Interview With Shepherd

Shepherd is one band that has taken the Bangalore underground scene by storm. Debuting in 2011, the band didn’t waste any time in making themselves get noticed in the scene with their music. Building on confidence with each performance and after some very successful gigs, Shepherd will be performing in the inaugural Echoes From Beneath. Here is Bangalore’s very own virtuoso drummer Deepak Raghu talking about the band and more:

Eight Octaves: Greetings! How have you been lately?

Deepak: Greetings! I’m doing alright. Namit is slaving away at work, so is Michael. Mahesh is getting ready to go to Swarnaboomi Academy of Music for their 1 year vocal training course. I’ve been filling in for local boys Mad Orange Fireworks since their album launch. Apart from that, just going to Premik’s studio whenever we’re tracking and making sure everything’s going smoothly.

Eight Octaves: Your studio updates say your songs are almost finished. When can we expect the release?

Deepak: We’re hoping to put it out sometime around Oct/Nov. There’s no real pressure, so we’re just going to wait it out and make sure everything’s sorted before we decide on a date, launch gig etc.

Eight Octaves: Tell us a bit about the band. How did it all start?

Deepak: Namit, Mahesh and I had been toying with the idea of starting a band since 2008 or something and we were planning to go by the name Thornweaver. Which sounds slightly lame now when I look back at it. But the band really came together in 2011, once all of us were finally in the same city for one and also we had a better understanding of the sound we were going for.

Eight Octaves: What is the story behind your band name?

Deepak: Three of us were tripping and someone suggested ‘Shepherd’ and we just went with it. No deeper meaning or anything but I’m a fan of simple band names that sound cool like Slayer. SLAAYYERR! If you’re gonna start a metal band, half the battle is won if you have a cool sounding name. The rest is just writing music, which is fucking easy right?

Eight Octaves: Something that really impressed me when I first saw you guys live was your cover of Pink Floyd’s “Have A Cigar”. Tell us a bit about the composition and ideas that go behind these covers and your original compositions/

Deepak: We don’t really think about re-arranging covers so much. A lot of it just happens in the rehearsal room. Our version of “Have A Cigar” was modelled after the Foo Fighters version; we just slowed it down a bit and changed some bits here and there.

Our writing process is pretty simple. Put together riffs to make some kind of compositional sense. Despite all the weed that gets consumed among us, we get bored easily so we try to keep our arrangements a little busy and short (for the most part) so it’s not just mind-numbing repetition all the time.

Eight Octaves: What would be your most memorable incident as a band till date?

Deepak: There have been at least two instances of Namit’s gear getting lost/misplaced/stolen. The second time we got it back. That was a relief. Going to Madras and playing with Escher’s Knot, Eccentric Pendulum. Trend Slaughter Fest III was epic.

Eight Octaves: When not jamming or performing with the band, what do you guys do individually? (All of us are always online on Facebook/Twitter, that doesn’t count 😛 )

Deepak: I’m trying to do this music thing full time, so I play for a lot of different bands/musicians on a session basis. Namit works for a corporate. Michael does… I don’t know what he does. Mahesh is unemployed for most part of the year, but now he’s going to S.A.M. in Madras for singing lessons.