Prakalp is one of the newer metal outfits from India that is garnering quite a lot of praise from critics and fans of late. Split Magazine caught up with band members Anant Dwivedi, Alister Fernandes, Vineet Nair, Vincent Pereira and Gavril Mankoo, along with manager Ashwin Chinchkhede, for an exclusive interview.
What does ‘Prakalp’ mean, and why did you choose it as your band name?
Anant: Prakalp, in Hindi, has two meanings. It means an undertaken project, as well as the rising. We were formerly known as Apocalypse, but the band line up was different then. And it kept on changing. Once things settled down, we thought Apocalypse didn’t suit our genre, so we wanted a name which was Indian and would perfectly suit our music. Some [other] names we thought of were ‘Astitva’ and ‘Abhaas’. Then we got Ashwin Chinchkhede to manage the band, who thought of this wonderful name. All of us loved it. Why this name? Because, we have undertaken project Hindi Metal!
What inspired you to form and be in a band?
Ashwin: Music was always our passion. Everybody in the band wanted to make music as their profession. We had creativity and a will to perform on stage. Personally, I don’t call it a band. It’s a family, because even when we don’t jam up, we are together and meet each other regularly.
What genre do you feel Prakalp fits into best?
Anant: (Rolls his eyes) We absolutely have no answer for this. We don’t keep a genre in mind when we make new songs, they just happen! We are entertainers, that’s all. We love to experiment and be versatile.
Alister: I think we are a Hindi symphonic metal band with clean/snarling vocals because this is what the people have starting calling us, after Anant’s clean snarls! (Gives Anant a pat on the back smilingly, Anant responds with a ‘fuck you’.)
Your songs have Hindi vocals. How did you guys come upon this concept of writing what are essentially metal songs with Hindi lyrics and Indian classical vocals?
Ashwin: Anant has been learning Hindustani classical singing for a few years is adept at playing the Tabla too. That’s our Indian classical connection.
Anant: When we started listening to rock music and metal, we realised that music, whether Indian classical or heavy death metal revolves around those twelve notes and has the same musical expression, the only difference is that heavy distortion guitars are used instead of a sitar. (Sings the 12 notes, crisply and melodiously, while Vineet provides the beat.) We also wanted to attempt something new by using Hindi lyrics in metal, because Hindi is a powerful language with words that have a very deep meaning, Hindi comes closest to the Sanskrit language, which has evolved from the Devanagri script, one of the oldest scripts in the world.
Alister: Besides, it is our national language and we believe we can speak the Hindi language better than any other foreign language, or at least understand better. When we sing English songs, it’s cool. But Hindi metal rocks. And to a great extent, this experiment of ours has given us quite a satisfactory result.
Gavril: If Norwegian Black Metal bands can make music in their own language, why not us?
Has the metal community in Bombay accepted your kind of music?
Vincent: Well, most of them have, some of them haven’t because they think that we are a Hindi band, and they do not want us to contaminate the metal scene, whereas we try to put a different essence into it. They directly link it to the Bollywood industry, which mainly consists of romantic songs, prancing around trees and wet, transparent saris! Bollywood music has its own fan club, I do not deny it!
Vineet: For us, language is not a barrier, because the music remains the same. Someone introduced us to thrash, death metal, progressive, and so on! All these bands must have faced the same issues that we are facing at some point of time when their genres evolved!
Gavril: And we don’t care about a few narrow-minded opinions.
What are the themes associated with your songs? What inspires your lyrics?
Gavril: The themes are death, revenge, anger, hatred, pain, sorrow, regret, etc. in a good sense. One of our songs, “Maut”, impersonates death and describes how death easily claims its victim. This doesn’t mean that we want people to die. This is reality. Everyone dies.
Vineet: One of our newest songs called “Aatmahatya” portrays the self-inflicted pain a person has to go through when one tries to commit suicide. For suicidal people, death means more to them than life. Imagine the things revolving in their head. This doesn’t mean that we want people to commit suicide. Revenge, hatred, anger, pain, and sorrow are emotions just like love and affection. When people can write about these emotions, then why not the darker aspects of life?
Vincent: Well, our society inspires us! They give us points, and we elaborate on them in our songs!
One of your songs, “7/11″, revolves around the recent train blasts in Bombay and is a favourite among those who have heard Prakalp play. Your reflections?
Anant: It is sad, what happened. This song is a message to the terrorists that when unnecessary killings are done, people suffer. Stop it! It’s dedicated those people who have lost their lives without any fault of theirs. We want this song to be on the lips of everyone who is against terrorism, not because it’s our song, but because we want terrorism to stop.
Vincent: Hope it does not get us kidnapped!
Ashwin: Fuck the terrorists.
How did it feel to be featured in the Global Metal Documentary, directed by Sam Dunn?
Anant: It was a thrilling experience! Dr. Sam Dunn and his crew members are a very professional and hard working lot. We are amazed to see ourselves being featured in the documentary alongside bands that we look up to! Demonic Resurrection and Bhayanak Maut have been our sources of inspiration.
Vincent: Sam is a great guy and has an amazing personality. He is just too soft spoken to be a metalhead. No sarcasm involved.
Alister: It was a dream come true, as the man has interviewed members of bands like Black Sabbath, Slayer and Iron Maiden!
Vineet: Bhenchod, that guy is tall! Check out the pictures!
Some people feel that you are over-rated and didn’t deserve your place in the documentary.
Gavril: It was purely on talent that we were selected. Anant can play the drums while singing. Vincent eats bass, Vineet is superb and Alister kicks ass! We practice hard, and are improving day by day. We are one of a kind, with a different concept. And if some deserving band wasn’t selected, it was not our fault. It was Sam Dunn’s decision.
Revenge, hatred, anger, pain, and sorrow are emotions just like love and affection. When people can write about these emotions, then why not the darker aspects of life?
How has Prakalp managed to achieve impressive milestones [such as the documentary] in such a short time?
Anant: I thank the other band mates who took such a bold step by doing what nobody dares, or wants to do, for that matter. In today’s scenario, where people really don’t get much paid gigs, one has to rely on competitions. We really worked hard on the technical part of our music. We really waited a lot to get in competitions. Thanks to our supporters who always stood by us. We have amazing friends!
Is there a debut Prakalp album or EP in the works?
Ashwin: We are already working towards it, but due to certain constraints, we have kept it on hold for some time. But, we are seriously looking forward to launch it some time from now. Currently, we are working on our originals. Watch out for them!
Hailing from Vasai means that power cuts and load-shedding may surely be hampering your practice and jam sessions. How do you guys manage?
Vincent: Yeah, power cuts suck! They are a major issue and we have to work around it as per the whims and fancies of those electricity board assholes!
Gavril: Apart from load shedding issues, all the band mates are students, and so one has to keep a track of their daily routine. We make sure that we at least practice for an hour everyday.
Vineet: We write lyrics when there is no power, and work it out on the acoustic guitar, and set the drum patterns.
Alister: Fuck electricity, we don’t give a damn. We practice any way!
Which gigs have been your most memorable?
Ashwin: The Nagpur gig, chiefly because of two reasons. One, extreme climate, for which Prakalp was not ready, and two, financial crisis! The gig remains in my memory because we were completely stripped of cash, and we had to wait and hope for someone to win in some category to get the money required to head home. Anant won the award for the best vocals and received Rs. 1,000, which bought our tickets to come home.
Vincent: VCET! We had performed in front of an 800-strong crowd. Some guys were using Pyros in the crowd! They even waited for us even when the lights went out. VCET rocks!
Alister: Also the VCET chicks were hot! They couldn’t stop screaming our name.
Gavril: SIES, Powerchords.
Do you feel that there is any scope for more bands to pick up Hindi Metal?
Anant: We do feel so, because we are doing something different, and we are getting a lot of appreciation for our music. Earlier, we faced a problem as to which songs we should cover, as we had no band to cover! Hopefully, the new bands shall get inspired by our choice of music. We want to pave the way for other bands that want to take up Hindi metal, but are a little hesitant to do so. We do not believe in following a trend. We want to set a trend so that other Indian music lovers can start appreciating this form of music and support original music.
What do you guys think of the currents state of the Indian rock/metal scene?
Alister: The Indian rock and metal scene is growing at a very rapid speed. Indian bands are getting global recognition. People are beginning to appreciate good rock music. It’s a very healthy trend.
Which Indian bands, according to you, rock?
Gavril: Bands like Demonic Resurrection, Pin Drop Violence, Parikrama and Pentagram, Devoid, Bhayanak Maut, Infernal Wrath… the list goes on!!
What difference has Prakalp made in your lives?
Alister: It has made me more mature. My outlook towards people has changed. And it has inspired me to grow my hair.
Vincent: It has made me famous, a better performer, and a hit among the chicks. (Laughs)
Gavril: Prakalp has changed the way I thought of music and increased my dedication to music.
Anant: It has given me confidence, and given me lifelong friends, my partners in crime.
Vineet: Yes, drinking partners! Seriously, helping hands in a crisis, whom I can completely rely upon.
Ashwin: It has made me a great manager of a great band! Have learnt time management, money management and resource management.
Finally, is there anything you’d like to say to the people reading this?
We would like to thank our friends, fans, and heroes. Guys, we live to perform and entertain you. Please keep supporting us; we are where we are because of you! We hope to move forward with your best wishes, and we will never ever forget you. Please interact with us, criticise us, whatever. We are always available.
What does ‘Prakalp’ mean, and why did you choose it as your band name?
Anant: Prakalp, in Hindi, has two meanings. It means an undertaken project, as well as the rising. We were formerly known as Apocalypse, but the band line up was different then. And it kept on changing. Once things settled down, we thought Apocalypse didn’t suit our genre, so we wanted a name which was Indian and would perfectly suit our music. Some [other] names we thought of were ‘Astitva’ and ‘Abhaas’. Then we got Ashwin Chinchkhede to manage the band, who thought of this wonderful name. All of us loved it. Why this name? Because, we have undertaken project Hindi Metal!
What inspired you to form and be in a band?
Ashwin: Music was always our passion. Everybody in the band wanted to make music as their profession. We had creativity and a will to perform on stage. Personally, I don’t call it a band. It’s a family, because even when we don’t jam up, we are together and meet each other regularly.
What genre do you feel Prakalp fits into best?
Anant: (Rolls his eyes) We absolutely have no answer for this. We don’t keep a genre in mind when we make new songs, they just happen! We are entertainers, that’s all. We love to experiment and be versatile.
Alister: I think we are a Hindi symphonic metal band with clean/snarling vocals because this is what the people have starting calling us, after Anant’s clean snarls! (Gives Anant a pat on the back smilingly, Anant responds with a ‘fuck you’.)
Your songs have Hindi vocals. How did you guys come upon this concept of writing what are essentially metal songs with Hindi lyrics and Indian classical vocals?
Ashwin: Anant has been learning Hindustani classical singing for a few years is adept at playing the Tabla too. That’s our Indian classical connection.
Anant: When we started listening to rock music and metal, we realised that music, whether Indian classical or heavy death metal revolves around those twelve notes and has the same musical expression, the only difference is that heavy distortion guitars are used instead of a sitar. (Sings the 12 notes, crisply and melodiously, while Vineet provides the beat.) We also wanted to attempt something new by using Hindi lyrics in metal, because Hindi is a powerful language with words that have a very deep meaning, Hindi comes closest to the Sanskrit language, which has evolved from the Devanagri script, one of the oldest scripts in the world.
Alister: Besides, it is our national language and we believe we can speak the Hindi language better than any other foreign language, or at least understand better. When we sing English songs, it’s cool. But Hindi metal rocks. And to a great extent, this experiment of ours has given us quite a satisfactory result.
Gavril: If Norwegian Black Metal bands can make music in their own language, why not us?
Has the metal community in Bombay accepted your kind of music?
Vincent: Well, most of them have, some of them haven’t because they think that we are a Hindi band, and they do not want us to contaminate the metal scene, whereas we try to put a different essence into it. They directly link it to the Bollywood industry, which mainly consists of romantic songs, prancing around trees and wet, transparent saris! Bollywood music has its own fan club, I do not deny it!
Vineet: For us, language is not a barrier, because the music remains the same. Someone introduced us to thrash, death metal, progressive, and so on! All these bands must have faced the same issues that we are facing at some point of time when their genres evolved!
Gavril: And we don’t care about a few narrow-minded opinions.
What are the themes associated with your songs? What inspires your lyrics?
Gavril: The themes are death, revenge, anger, hatred, pain, sorrow, regret, etc. in a good sense. One of our songs, “Maut”, impersonates death and describes how death easily claims its victim. This doesn’t mean that we want people to die. This is reality. Everyone dies.
Vineet: One of our newest songs called “Aatmahatya” portrays the self-inflicted pain a person has to go through when one tries to commit suicide. For suicidal people, death means more to them than life. Imagine the things revolving in their head. This doesn’t mean that we want people to commit suicide. Revenge, hatred, anger, pain, and sorrow are emotions just like love and affection. When people can write about these emotions, then why not the darker aspects of life?
Vincent: Well, our society inspires us! They give us points, and we elaborate on them in our songs!
One of your songs, “7/11″, revolves around the recent train blasts in Bombay and is a favourite among those who have heard Prakalp play. Your reflections?
Anant: It is sad, what happened. This song is a message to the terrorists that when unnecessary killings are done, people suffer. Stop it! It’s dedicated those people who have lost their lives without any fault of theirs. We want this song to be on the lips of everyone who is against terrorism, not because it’s our song, but because we want terrorism to stop.
Vincent: Hope it does not get us kidnapped!
Ashwin: Fuck the terrorists.
How did it feel to be featured in the Global Metal Documentary, directed by Sam Dunn?
Anant: It was a thrilling experience! Dr. Sam Dunn and his crew members are a very professional and hard working lot. We are amazed to see ourselves being featured in the documentary alongside bands that we look up to! Demonic Resurrection and Bhayanak Maut have been our sources of inspiration.
Vincent: Sam is a great guy and has an amazing personality. He is just too soft spoken to be a metalhead. No sarcasm involved.
Alister: It was a dream come true, as the man has interviewed members of bands like Black Sabbath, Slayer and Iron Maiden!
Vineet: Bhenchod, that guy is tall! Check out the pictures!
Some people feel that you are over-rated and didn’t deserve your place in the documentary.
Gavril: It was purely on talent that we were selected. Anant can play the drums while singing. Vincent eats bass, Vineet is superb and Alister kicks ass! We practice hard, and are improving day by day. We are one of a kind, with a different concept. And if some deserving band wasn’t selected, it was not our fault. It was Sam Dunn’s decision.
Revenge, hatred, anger, pain, and sorrow are emotions just like love and affection. When people can write about these emotions, then why not the darker aspects of life?
How has Prakalp managed to achieve impressive milestones [such as the documentary] in such a short time?
Anant: I thank the other band mates who took such a bold step by doing what nobody dares, or wants to do, for that matter. In today’s scenario, where people really don’t get much paid gigs, one has to rely on competitions. We really worked hard on the technical part of our music. We really waited a lot to get in competitions. Thanks to our supporters who always stood by us. We have amazing friends!
Is there a debut Prakalp album or EP in the works?
Ashwin: We are already working towards it, but due to certain constraints, we have kept it on hold for some time. But, we are seriously looking forward to launch it some time from now. Currently, we are working on our originals. Watch out for them!
Hailing from Vasai means that power cuts and load-shedding may surely be hampering your practice and jam sessions. How do you guys manage?
Vincent: Yeah, power cuts suck! They are a major issue and we have to work around it as per the whims and fancies of those electricity board assholes!
Gavril: Apart from load shedding issues, all the band mates are students, and so one has to keep a track of their daily routine. We make sure that we at least practice for an hour everyday.
Vineet: We write lyrics when there is no power, and work it out on the acoustic guitar, and set the drum patterns.
Alister: Fuck electricity, we don’t give a damn. We practice any way!
Which gigs have been your most memorable?
Ashwin: The Nagpur gig, chiefly because of two reasons. One, extreme climate, for which Prakalp was not ready, and two, financial crisis! The gig remains in my memory because we were completely stripped of cash, and we had to wait and hope for someone to win in some category to get the money required to head home. Anant won the award for the best vocals and received Rs. 1,000, which bought our tickets to come home.
Vincent: VCET! We had performed in front of an 800-strong crowd. Some guys were using Pyros in the crowd! They even waited for us even when the lights went out. VCET rocks!
Alister: Also the VCET chicks were hot! They couldn’t stop screaming our name.
Gavril: SIES, Powerchords.
Do you feel that there is any scope for more bands to pick up Hindi Metal?
Anant: We do feel so, because we are doing something different, and we are getting a lot of appreciation for our music. Earlier, we faced a problem as to which songs we should cover, as we had no band to cover! Hopefully, the new bands shall get inspired by our choice of music. We want to pave the way for other bands that want to take up Hindi metal, but are a little hesitant to do so. We do not believe in following a trend. We want to set a trend so that other Indian music lovers can start appreciating this form of music and support original music.
What do you guys think of the currents state of the Indian rock/metal scene?
Alister: The Indian rock and metal scene is growing at a very rapid speed. Indian bands are getting global recognition. People are beginning to appreciate good rock music. It’s a very healthy trend.
Which Indian bands, according to you, rock?
Gavril: Bands like Demonic Resurrection, Pin Drop Violence, Parikrama and Pentagram, Devoid, Bhayanak Maut, Infernal Wrath… the list goes on!!
What difference has Prakalp made in your lives?
Alister: It has made me more mature. My outlook towards people has changed. And it has inspired me to grow my hair.
Vincent: It has made me famous, a better performer, and a hit among the chicks. (Laughs)
Gavril: Prakalp has changed the way I thought of music and increased my dedication to music.
Anant: It has given me confidence, and given me lifelong friends, my partners in crime.
Vineet: Yes, drinking partners! Seriously, helping hands in a crisis, whom I can completely rely upon.
Ashwin: It has made me a great manager of a great band! Have learnt time management, money management and resource management.
Finally, is there anything you’d like to say to the people reading this?
We would like to thank our friends, fans, and heroes. Guys, we live to perform and entertain you. Please keep supporting us; we are where we are because of you! We hope to move forward with your best wishes, and we will never ever forget you. Please interact with us, criticise us, whatever. We are always available.
No comments:
Post a Comment