SKYHARBOR – Interview with Keshav Dhar

We finally got the man behind Skyharbor (SoundCloud link), some of the freshest-sounding metal I’ve heard in a long time, Keshav Dhar. He was nice enough to give TDSR an extremely varied and interesting interview, that’s turned out mercifully free of stupid puns on ‘djent’. It’s long, sure, but we’re sure that those who stick with it will gain some great insights! Also, the knowledge economy requires you to be able to assimilate large amounts of information anyway, but I digress. Here you go.

Keshav: Hey man.

El Bajista (TDSR): Hey. How’re you doing?

Keshav: Good man.

El Bajista (TDSR): Cool. Let’s get started. Tell us a little about your background, in a general sense. When did you first get into music? Why and when did you pick up the guitar?

Keshav: Well.. I’ve been playing music since i was about 6 years old – my parents got me started on piano lessons and I continued playing for about 10 years.Then, once I slowly started getting into rock and heavier music in general, I got more and more interested in the guitar. Plus once I joined college, it was in Manipal, which is a fairly remote student town in Karnataka. So, the only instrument I could carry realistically was the guitar…and I ended up sticking with it. I joined college in 2004, so you could say I made the shift to the guitar about a year before…. so 2003

El Bajista (TDSR): When you joined college, did you think you’d be doing music this intensively? (for info’s sake, what were you studying?)

Keshav: I was studying biomedical engineering. To answer your first question, no not at all.

Well….I was always interested in playing, considering I’ve been playing music ever since I can remember, but I never considered it as a full time career.

El Bajista (TDSR): Cool. Did you ever get to working after your degree, as an engineer?

Keshav: No, I was planning to do the MBA thing instead. So after college, I studied for a few months, gave the CAT exam etc. I scored pretty well in fact…I got a 97.4.

El Bajista (TDSR): !

Keshav: hahah. So while I was waiting for all the results to come through, the guys at Grey and Saurian had invited me to join them as they were setting up a company and generally doing a lot of cool initiatives that hadn’t been attempted in Delhi. And as it turned out, my CAT score wasn’t enough to get me a REALLY awesome school, so I decided I’d work with these guys, and study for another year and repeat the exam…I’d been dabbling in music production since my third year in college, since I really didn’t have anyone to jam my musical ideas with.

El Bajista (TDSR): (I have the same problem)

Keshav: So after a while I realized that I was actually better at music production than any engineering/MBA job. Hahaha

Oh really? Man, it sucks being in that position…I’m really fortunate to have an extremely supportive family

El Bajista (TDSR): We digress. But that leads me nicely to my next question. What were the projects that you did previous to Skyharbor [Facebook page link]?

Keshav: The only band I was actually a part of was Another Vertigo Rush [Link]. I played the odd gig here and there with bands as a fill in guitarist. Them Clones for example but the only band I was writing with was AVR. That was amazing.

El Bajista (TDSR): Cool. AVR were known for being pretty unique!

Keshav: Yeah man, it’s a real shame that we never really capitalized on that momentum. Members kept moving abroad and back, which generally got very disruptive and the whole flow was interrupted. So it’s on hiatus as of now. But that was a great period of writing because we came up with some really-really cool songs (which only the people who came to those 3-4 shows have ever heard). It was all-instrumental, with post rock vibes with tons of layers and epic melodies, which was a huge influence on my own writing as well.

El Bajista (TDSR): Speaking of momentum, Indian rock and metal seems to have been teetering on the brink of exploding for years, and yet no major artists (apart from a few such as yourself) have as yet emerged. Why is that?

 Keshav: To be honest I think there’s no one specific reason for that. Its down to many factors. Firstly, there’s the power of the internet…and while it’s amazing to get yourself heard and gain traction, you also end up putting pressure on yourself because you generate expectations and a lot of times, that happens too soon, and it ends up compromising the honesty of the music that’s coming out…

That is just a recipe for disaster, ‘cause you’ll lose interest very fast if that happens.

El Bajista (TDSR): Yeah. I hate to say it, but some bands simply don’t have the talent and originality to back up on one or more ‘hit’ tracks. The net format seems to support a quick rise, followed by MySpace oblivion

Keshav: There you go. And it is not even about talent.

Bands suddenly generate all sorts of expectations without having written more than 1-2 songs…. And once those songs become popular, they spend all their subsequent time trying to recreate those same songs, instead of exploring their creative abilities to the maximum. It’s like… Ok, I’m getting recognized for having “this” sound, now I have to write everything to have this same signature sound or else I’ll go nowhere.

It’s amazing to get yourself heard [on the internet], but you end up under pressure because of expectations

El Bajista (TDSR): yeah. One of the things I’ve noticed is that famous musicians become famous not by anticipating what’s popular, but doing their own thing.

Keshav: Yeah, absolutely. The Deftones got a lot of flak earlier for being nu-metal, but they’re still killing it today and putting out legendary albums ‘cause they’re just doing their thing. They’re not trendhopping. The thing with the Internet is, it generates so much hype so fast, that often neither the artist nor the fans can keep up with the pace. Its is why I personally believe one should spend a lot of time on one’s music, get a large collection of material ready, before getting all excited about creating Facebook pages and MySpace accounts.

It’s very tempting to just put your songs out there, knowing that if you spam enough, someone or the other will click on it. Music first, everything else second…a distant second, in fact

El Bajista (TDSR): For our readers, Skyharbor is testament to this fact…home production, no promotion, and Marty Friedman!

 Keshav: Hahahah. I can often hardly believe it myself, but there you go. Are you from Delhi, btw?

El Bajista (TDSR): Yeah.

Keshav: Ahh.. So you know about that period between 2005-2008 where young bands were killing it everywhere.. JF, Superfuzz etc

El Bajista (TDSR): Yeah. I was in Delhi University between 2005-06.

Keshav: Ahhh. Those bands never really gave a crap about whether they were doing the cool thing or not. Which is why they were so good at their thing.

El Bajista (TDSR): Zero were big, if I remember correctly, Prithvi were on the rise, Parikrama had come up with….one song. It was a good time.

Keshav: Hahah. Yeah.

El Bajista (TDSR): We all know about your Marty Friedman and Daniel Tompkins collaboration. How did you come into contact with them?

Keshav: Both of those were really random occurrences. Dan first contacted me almost exactly a year ago from now, over MySpace. At that time, the project was still very much an experimental thing, as I was focused mostly on AVR then. In fact (slight digression) I was actually planning to can the entire project at the time ‘cause I was generally not happy in life and hadn’t written anything in ages. But once I got that email, saying he wanted to sing over my stuff, it was the kick in the ass I needed. Hahah.

Of course, there are certain similarities between Skyharbor and Tesseract sonically, so it ended up working really well, and from one song we ended up working on 6 songs. He’s pretty much done the whole album apart from 3 songs which Sunneith has done.

El Bajista (TDSR): Ok. Now this is a good place to ask you. When is this much-awaited album coming out?

Keshav: Yeah, I know people are getting impatient and maybe some are losing interest waiting too…in all honesty, I don’t want to fix a release date until I have the final mastered album ready. The last time I did that, I presumed June and that epic failed.  Plus, everyone’s waited so long already…another month or so won’t kill them. Also, I decided not to master the album myself, and Zorran Mendonsa will be doing it instead.

Zorran has actually been very instrumental in shaping the sound of this project. Trayus (my first ever song) was written with him in the room, guiding me on every aspect and making suggestions regarding riffs, layers, etc. In fact he’s written a LOT of the layer parts on that song. You could say he’s my mentor when it comes to songwriting and production, and although I can master it on my own, I think he can do a better job…I don’t believe in having a big ego over these things.

El Bajista (TDSR): Heh. One of the most remarkable things about Skyharbour’s music is the sheer number of different ideas you put in per unit time. There aren’t many (any?) repetitive parts that I can think of, off the top of my head. How do you manage to maintain the flow of the songs so well, and manage to keep things memorable, seeing that most musicians rely on repetitive structures to get the point across?

Keshav: You know, I believe that not enough people have experimented with writing on a computer. When you do that, it opens up tons more possibilities. For example, each riff in Aphasia is actually a combination of parts from maybe 15 totally different riffs, which I had lying around on the computer.

El Bajista (TDSR): ! (You heard that first at ThatDoesntSoundRight)

 Keshav: Haha, yeah. I just chopped them up, took the parts I really liked, experimented with arranging them in different ways, till I found something I liked. Then came the tough part. I learned the riffs in their new form (which is usually very difficult, as it’s parts of different riffs stuck together)…and then re-recorded everything.

Each riff in Aphasia is a combination of parts from maybe 15 different riffs

El Bajista (TDSR): Hahaha. What a workout.

Keshav: You know, when you write riffs while you’re just jamming over say a programmed drum track or with your drummer…you’re always reaching into your regular bag of tricks, relying on your techniques, etc. Basically staying within your comfort zone. I found that the above approach to building riffs really helped me break out of that comfort zone.

El Bajista (TDSR): Cool. Your guitar playing seems to be more rhythm oriented than lead. Was there a particular point where you decided, or acknowledged, to yourself that your strength/focus would be hammering rhythms? Or are we going to be pleasantly surprised with a Steve Vai-ish release sometime in the future? ☺

 Keshav: hahahahaha. I suppose most of the music I listen to is very strongly based around big groovy rhythms and ambient soundscapes…so naturally what I end up putting out also sounds like that, because that’s what I’m hearing in my head. I’m not the best lead player around…although I would like to get serious about learning some lead techniques to incorporate into future material maybe.

Marty Friedman

El Bajista (TDSR): mmm. Speaking of changing styles, do you have any plans or ideas laid out for music that’s not as heavy? Poppier, perhaps?

Keshav: Well, most of the stuff I’ve been writing recently is definitely not as aggressive as what you’ve heard already. It’s the main reason I wanted as much clean vocals as possible….I wouldn’t it’s say poppy, the stuff is proggier perhaps, with not-so-straightforward melodies, strange chord progressions etc… It’s all very experimental. One of those songs will go on the first album itself, called Aurora

El Bajista (TDSR): …setting the stage for further explorations, presumably.

 Keshav: Exploration is where it’s at

 El Bajista (TDSR): Sir ji, that goes in as the quotable quote of the interview.

 Keshav: Haha, sweet!

 El Bajista (TDSR): You’ve expressed, in other interviews, some opposition to being labeled exclusively Djent. Is it simply that as an artist, labeling is corsetry to you, or is it because you have an opposition to the term?

 Keshav: I generally dislike labels that invoke images of a very specific type of sound, and Djent is the worst of the lot. It actually meant something completely different, but after Periphery and Tesseract became huge, people began calling it a genre

El Bajista (TDSR): Electronica people wouldn’t like to be labelled ‘bippity-bop’.

Keshav: Yeah, exactly. Haha. For an artist, it can get frustrating, because say someone doesn’t like Periphery, chances are they won’t like Skyharbor after seeing that both fall under the “djent” label, despite the music being (IMO) very different.

Exploration is where it’s at

El Bajista (TDSR): mm. Speaking of different music, What about things that fans of yours will be surprised you listen and learn from? Any Lady Gaga type guilty pleasures on the side ?

 Keshav: Haha, I don’t think so really. I listen to a lot of chillout electronica, but nothing that people would go WTF at.:P I absolutely love Telefon Tel Aviv, Younger Brother, Bluetech, Entheogenic, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Amon Tobin, Boards of Canada…there’s so much awesome chillout music.

 El Bajista (TDSR): Ok. This next one I’ve wanted to ask of someone. Is there any value in exploring the melding of Indian vernacular languages with very heavy music? There have been rock bands doing it, most notably Avial, but super heavy metal?

 Keshav: Sure, you have all these bands from Bengal/Bangladesh who make extreme music in their own languages. Thing is, one shouldn’t do it just for the sake of it….

‘Cause if it isn’t honest, and it’s being done just to cater to a different audience, chances are the product will probably suck. But if you have the guts and really can express yourself that way, more power to you

 El Bajista (TDSR): Even in rock, I kind of resent Bollywood appropriating an image culled from the west, rather than making something rock and Indian and then simply tacking on some Hindi lyrics. It’s the sound of middle-aged men reliving their youth rather than the youth expressing something with honesty.

 Keshav: But then, Bollywood has always just been about making what sells, at least when it comes to the rock thing. Some of the good films which have awesome fusion music in Hindi or whatever language, sounds really-really good. But, I think it’s just good to let things develop on their own.

 El Bajista (TDSR): Ok, though music is your biggest focus in life, are there any other fields that you would like to explore in the future? Writing? Science? That sort of thing….

 Keshav: Hmmm, interesting, I would definitely want to try doing travel journalism, if I weren’t so serious about this, ‘cause I sadly don’t get much time to travel now…

 El Bajista (TDSR): It’d be great.

  Anyway man, its be an absolute pleasure talking with you.

 Keshav: Likewise man. Thanks a lot for having me!

 El Bajista (TDSR): Yeah. Absolutely. Any last words? About promoting your stuff and future projects and all that?

 Keshav: Well, I’d like to thank everyone who’s checked out the music and liked it, I apologize for the delay in the release but I can assure you that it’ll be worth the wait and then some. It’s really turning out to be a great album and I’m very proud of it, and I hope you guys will enjoy it too.
Also check out Marty Friedman’s new solo album which releases in a couple of weeks…I’ve played rhythm guitar and done arrangements on a lot of the songs!

El Bajista (TDSR): Great! Watch out people. Watch this space.

-El Bajista

More INTERVIEWS HERE.

INTERVIEW WITH SKRYPT

Presenting for today, a freewheeling chat with Abbas Razvi, the bassist of the Hyderabad, India based metal act, SKRYPT, about his early influences, struggling with labels in India popping people’s metal cherries.

Enjoy!

TDSR: Hey, Abbas. Baba T here.

TDSR:So, tell me how you got into metal in the first place?

Abbas (Skrypt): That’s a long time ago now man. It was back when I was in school in the 6th or 7^th. I think a friend of mine gave me a CD with some Metallica, Sepultura, Pantera and Arch Enemy videos on it.

I liked it, and kept watching it over and over. It was back in the days of Kazaa, and I downloaded more songs by the same bands. I used to download the song that had the most number of seeds and that’s how I got into it and started exploring the genre from there on.

TDSR: Did you ever get people around you trying to dissuade you from listening to such stuff? I know I used to face a lot of opposition at home!!

On basis of the sound as well as religious concerns, I guess

Abbas (Skrypt): Yeah all the time man. It created a lot of problems. I just stopped cranking it too loud and just play it to myself usually

I do that even right now. I just got back from breakfast and I’m wearing a Devoid tee that says “A God’s Lie” on the front. I tried covering the line when I sat at the breakfast table, so no one could read it! Haha.

TDSR: Hehe. I would think that starting a metal band would require a very VERY high amount of dedication seeing that the scene in India is not very fertile for metal in particular and rock music in general.

How was it like, at first, when you thought of starting your own band?

Abbas (Skrypt): Starting a band is the easy part actually. Sustaining the band and having dedicated members is the hard part.

I wasn’t really the founding member of the band though. Scenic, Rajiv. Ramya and Akhil were already together when I joined the band and we were all really lucky to find dedicated members who took this seriously and had similar taste and shared the same passion towards music.

We’ve always had problems with the 2nd guitarist having to leave for some reason or the other but I think we’ve got a really stable lineup for now.

TDSR: Speaking of taste, you talked about how you started off with the usual stuff – Metallica, Slayer etc. What’s the stuff from the modern era which interests you the most, as a metal fan?

Abbas (Skrypt): Well, there’s lots now man. There’s so many genres of metal! I’d say Opeth, Meshuggah, Textures, Lazarus AD, Dying Fetus, Decapitated, Necrophagist etc. are my main influences. A few of these bands aren’t really new though. Lately though, I’ve been listening to a lot of Neuraxis and Abysmal Dawn.

TDSR: But Skrypt’s primary influences seem to be centered on lot of the groove-thrash territory of Sepeltura, Pantera and Machinehead, yes?

Abbas (Skrypt): Yeah, our roots lie there. Pantera, Slayer, Sep etc. type thrash groove with some progressive death elements influences such as Death, Opeth etc. is a big part of our sound.

The 2 biggest common influences to the band members though, are Pantera and Death.

TDSR: Especially the Sound of Perseverance and Symbolic albums I would guess.

Abbas (Skrypt): Yeah.

Individual thought patterns and human too….

TDSR: How did you get attracted to bass as an instrument?

Abbas (Skrypt): Well I started off by playing a bit of rhythm guitar at home but listening to Black Sabbath, Pantera and Death made me want to try out bass. But I couldn’t really afford to buy a bass and wasn’t too sure how long I’d be interested in that.

I actually picked up bass after I joined Skrypt. I sold my cellphone and bought the cheapest bass available in the market

TDSR: Oho. That must have been a little tough in the beginning

Abbas (Skrypt): For the first year or year and a half, it was pretty much keeping up with the band and almost like playing guitar on the bass. But then I understood the instrument better and started playing more of “bass” on the bass.

It was a little tough at the beginning, but then got used to it soon enough.

TDSR: As a musician, though, what are the other kinds of music you listen to for inspiration, other than metal?

Abbas (Skrypt): Nothing.

There’s enough metal out there to listen to for inspiration. There’s no reason to try and listen to anything else

TDSR:So no classical music/pop etc??

Abbas (Skrypt): Nah, man. There’s metal with a neoclassical influence. There’s metal with progressive influence. There’s metal with blues and jazz influence

So that keeps me satisfied within the metal genre.

 

TDSR: Hehe. So moving on, now you were in a band, playing bass and your band mates luckily like the same music as you. When did you decide that you would like to get really serious about the whole thing?

Abbas (Skrypt): Well, there wasn’t really a definite point as such. It started out as fun, but we were serious about the band and wanted it to get places right from the start. Along the way, it got a lot more fun and a lot more serious.

TDSR: Which I guess has worked out very well so far, after the release of Discord.

Abbas (Skrypt): Yeah man. We’re really happy with the way the EP release went, and the response has been great so far.

TDSR: Yes. Are you guys trying to get onto a label?

Abbas (Skrypt): We’re still undecided about it man. I’ve been hearing mixed reviews about the labels here. The bands that are on Indian labels seem unsatisfied with their labels. So, I was thinking we’re better off being an independent band.

TDSR: Why is that?

Abbas (Skrypt): Maybe, if there’s a good offer from an international label we could look into that.

TDSR: I mean why are they unsatisfied with the Indian labels?

Abbas (Skrypt): The labels act like they own the bands, man. The band can’t just play any gig. They need the consent of the label. They’re literally owned by the label.

TDSR: Oh. Which becomes a major problem

Abbas (Skrypt): yeah. And the band doesn’t really get any major benefit. Anything the label does, the band can do itself.

TDSR: Plus, it’s not as if any band makes major dough through album sales in India…..

Abbas (Skrypt): yeah

TDSR:I would think that the lifeline for a band would be gigs, gigs and more gigs.

Abbas (Skrypt): Yeah, definitely man. Live shows are what the bands are all about anyway.

TDSR: Definitely. Anyway, you have been gigging all over India for around 4 odd years now. Do you think there has been a growth in the number of fans for metal all over India, or is it just the same 300-400 people showing up for every gig?

Abbas (Skrypt): the scene has definitely grown man….lots of new faces at gigs. There are lots of people that are into this music now and the bands have improved lots as well….from playing only covers to bands playing original material… there are tighter bands and better sound and the quality is definitely improving as well.

TDSR:If you remember that Nervecell gig though back in September, you guys were pissed with the organizers. In general, how do you find the organizers treating bands here? Because we here a lot of complaints from a lot of bands.

Abbas (Skrypt): The organizers still need to learn a lot. They think that if they get a band to come and play and pay them, the band will do anything they want them to do. I’m not saying everyone is like that. We’ve been lucky enough to play gigs with some really brilliant organizers as well, but a lot of people need to learn to respect the bands as well.

 

TDSR: …As well as the fans. Everytime I go for a gig, there is someone there to stop us from forming a moshpit or headbanging too hard, or having a beer for that matter….

Abbas (Skrypt): Yeah man. They need to understand that it’s all a part of the music. No one’s trying to hurt anybody, and there’s no violence involved. The real violence starts when they involve the bouncers and start threatening the fans when they headbang or mosh a little bit.

TDSR: It looks violent, but I’ve never seen anybody get hurt for real.

Abbas (Skrypt): yeah

TDSR: Or anybody trying to hurt someone intentionally.

Abbas (Skrypt): Even if someone accidentally gets hurt, there are no hard feelings. Its all good fun in the end

TDSR: But metal is so much of a sub-sub-culture here, its hard to get many people to appreciate that.

Abbas (Skrypt): Yeah true.

TDSR: Even when you guys played at NALSAR here, I got a lot of flak. People wanted to hear the same old same old classic rock.

Abbas (Skrypt): Yeah can imagine man. The same old Def Leppard, Eagles, Bon Jovi and Nirvana covers. That’s what most people want to hear.

 

TDSR: Yea. Right. I won’t be organizing anything in my college again. Hehe.

Abbas (Skrypt): Haha, it was still lots of fun man. We’d still love to come back and play there. Although, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to go through the hassle of organizing anything.

TDSR: No. I got a lot of abuse for getting a metal band on campus. But I enjoyed the hell outta of it all.

Abbas (Skrypt): Haha. were we like the first metal band to play there?

TDSR: You bet. Most people had never seen a metal act.

Abbas (Skrypt): Haha. Sweeeet. Feels good having popped their cherry.

TDSR: Thats why they couldn’t understand why Rajiv (drummer) would want 6 cymbals!

Abbas (Skrypt): Haha.

TDSR: Just a few more and we are good. So, what’s in the future for Skrypt?

Abbas (Skrypt): We’re working on new songs right now and are planning on releasing a full-length album, hopefully before the end of this year or early next year… And we want to push everything a notch higher

TDSR: Any big gigs coming up?

Abbas (Skrypt): Nothing definite yet. We’ll find out soon enough, though.

TDSR: How do you plan to publicize the band further? Facebook is well and good but something more is needed I guess?

Abbas (Skrypt): The same old method man. Playing gigs is the most important thing right now, all over the country. We played at Pune and Mumbai last month, and are working on a few more.

TDSR: Yea I know…

Abbas (Skrypt): We’re also a part of the Metal Hammer -Global Metal compilation, which will be out next month. So that’ll be a huge thing for us.

TDSR: Excellent. On a personal note, I am a big fan of Discord and your playing style in general. Abbas (Skrypt): Awesome. Thanx, man. Anyway I’ve gotta rush man.

TDSR: Sure man. Thanks a lot for your time. I really appreciate this.

VISIT SKRYPT ON REVERBNATION and FACEBOOK.

SHARE THIS INTERVIEW, PEOPLE! –> Share

- BABA T

MARCO RODI – Interview – 2011

A long overdue interview, that I should have posted a LONG-ass time back. A lot was going on back then. But now it’s here. Rejoice, MARCO RODI fans!

1.       Why the bass? Do you see the sound as ‘limiting’?

I didn’t really “Choose” to play the bass. It kinda came to me. When I was 15, I wanted to learn how to play electric guitar. So me and my friend went to the music store to check out the guitars. I then saw a 4-string instrument. I asked my friend what it was and he said: “It’s a bass. It’s like a guitar but instead of playing “diiiiiiiiiiii” you are playing “douuuuuuuuuuuuuu”. I found it pretty cool and bought a cheap Ibanez bass and a cheap amp. I loved it.

I don’t find the sound limiting. Nothing is limited unless you set your own limits.

2.       Do you try to make the bass sound like something that it is not?

Well for me, the bass is only a tool, like any other instrument, that let’s you express words you can’t say. Some people can think that it’s a groove instrument, others can think that it’s the drum’s best friend and others can think that it’s a slapping machine. You decide for yourself. I don’t really “try” to do anything in particular except to experiment this 4-string instrument in my purest emotions to push the boundaries of the instrument. To make look the bass like a fun, upfront instrument. 

3.       What is your approach to practicing? Do you have any fixed regimen? Or do you ‘wing it’ every time?

I discipline myself to play each day in a fun, constructive and cool way. The number one reason I play the bass is for fun. I love it so much. So when I practice, I improvise with my loop pedal, I jam on top of my favorite songs, I learn a song and change the bass line, I slap and tap, I experiment weird tuning, I write, I practice my solo bass compositions, I put a cheap drum track and lay down a fat groove with a cool solo etc.

Nothing is limited unless you set your own limits

4.       How and why did you start doing solo bass? Is it something you always want to pursue aside from your regular band Metazon?

When I was 19, I was walking in my school and I saw a poster of a talent contest. The rules were that you had 10 minutes to perform any form of art possible on stage. I decided to do a 10-minute bass solo. So for 5 months, I locked myself in my room hours per day to write this 10 minutes bass solo. I was getting inspired by Victor Wooten, Flea, Pastorius, Manring, Stuart Hamm etc. I won the competition and I was getting offered to play at tons of bars and clubs in Montreal. So I kept writing, 15-20-25-30 minutes of solo bass content. I found it so much fun. Because not many bassists choose to do so. It is a real challenge to be able to keep the audience entertained with only your 4 string instrument.

I will always pursue solo bass. No matter what project is going on in my life.

 5.       Your new band has come up with your debut album. Tell us about it and describe the sound of Metazon.

Metazon is my crazy funk jazz soul hip-hop groovy band. The band consists of 5 musicians who each bring a completely different musical sound and influence. I bring the funk-rock, the pianist bring the jazz, the drummer bring the gospel-soul and the 2 rappers bring the hip-hop. When you mix all this, you have a pretty cool 3 piece band with 2 mc’s on front. We just released our 12 track full record on our own label. The album is called World Class Buffet and you can check it out right here: http://metazon.bandcamp.com

6.      How did you compromise your ‘in your face’ live sound in the context of Metazon?

In Metazon, I dont try to play weird harmonics or loop bass solos. I first try to groove and to funk everything up. When the groove is set up, I add my own personal style by adding some cool funky experimental notes here and there.

There is a pianist and rappers who are doing other melodies. I cant play what I play when I solo bass because it will sound way too busy and it won’t even be groovy. When I solo bass, I have to play the bass drum guitar vocals solos on my bass. When I play in Metazon, I have to play the funky groovy madness.

7.       What is YOUR vision for where the bass is going in the future?

 Crazy bass players will continue to experiment this instrument. Bass is the youngest instrument in the gang. Drums existed with the dinosaurs (Percussions), piano and guitar existed thousand of years from now… and bass? Only 60 years. It is young and fresh. I think people in the future will recognize the bass as a solo instrument just like the piano or the guitar. It will continue to groove in bands but the solo approach will be a lot more developed.

 8.       Being only 25, you’re a big inspiration to bass players all over. So tell us, WHY should we pursue the bass?

I don’t think you all HAVE to pursue the bass. Just pick up the instrument that you are the most confortable with. If it’s the harmonica, pick the harmonica. If you feel confortable playing the trumpet, just do it. Just pick something you are passionate, excited and confortable about.

9.       Signing off, tell us about your future projects.

I have a lot of funk-hipHop projects going on which I can’t really talk right now. I have a lot of shows planned up in Montreal and I am currently writing a full new 30 minutes solo bass set. I will do a couple of solo shows in Vancouver, Toronto and Quebec city in the upcoming months. And this summer, I will start the production of my upcoming 2nd solo bass record.

-El Bajista

Marco Rodi reviews HERE.

http://www.marcorodi.com

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A/J

We at ThatDoesntSoundRight reviewed (and liked) A/J’s brainy brand of fusion-guitar music early last year. Now, he’s back with what seems to be an even denser and more thoroughly thought out album, called Colors, which he will be releasing later this year. Check out this very in-depth (and yes, intellectually stimulating) interview that we had with him.

TDSR: So, Hi there!

A/J: Hey

TDSR: You’ve been promoting your album online on Facebook for a while now, and I have heard a couple of your tracks. How far along is your album and when are you releasing it?

A/J: Yep, I realize its been about 3 months later than I originally thought I could release it. But, as the teaser video says, it’ll be around mid-September. I’m adding finishing touches. All tracks done

TDSR: Can’t wait, man, the teaser sounded great.

A/J: Will be 10 tracks in this one. Hey, thanks that’s very semi final, and only fews for some 4 of 5 tracks

TDSR: I see. Can you take us, in brief, through the concept behind the album and the tracks? [FOR THOSE INTERESTED, DOWNLOAD AJIT'S EXPLANATION SHEET FOR Colours]

A/J: Sure. It all started out as an abstract idea. It was obvious that music is emotional content for the listener. We all go thru this theoretical movement about various scales and modes and moods. So major scales are generally bright and happy and minors are more moody and dark. And certain modes like Lydian have a kind of ethereal feel to it while the mixolydian or dominants have a peppy feel and so on. Well, while getting on to learning em I was kinda thrown on this idea, what about musical keys? Are there any connections to emotions?

TDSR: yeah

A/J: I did not have an answer so I started searching and reading up was interesting to find some point of views from classical era

Mind it! each one had a different POV

TDSR: yeah

A/J: Some names: Schubart, Castel, Scryabin, Kircher

TDSR: Yeah. On the point of POV, I was reading a book by Kandinsky, in which he mentions how artists in the late 19th century used to use ‘violet’ instead of ‘blue’ as a point to reference for sadness. ‘Blue’ only came along later with early 20th century music. I find your attribution of blue as ‘reflection, nostalgia, neutrality and patience’ interesting, as it breaks from the ‘how blue can you get’ cliche. Comments?

A/J: Yep, meaning what the color red could be mean anger to one while just plain passion to the other. Yea, I found it quite a maze.

And not to forget, I wanted to connect the mood to color to KEY.

TDSR: So three things connected.

A/J: So that research on Colour to Key was a maze the only conclusion I could get to was to take similes and not get too anal with detail. So, the next work was to identify Colours to emotions

TDSR: ok

A/J: Well, that’s a subject that’s been more researched and automatically had more solid inferences.But hey, for this one I decided to keep out of the musical inferences completely, as I wanted a plain a simple “psychology of colours” perspective. That led me to a many colour chart, but a few of them especially by some art universities had similarities. So I amalgamated and used the most common “psychology of colours”

TDSR: wow.

A/J: the final trick was to find “common words” or thoughts between the three and CONNECT

There was of course a fourth complexity. You remember the demos I’d sent to you right?

TDSR: yes. You sent me “Violet”.

A/J: Not that. Before that, the 11 or 12 track ideas, rough ideas which you heard and wrote some kind words on your blog

TDSR: ill have to look back in my inbox

A/J: Yea they were forgettable ;-)

TDSR: Nah nah. It was just a while back. For our viewers, the link is as follows:

http://thatdoesntsoundright.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/promo-aj-colors/

A/J: well like a fool I thought it would be easier to work on existing ideas rather than come up with new ones. That’s when the dates went haywire, and I went bonkers.  ;-)

A/J: Yep. I took upon myself a task that had to connect that crazy alpha logic to my tracks ideas

A/J: The theory I came up with is from existing information, but its an amalgam of various sources. So its not original. The music is original, ‘cause so far people had THEORETICAL point of views on all three. But hey no one had the b#&* to actually try and execute it. Correct?

TDSR: Exactly, there are reams and reams of reading material on this, but few people apply it directly with intellectual rigour

A/J: Yep thanks for pointing that out

TDSR: Kudos, sir!

A/J: Thanks man but this is an experiment, as I suddenly evolved while working on this and I realised how we (each one of us) FEEL cant’ be generalised. Names given in any lingo to emotions is a system. But “how exactly” do we feel can’t be that generalized; its individualistic.

TDSR: ok.

A/J: so I hope this album of mine throws more questions than answers

TDSR: What have you been up to between the last album and this one, that has changed your style of playing? (if at all)

A/J: Well i am a “constant learner”. The first album was done when I was about two and half years old in music :-)

TDSR: Whoa. You’ve come far, my friend.

A/J: In retrospect now that was a time I was HEAVILY into technique and flair oriented runs and licks. I went headlong with that for a while. But then I heard, I mean really intensely heard players like Alex Hutchings, Guthrie Govan and Scott Henderson. I was blown away, and so took a few steps back and started to learn “phrasing” and style, not just technique and scales. I also came to have a liking towards ringing chord tones, open string chords that kinda changed the game completely.

TDSR: right.

A/J: Now, I don’t know where I am

TDSR: But these were the influences between your first and second albums. What were your initial influences? If i may append further, why did you pick up the guitar and when?

A/J: To answer your first q: I had to study and imbibe those things into my playing, which was hard work but extremely enjoyable.

Oh original: David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, John Petrucci, Paul Gilbert, Jeff Beck. Jeff Beck was singular in making a huge musical point in my mind

TDSR: Excellent. Do you plan to perform this material live?

A/J: Yea. This, and the older material. But I am not interested in just putting any band together to perform for the sake of performance.

I need to connect with the other musicians and the vice versa before we can make the music work. I’ve jammed with people off and on, but that connection eludes me so far.

TDSR: Have you considered joining a band aside from your solo material?

A/J: Yea. Again its about the kind of music that I would like to play.

TDSR: Which is….?

A/J: Cerebral rock or subtle fusion; not the usual take-out-your-sitar-or-tabla fusion.

TDSR: ok. Elucidate.

A/J: No offense to those doing it though.

Well, the melodic structures are important; that’s Indian.

The western way is about introducing harmonic structures to give more character to the melodies. The play of different rhythmic structures makes it more interesting. For example, I kinda love to jam on a ¾, teen taal but played in a western manner, and to mix polyrhythms.

TDSR: ok. Now. I know personally, that you work in marketing as your day job, and do music as your pet passion.

A/J: Yep

TDSR: How do you manage the life of a high flying marketing exec on the one hand, and the introspection that is required to come up with a complex music concept?

Not to mention take time out to practice.

A/J: Here’s a one liner: 24 hours is what we all have, so instead of saying, “I would like to practice” and then go and play politics, DO SOMETHING about it

It’s not so easy.

TDSR: Simple, but not easy

A/J: and actually, I have a great boss, so I do get time to work on material. Also, my work is about research and ideas, so in way, ideas kinda come to me every now and then. All I gotta do is make a note and work on ‘em.

TDSR: Right. It’s quite inspiring for a younger person such as myself seeing how you’ve started pretty much from scratch and managed to release two albums in a span of some three years.

A/J: Four. Not three. This October, I will be four

TDSR: Final question. Do you think there is value in exploring the tonalities in the colors between the colors you’ve explored? For instance, between red and yellow, there is a sort of vermillion.

A/J: From a perspective of emotional content, definitely (don’t know what emotion it leads to offhand tho), but from a “key” perspective, not really.

But hell, I’ve discovered different sounds of the guitar while playing on different keys. So if I keep the exploration going and work on it, it should lead somewhere (I guess)

TDSR: Right. Well, this was truly an inspiring talk with you.

A/J: My pleasure

TDSR: I hope you had half as much fun responding to it as I did in asking you questions!

A/J: How about double?

TDSR: :) Epic. feels good.

A/J: Great

TDSR: Great, we wrap up here, then.

A/J: Yep

Check out A/J’s website HERE.

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