done with the recording of ‘Violent Redemption’ and we were jamming regularly ever since! So, coming up with new material was in fact inevitable! We really don’t have anything better to do anyways! And calling me a riff machine is a little too much bro! Anyways, as far as the new material is concerned, it sounds fresh! And it sound good to us right now, and we can’t wait to test Keshav’s patience again! Hopefully, we’ll come out with the next one very soon! Thank you so much for this great interview! Looking forward to seeing a lot more from Eight Octaves! Cheers! \m/
If one Black/Thrash band was not enough, the Echoes From Beneath crew present to you one of the finest from Sri Lanka – Manifestator. A super group, intoxicated with alcohol and porn, playing their hearts out and not giving a damn about other things; Manifestator are all set to thrash you alongside Witchgoat during the inaugural edition of Echoes From Beneath. Wartek takes some time out to speak out his mind in this candid interview:
Eight Octaves: Hails from India! How are we doing today?
Wartek: Sex!!! Uparima..!! Athal!!!
Eight Octaves: Tell us a little about your early days. What led to the formation of Manifestator?
Wartek: This was a prolonged project by me. I always wanted to play extreme speed music. Mainly Thrash. So, I tried forming a band after my previous band Forlorn Hope spitted, and I worked with 2 guitarists, 2 bassists and 3 drummers before anything happened. B.W.G (Genocide Shrines) was really interested in playing with me on the guitars, as he knew my vision for a Thrash Attack and it has always being really comfortable in making music with him. Then everything else just fell in place and we created the black thrash arsenal Manifestator with Nuklear Toxicator & Khaoshiva Solasthar (Genocide Shrines).
Eight Octaves: Coming to your genre, what was the reason behind choosing to play Black/Thrash? It is one of the least common genres around, at least in the subcontinent.
Wartek: 1st it was going to speed thrash, like we were going to stick to that; then suddenly everything changed. The desire for Black Metal is tempting. I and B.W.G come from Black Metal Bands, and our sound is very crustier and for Manifestator lyrical themes there is no other genre that suits.
Eight Octaves: Tell us about your composition process a bit. How do you go about composing a new song?
Wartek: 1st it’s the name of the song and then I write the lyrics and a concept for the song and I always have a melody or at least a style for each song in my head while I write. And I explain it to B.W.G and he comes up with the craziest riffs and both of us get together and construct the main sound and we jam and we make the song. But the lyrics always changes until I feel it’s right.
Eight Octaves: When you first started out in 2009, how did the local scene in Sri Lanka respond to your music? Any criticisms or praises that you received during your first gig, which may have changed your mind set and helped you improve and adjust to the scene?
Wartek: Bewildered!! We were great. Tight like a virgin cunt. Apart from the part that we were so wasted that I started vomiting on stage while I was singing. Only praises as no one knew that we will sound so great. Since we know a lot of people and being here in the Black Metal scene from the start everyone was really surprised at what we make from our music. Anyway we knew from the time we started we can’t stop this band, because of the sound we create makes us go crazier every time we play.
Eight Octaves: You had plans of releasing a studio EP/demo sometime back, but it didn’t happen due to some reasons. Any plans of releasing your materials in the coming future? Maybe, a split release with some other band?
Wartek: We do this through a lot of hardships, and we all have our personal problems to deal with, so we have now settled back again already started composing more noise. There will be an album and a couple of splits too.
Eight Octaves: Bangalore is all set to witness the Sri Lankvlt warriors. What do you have in store for them?
Wartek: Sic, Six, Sex!!!
Eight Octaves: Your personal favourite band from the Echoes From Beneath line up, if any, would be?
Wartek: That would be Genocide Shrines, not only coz we are brothers, it’s the music. I’ve checked all the other bands, they are all Killer!! It’s only my lack of knowledge in the industry.
Eight Octaves: Any other gigs planned for the year as of now?
Wartek: No. We want to record and next year on we will be ready to tour.
Eight Octaves: If given a chance, one band/artist you would like to open for or play with would be?
Wartek: Inquisition!!!!!
Eight Octaves: Let’s have a round of 5 quickfire questions. Write down the first thing that comes to your mind:
One band from Sri Lanka everyone should check out would be?
Wartek: Paranoid Earthling
Favourite Manifestator song to perform live?
Wartek: G.O.D.
The most memorable Manifestator gig till date?
Wartek: Siamese True Metal Fest, Thailand(2012)
One song you would love to cover live?
Wartek: I got Erection by Turbo Negro.
One festival/gig you would die to perform in?
Wartek: True Thrash Fest Osaka (2 days of fucking thrash)
Eight Octaves: Lastly, any words of wisdom for the young bands out there? Wartek: Fuck You..!!! And All of you!!! – That’s the only attitude you need.
Hailing from the dark alleys of Bangalore, Dark Desolation are one of the very few Black Metal bands in India. They are endorsed by SIT strings, In Tune Pectrums and Soultone Cymbals and were recently featured on the Transylvanian print magazine Slowly We Rot. Read our interview with them:
Eight Octaves: What does it take to bring together a metal band? How did you guys start your musical journey?
Dark Desolation: It takes like-minded people to bring together any band. Dark Desolation formed in 2010 July when Shredaj (lead guitars) was looking forward to get in touch with people with similar musical interests. While doing that he found Maggot (vocals). ShredAj relocated to the metal capital of India, Bangalore, which is now known as Bengaluru. The two met and things seemed fine and then the hunt for a drummer began. While, the two started working on material and they saw this skinny guy who could blast the hell out of drums, he could tear the place apart with his drumming. Through some additional search the three of us found a rhythm guitarist named Dharni and a bass player called Jayant who used to play with Shredaj in a band.
Eight Octaves: What do you think separates a metal band from a mall core band, attitude-wise, musically and philosophically?
Dark Desolation: We don’t wish to comment on it because we might not be into that type of music but however respect all genres of music!
Eight Octaves: Some techniques as a band that you follow, which you think helps better in reaching out to the audience?
Dark Desolation: Aggressive promotion!
Eight Octaves: Do you like any black metal bands? If so, which? Have they influenced your music in any way?
Dark Desolation: Yes there are tons of Black Metal bands we love and listen to. Fortunately they have not influenced our music because we don’t believe in getting our influences into songwriting. Because if you do so, what’s the point in forming a band when you’re not using your head to come up with original stuff?
Eight Octaves: How would you incorporate ‘world music’ into the band curriculum?
Dark Desolation: World music has nothing to do with band curriculum.
Eight Octaves: If you had to pick and rework on any artist’s work, which track would it be and why?
Dark Desolation: Well that depends! For instance, we had covered ‘Suicidal Ritual’ by the Polish band, ‘Besatt’. We wanted to cover something which nobody has covered and by adding an element of Dark Desolation into it, we made it sound unique. We’re glad Besatt liked it!
Eight Octaves: What is the kind of gear you use on stage and for recording? Having won most of the competitions happening all over India, which ones do you enjoy more?
Dark Desolation: To name a few for live we use Line 6 POD x3 Live and Zoom G5, BC Rich, Ibanez, Traben, Soultone cymbals, In Tune Guitar plectrums, Sit Strings, Big Bends, Trick etc. For recording it’s a separate set up altogether. Black Metal is not for competitions and we do not play in competitions.
Eight Octaves: What is your greatness/weakness as a band?
Dark Desolation: Our music is everything to us!
Eight Octaves: What have you guys planned for the future? Also share a word of advice for all the music enthusiasts out there.Dark Desolation: An album is expected! Hail Black Metal \M/
Neolithic Silence is a Thrash Metal band from Bangalore. Having recently qualified in the South Zone finals of Wacken Metal Battle and Jayanth being endorsed by Orange amps, our correspondent, Amrutha Ananth, talks to the band about their thrashing, their upcoming EP and other general stuff:
Eight Octaves: What does it take to bring together a thrash metal band?
Anthony: Lots of practice, spending on gear especially consumables like sticks, spending on jams. Soundproofing or tolerant neighbours is a must.
Narayan: Loads of anger, fast as blazes guitarists, a double bass drummer who aspires to outplay Dave Lombardo and a thesaurus. J
Jayanth: Like-minded people firstly. Since the time I started the band along with my college buddy Pranay, I think I’ve played with 10+ musicians in this band. The line-ups are never stable and it is impossible to take the band through one year without a change. When the current line up got together, there was no convincing needed. We’ve stuck together, fought, composed, recorded, practiced, drank together enough to know that at every performance we are going to deliver the same amount of energy, accuracy and power that fans are now discovering. Apart from the personnel, you need to have kick ass gear. Finally a lot of time to compose and be consistent!
Eight Octaves: As a metal band coming from India, are there any barriers you face that any other band belonging to other genres wouldn’t?
Anthony: I don’t think all those genres can be clubbed as one, and metal as the other. I’m sure they have their own barriers to varying degrees. Metal just has a small audience, which probably makes it difficult to sell the music and play in as many places.
Narayan: Yes. We do not find harpists to jam with. Seriously, no! If, as a band, you’re really, really good and you have a brilliant manager, people will buy your music and come to your gigs, no matter what.
Jayanth: It is most disheartening that a lot of venues despise metal. Whilst saying that, we do enjoy every opportunity that we make or those that are given to us. A lot of times we do spend a lot of money for gig in terms of preparation and at the gig as well. A trend shift is most certainly needed in this regard. Most of us still let this go by simply because we love the band, the music and we love to be on stage.
Eight Octaves: How do you plan your stage performances? Few tips on gear placements?
Anthony: For the drummer: always carry cymbal stands, at least for local shows. Set up cymbals and stands before the gig.
Narayan: Plan a stage performance? Other than tossing a coin to decide whose turn it is to wear the one pink tutu we own as a band, not much else. Guitarists go on either side, put the drummer in the centre, make sure you don’t have a drum platform, so no one can see him and ask the bass player to stand wherever there might be place left.
Jayanth: Personally, there a lot of this starts back home before I leave for the venue. I have plan the transport of my newly acquired Orange Rockerverb 100 MKII and PPC412AD. This forms the bulk of my setup and also weighs a 100+ kilos. My guitars are usually cleaned up and readied the previous day along with all the accessories that needs to be taken along. At the venue, I make sure I speak to the Engineer behind the board and have everything that we need. As the front man of the band, these things need to be sorted well before I go on stage however small the show or venue might be. The band never takes more than 10 minutes to setup and sound check. To sum it all up, the band really needs to get to the venue to play.
Eight Octaves: What are your favourite thrash metal bands and why? If you were to evolve thrash metal, how would you do so?
Anthony: Testament, Slayer! Because they slap you in the face! One tight slap!
Narayan: Slayer! Because they’re Slayer! You cannot listen to or watch Slayer without grinning like a special needs school boy while violently trying to unhinge your neck from your torso. If I were to evolve thrash metal, I’d probably come up with secret prosthetic limbs to enable faster, heavier playing. Upwards of 300 bpm and such
Jayanth: Slayer, Exodus, Testament, Sepultura, Kreator, this list might never end. As Narayan rightly said, speed and accuracy would do a lot of good to Thrash metal.
Eight Octaves: What is Neolithic Silence’ plan of action for 2013?
Narayan: Release EP, play a butt load of gigs, write and record full-length
Jayanth: Release EP, plan and execute a promotional tour in India. We’ve already begun writing our next album which we should be recording at the end of this year.
Eight Octaves: Outside India, What band interests you? Have they influenced your music in any way?
Naryan: There’s Havok, Fear Factory, Sadus, etc. Nope, I just like listening to them
Jayanth: Dark Tranquillity influenced me in a lot of areas – Ideology, Playing and sound. Then there are bands like Nevermore, Soilwork, Overkill who I can never stop listening to. I also spend time listing to some bands who do not particularly fall under the banner of metal like Rush, PT, DT, Racer X. They all influence my playing in their own ways, but not the music I write.
Eight Octaves: How do you conceive of a song: do you start with a riff, an abstract idea, an emotion, or a structure?
Narayan: Jayanth is in charge of conceiving. A song generally starts out as his baby, the rest of us wet-nanny it until it’s a strapping young lad/lass.
Anthony: So far riffs have been brought to the jam room, and we worked out the structures and added bass and drum parts there, along with solos, etc.
Jayanth: All the music so far has been written over the last 5 years or so. I come up with an idea or a song concept and write riffs around that. Lyrics come last as always for me. These riffs are then baked in the jam room with the rest of them adding their own material. The song gets its structure there.
Eight Octaves: What is your opinion about having ‘Music Unions’? Do such platforms help in anyway?
Narayan: What is a music union? If you mean jamming with musicians from other styles of music, yes, they help. By the end of most such endeavours, you either have a deep respect and appreciation for another form of music, and are therefore a better musician and person overall, or are so pissed off with the exercise that you are eternally grateful to be doing what you do to start with and will never leave your band!
Eight Octaves: Share one memorable ‘thrashing’ stage performance close to your heart.
Narayan: All our gigs so far have been memorable. But I’d like to play a lot more before I select a favourite performance,
Anthony: More than one actually. BMC headlining, Wacken metal battle south finals Jayanth: I think both the BMC gigs were superb. Sharing stage with Sujay from Bhoomi was something I’ll never forget. I love some of the earlier gigs from the early lineups like BVB College Hubli. I’d never imagined that a 1000 strong crowd in a remote place would respond well to us. The recent gigs at ION have given us a lot of appreciation as well.
Witchgoat – the badasses of the Bangalore scene. One of the most underground and yet popular band, Witchgoat have gained a nice following in just about a year. This super group containing members of Kryptos, Bevar Sea and ex-Culminant is ready to drill you a new one during the inaugural Echoes From Beneath. Here is Mr. Necromaniax again, telling us how excited he is to play in the gig:
Eight Octaves: Nice to have you guys back again! How are you doing?
Necromaniax: Fuck it’s you again. Just fucking great. We’re doing fine sweetheart….especially after you sent us that video of you and a donkey getting it on. You got some moves man….and that donkey can fucking swallow. Goddamn. HEE HAWWWW!!!
Eight Octaves: You had to pull out of Doom Over Bangalore as Nolan was down with dengue and Avinash was still recovering from his shoulder injury. How are things in the camp at this moment?
Necromaniax: CAMP? Ahahahaha. What do we look like asshole? Refugees from fucking Gabon? And who the fuck are Nolan and Avinash? What kind of fucking lame names are those? It’s Necromaniax and Arson Monk to you pal. Tattoo them on your fucking testicles right now.
Eight Octaves: Each member of Witchgoat is a part of a well settled band, of a totally different genre. So when you guys jam, how easy or difficult is it to come up with ideas for a new song or maybe revamping a cover in your own style?
Necromaniax: It’s fucking easy as shit motherfucker. We just stick a fucking photograph of you on the wall and next thing you know we’re making some of the most pissed off music that ever fucking existed. I think it all has to do with that fucking emo-fag look you have. Just like that cunt Bono. What kind of a fucking name is BONO? Say it non stop. BONOBONOBONOBONOBONOBONOBONOBONOBONOBONOBONO. AHAHAHHAHA it sounds like a bunch of seals getting rammed by a fucking blue whale.
Eight Octaves: When not jamming or playing, what do you guys usually prefer to do? (except watching animal porn and gazing at goat tits 😛 )
Necromaniax: We usually prefer to make giant posters of our penises and staple them all over your fucking house.
Eight Octaves: One fact that makes you guys stand out from the rest is your “in-your-face” attitude you present to the audience while performing. How would you define this attitude?
Necromaniax: How the fuck do you define an attitude you fucking tampon? OK IT’S A TRIANGLE. There’s your fucking definition.
Eight Octaves: It has been confirmed that you guys have new compositions in stock now. So what can we expect from your set at Echoes From Beneath?
Necromaniax: We have GIANT PENISES in stock. Hurry asshole and tell all your fucking friends. Get them all for FREE so you can feel a real echo from beneath coming at you while you fucking sleep.
Eight Octaves: Since you have quite a few original songs now, any plans of releasing an EP or a mini-album anytime soon?
Necromaniax: There’s nothing mini about us you pube chewer. But yes we shall release our ELONGATED PENIS on vinyl so you can see it go round and round till it fucking hypnotises you.
Eight Octaves: Coming to the gig again, you will be playing alongside Manifestator. The only Black/Thrash attack from Bangalore meets its counterpart from Sri Lanka. How excited are you regarding the gig?
Necromaniax: Oh muh gawd, like yknow, we’re like yknow sooo excited. Like eeeeee oh mah gawd what are we like yknow going to like wear yknow? Eeeee we’re going to look like yknow…so like….adorable…yknow. Eeeeeee OMG
FUCK OFF…yknow! Both us and Manifestator are going to be stomping on turd handlers like you all through the night.
Eight Octaves: Well, your favourite part now. Go and abuse our readers for wasting their time here. All yours.
Necromaniax: We’d like to thank all our readers for all their wonderful support and for taking time off to read this interview of ours. It really means a lot to us. We love you all and we hope you have a lovely time at our recital on the 7th. Muah!
Bevar Sea – this Stoner/Doom band from Bangalore needs no introduction. Having been around for quite some time now, Bevar Sea came out with their highly acclaimed self-titled debut record this year and a major show stopping performance during the inaugural Doom Over Bangalore. Currently working on their music video and their new album, we caught up with the band for a little chat before their performance in the inaugural Echoes From Beneath:
Eight Octaves: Ahoy stoners! So we meet again! How have you been?
Srikanth: We’ve taken the time off since the Bombay gig in June end to be busy with other projects, duties to fill on the bass, producing other bands, writing new music, or drawing more cool things – depending on whom you ask in the band. But we’re back to playing gigs starting with Echoes from Beneath. The rest of the year’s calendar is looking busier than the first seven months, so fuck yeah!
Eight Octaves: You guys are working on a full-length album, if I’m not wrong. Tell us more about what to expect from the album?
Srikanth: We’re just writing as of now. The next song I’ve written sounds more classic doom metal than anything else. One song is slower and more oppressive than anything on the first album, and another is faster and more up-tempo than anything on the first album. Deepak even wants to bring out the double bass. So it’s going to be a mixed bag, just like the first album was but in a different way. Hopefully we don’t need two years to put this one out. We’re halfway through it, and my goal is to have the entire album’s worth material written, arranged, and ready for pre-production by the end of the year.
Eight Octaves: (For Ganesh) It was a busy last month for you, starting with Doom Over Bangalore, then filling in for Nolan for Kryptos’ Chennai gig, doing double duties – vocals for Bevar Sea and then for Kryptos in Mumbai, and lastly, filling in for Jayawant in Kryptos’ Europe tour. How physically demanding was the switching over and adjusting with Kryptos; especially during the Mumbai gig, where you did back to back vocals for Bevar Sea and Kryptos?
Ganesh: It was not a breeze, but it was not a ‘demand’ either. I am good friends with the band and really dig (The) Coils (of Apollyon) and that took a lot of weight off. Also, we downed a couple of shots of some unholy brew. I’d have loved to do a longer set with them!!
Eight Octaves: (For Ganesh) How was the feeling of playing in the grandest stage of all, the Mecca of Metal – Wacken Open Air, that too along with your old band Kryptos?
Ganesh: Well for starters it was something Nolan and I used to dream of when we were putting the band together back-in-the-day. Everything about Wacken is so fucking pro. From artist check-in to stage/monitor/FOH management. There’s beer at every step, the best people in the business, great backline, blah blah blah. What it made worthwhile was seeing some friends we’d made over our time in Germany in the front row banging head. So, it isn’t possible to to attach one feeling to the experience. It was a fucking dream, and it has been realised. Time to realise the next few. Now, where’s that weiss beer?
Eight Octaves: Let’s have a sort of quick-fire round of 5 questions. The first thing that comes to your mind just put it down.
One band you want to perform with?
Srikanth: Pentagram (US)
Favourite Bevar Sea song to perform live?
Srikanth: Universal Sleeper, because it’s got a constant groove going for almost ten minutes.
The most memorable Bevar Sea concert?
Srikanth: The first Bangalore Open Air. Also the one where we opened for Anathema in IIT Madras earlier this year was great for us.
One song you would love to cover live?
Srikanth: Not one, but we’d love to do a full set of Rush and Thin Lizzy songs someday.
One festival/gig you would die to perform in?
Srikanth: Roadburn. I don’t want to die yet though.
Eight Octaves: You have a new music video coming up soon; you were looking for a villa type setup to shoot it. Can you give us a preview of what’s it is going to be like? What kind of atmosphere are you trying to create in the video?
Srikanth: Yup. Chacko and I have been working on a video for the first album song Universal Sleeper. The idea is simple really – it’s a farm house party where things go completely wrong for us metalheads. There’s going to be a lot of gore. I’ve had the idea in mind for as long as Bevar Sea has been playing live, and it’s cool to finally seeing it done. Chacko has done a great job converting that into a script and he’s added a lot of details as well. Munz will be shooting the whole thing, and we’re getting help from a few friends to do everything else. We hope to shoot this over a weekend soon, once we work out all the logistics.
Eight Octaves: Any other gigs planned this year, as of now? Or are you taking some time off to work on the album?
Srikanth: Not really – we’re up for gigging anywhere this year, and we’re working on putting a crew together to make this easy for us when we play out. We’re soon going to be in a position where we can freely travel with a killer sound and light show, and things produced exactly to our needs. We’re really looking to play more outside the comforts of our hometown for sure. Writing new material is just something that I need to finish on the side, but the live dates will go on. We’ve got a few dates confirmed already, but we’ll just wait for the official announcements. One thing I can tell you already is, we’re excited about the big stages we’re going to play this year. I think that’s where our best shows have been so far, and more of that is always welcome.
Eight Octaves: Okay, last question for the day. What are your expectations from Echoes From Beneath? And what can the crowd expect from you?
Srikanth: Echoes from Beneath is one of the most badass line-ups we’ve been part of so far. It has a great balance between super furious black/thrash of Witchgoat and Manifestator, and the slow heaviness of Djinn & Miskatonic and Shepherd. We’ll play second last, after Manifestator, and the audience can relax a bit during our set and get all charged up for the awesome Genocide Shrines again.
I think getting down the killer live acts from the Asian neighbourhood is a great way forward for us. The local scene is still up and coming and we can’t keep doing shows with the same line-ups over and over. It’s more fun with outside bands added, and the local and outside bands learn from each other. The audience always gets to watch fresh bands playing alongside their local favourites at gigs. The word has already spread, and our gigs have automatically become more special in the underground scene internationally, and we’ve already been flooded with requests from more killer bands to come down for our future gigs. We intend to keep this purely old school and we plan to do 3-4 of these shows every year. We’re flying the Lankans down, we take care of their stay and food, and we’re doing it all without sponsors. The crowd needs to pay a little premium for these shows we’re doing, but it’s still a way better deal than paying 2-3k for a 50 band line-up when you’re really only into just a couple. Our line-ups are programmed to be way tighter, and if you like one band, chances are, you’re going to like almost all the bands on the line-up. 700 bucks is not that much – just a little more than an IMAX ticket, but you get to see killer underground bands that you never get to see otherwise.
Speaking for Bevar Sea though, we’re really looking forward to playing some new material alongside the tunes the crowd already knows. The party will also spill over to the next day with the Lankans for sure. This shall rule ass!
