You guys have evolved from being an underground project band to one of India’s premiere metal outfits and also one of Asia’s constant parameters in the death metal genre!! Tell us about your journey from the scratch.
Inner Sanctum: We started off as a project band way back in 2006. Chintan composed and recorded most of the tracks at home solely with the objective of releasing a demo. He had absolutely no plans of starting a band and playing those tracks on stage. But things changed when he started jamming with Michael for another band, with other local musicians. The tracks that were recorded for the online demo were far superior to the ones they seemed to be making with the other band, and they decided to move on and form a band by collating members who fit the project. That is more or less how Inner Sanctum was born.
For three years we worked our asses off, trying to make things work. We played tons of shows, too many to count, all of them for no pay or just food and one drink! It was a pathetic situation! We would need to compete to make money and get recognized. We won numerous competitions and made enough money to get into the studio and record.
Sometime in 2010, after we won the national finals of Independence Rock, things opened up for us. We were invited to headline smaller events and our fan base expanded considerably. That is when we decided to stop competing and playing shows for free. Probably one of the best decisions we have made as a band. It was a great feeling to know that colleges, organizers, promoters etc had enough faith to have you as the headliner/ featured act, because the headliner is expected to bring in the crowds.
After a year of successfully headlining smaller college events we were invited to play bigger festivals like GIR, Rock N India, Deccan Rock, Whiplash etc, and that’s what we have been doing till this day.
Provenance” definitely made you visible throughout Asia. Any special memories associated with it that you could share with us?
Inner Sanctum: We consider Provenance to be one of our biggest achievements. It is a culmination of numerous things; good music, top notch production and packaging/artwork that can compete with any release by any international record label.
It was an absolute blast working with Lasse Lammert, LSD studios, Germany. A thorough professional and a great guide! Probably the best thing that has happened to us in a long time! He is our special memory!
What do you think is the secret of your success?
Inner Sanctum” As a band we constantly seek to reinvent the wheel. In fact, we put in a lot of effort into every single performance. We plan our entire set and think of all aspects that would make our performance that much better.
People appreciate the fact that we make exclusive flyers for each event. We actually make a conscious effort to do so because we think India needs to be exposed to the flyer culture, which is so prevalent in other territories. Also, we are probably one of the first bands to use standees on stage. We’ve been doing that since 2009.
Basically, these things make a huge difference to the audience and to the organizers. They view the band as a more professional outfit and take you more seriously. As a band we have a lot more things lined up in terms of aspects to reinvent the wheel. So just wait and watch!
Tell us about your inspirations. Also, if you would want to try and remake some artists’ song..which track would it be?
Inner Sanctum: We have tons of artists/bands that inspire us and most of them we’ve listed on our Facebook page. Individually, each of us listen to various genres ranging from jazz to death metal. Honestly, we wouldn’t really want to remake songs of another artist. It is honestly, a waste of time because in our view no one can play a song better than the artist who makes it, if you know what we mean.
What else has ‘Inner Sanctum’ got for the future? Also a word of advice for the budding artists out there?
Inner Sanctum will hit the studio end of this year! Our new tracks are almost done and they already sound massive! We will also be touring a lot in India and a few other countries for sure so anticipate chaos!
When we decided to release Provenance we had a few things in mind that we think holds good even today:
-Never compromise on quality! If you do not have the money to release a great quality product, wait till you do. There is no hurry! If your production is bad, you are honestly not doing justice to the tracks. We could have easily done a full length with the amount we spent on Provenance, but we were not going to be just another Indian band releasing just another album. That is the reason we spent a bomb on the recording of Provenance, and it was worth it!
– Compare your album with an international release: Have a few albums that act as reference albums, when you are in the studio. Don’t be afraid to choose albums from big bands and big record labels with fat budgets. It is the only way to go! You need to realize that in terms of quality of production, packaging, artwork etc the audience should place you on the same footing as an international act.
Share with us one concert experience that you, as a band, consider to be your best.
Though the national finals of Independence Rock was a turning point for the band and it was an absolute honor to open for metal greats like Metallica, Cradle of Filth, Amon Amarth, Textures, Meshuggah etc. The recent edition of Rock N India 2012 was by far the best concert experience for us! Our fans voted for us to open for Slayer and honestly it cannot get better than that! It was a phenomenal feeling to open for a band that defined an entire era of metal music and do so by popular demand! Also, DNA networks did a brilliant job with the organization and production.
We will also be playing alongside Karnivool (Aus) at NH7 Pune and Dead Letter Circus at Waves 2012, so you’d never know! We just might have an even better concert experience! We have our fingers crossed!
