Sep 3 • Indian News, Interviews, News, Releases • 4393 Views
So just the previous weekend I was just on my way from a local pub gig, in the Metro, wondering whether me wearing a Slipknot tee would bring more ladies out of their homes for gigs, or if it was time for the rare Aerosmith original merch that needed to be called out of retirement. In step two familiar but nameless faces from the gig. It’s always a pleasure watching the so called-newbies (not about political correctness but I prefer the term ‘fresher’ for more subtle references) do their best to define Metal, the things about it that we all love and have common among us, in their careful implementation of jargon. But what had me all smiles was not the gusto with which they were waving bragging rights over steaming piles of BS, but the unadulterated gleam in their eyes when they spoke about one of the most loved acts in the country, a band that no one ever gets tired of watching, partly because it’s the closest they will come to Metal with a penchant for being bat-shit crazy, Metal in the veins of acts like The Dillinger Escape Plan and Sikth- the one and the only, Scribe.
Scribe (Photo Credit: Kunal Kakodkar)
Between having their PavBhaji’s spicy side up with a chilled Thumbs Up to wash it down, the band was kind enough to sit down with us to give a rundown of how things go down in the Scribe camp; and by the looks of it the humor somewhat ceases with the theme of the music itself, because when it comes to cutting their third full length, the Mumbai outfit means serious business. So what took them so long?“Why did it take so long?” beamed Vishwesh “Life, careers, bad decisions, lazy workers and the fact that you can’t speed up evolution. We’re really apologetic to each other, our listeners and our crew about the fact that it got delayed. The music is never forced, but when you have 5 different careers that converge at a band, it won’t be as quick as you might imagine. One thing is for sure…no body of work we write from here forth will take as long as this one”, while Prashant confessed “We just blame ourselves for not being able to cope with the circumstances, 90% of the recording was done 2 years back. Lot of fuckups, strained relationships, bad time management. However it’s done and we’re looking forward to getting this out as soon as we can.” Roping in Kuber Sharma who produced the last Exhumation full length and the Pangea debut was just the start. On the topic of what role Kuber played behind the completion of the album, Vaas had this to say: “We’ve written this album together with him. We brought in scratch tracks and we’ve done our entire pre-production together. Kuber Re-recorded the revised scratch tracks and then final tracked them once all of us are were satisfied. Kuber has great inputs and is great to write with. His role in making this album is instrumental. Unfortunately, due to our terrible time management skills and misplaced priorities, we took almost three years to finish this album!”
Keeping in mind that the band had to ultimately collaborate with Keshav Dhar for the mixing process, guitarist Prashant added “Kuber is a great guy who knows his way around the sound frequencies. His inputs during the recording and tracking sessions were very valuable and helpful in setting the ‘tone’ (not the guitar/bass one) for the album. But unfortunately, due to the tremendous delay in timelines, he got busy with other projects and as a result we had to approach another genius, Keshav Dhar (Skyharbor) for mixing. “ added Vishwesh. Given the three years that have flitted away between the sophomore full length and “Hail Mogambo”, the hype behind the forthcoming release has been bloated more than Corpsegrinder’s throat, the band also decided to clear the air on what to expect from the album with the most curious track titles to date. “’Hail Mogambo’ is definitely a new direction that we’ve taken in terms of song writing, structuring and conceptualizing. One can expect the usual ‘fun, tomfoolery’ that has been associated with us for quite some time now – but apart from that, there’s an “X Factor” hidden somewhere in the album. The *ahem* Scribe*cough*heads will have to figure that out.” Vishwesh chimes in “To tell you the truth, this might be the first time I’m truly excited about the release of our album. The two times we’ve done this before, the album itself was ready before we could react and out there before we had an opinion ourselves. But Hail Mogambo truly tested us in many ways. We finished tracking this album nearly 2 years ago; and since then we’ve made more gear-shifts, crew-shifts and overhauls than I can remember. So, it’s an important chronicle just to get an idea of how much things can fall off track. But we got back on and are ready as ever! Hail!”
Fortunate were those few who got to see Scribe in its dual frontman avatar, since Gagan Gill’s tenure with the band, for now, was short lived. Contributing modern Core inspired fries besides Vishwesh’s array of vocal ranges, Gagan joined the band for a short while last year. “Gagan was a great asset to the band because combined with Vishwesh, he added a different dimension to the overall sound – vocally. But as luck would have it, he had some personal (read: family) issues to sort and hence had to leave. So we’re back to being five piece now.” Said Vaas. Vishwesh joins in too on the subject “Gagan was an easy fit. But as mentioned earlier, there’s never been more crew-shifts and overhauls in our time. Gagan was an inclusion that, we admit was hasty, but at the time seemed like the most sensible thing to do. His journey was terribly short-lived and riddled with personal trouble, but since it was during the tracking period of the album, he features in some of the tracks. So do Kuber and Akshay, actually. But after all this, I think it is safe to say that we’re the five-piece line-up that is Scribe. It wouldn’t work with anyone else in or out, really. Hum pumpumpaanch!”
Keeping in mind the abhorrence the current generation has towards commercial Bolly these days, the band reminds that it’s only natural, and that the 90s in which the most of us including the band members grew up, gave some of the most iconic villains, premises and stories to offer that would go on to live through their compositions. So among them all, why Mogambo? As Vaas would go on to put it“Mogambo is epitome of pure evil. There’s no one else that comes close. So with the release of this album, our tryst with him and Bolly tributes comes to an end. Haven’t yet figured what next, but that’s something even Samsung hasn’t figured out! #NextisWhat”. On probing further about what or rather which Bolly villain might be up next for a tribute, or whether it would be a Bolly villain at all given that there are a whole world of baddies like Hannibal Lecter or even LexLuthor for that matter, out there, Vishwesh defends “See, this whole lot of new villains came when we were much older. Gabbar was when we were too young. There are so many more who were in Mogambo’s time. We’re still looking forward to juicing the inspiration out of those! Dr. Dang, KanchaCheena, Kashinath (Ghayal), Vishambhar + Bhanuprasad, Spot Nana etc. They’re as diabolical as any of the baddies you’ve mentioned.” Vishwesh concluded “Let us be the very clear about this. We were born in the 80s, and we grew up in 90s. So, we were reared by a whole decade of cinema with Kader Khan, Shakti Kapoor, SatishKaushik, Satish Shah, Johny Lever, Razzak Khan, Anjan Srivastav, Saurabh Shukla, RakeshBedi, SadashivAmrapurkar, TinnuAnand, Naseeruddin Shah and much more.”True, the world will never know of what kind of evil the Sachin T loving nation is capable of.
Having dreamt of being a world touring frontman myself, I finally let the fanboy in me out and pop the sawaal to Vishwesh about his stance on plagiarism, emulation, etc., which makes the jovial frontman respond the following in his candid best “If people emulate you, it means they have cited you as an example in their brainstorms as what is ‘good’ or what is the ‘standard’. That is validation that you’re doing something right. But sure, while imitation is a fine form of flattery, it is the easiest thing for anyone to do. The real problem however, is that in India, plagiarism is not really that offensive; particularly in indie scenarios. No one really reprimands one another for it. I mean look at how much Bollywood rips Hollywood off without a shred of remorse. Seeing our ideas adapted by other bands would certainly make Scribe feel less special or unique; but there’s a truth to it – when you’ve been in a creative field long enough, you come to realize that this is inevitable. If you come up with something new and original, it is only a matter of time before people copy-paste your ideas without any inhibitions. We were so adamant with our ways when we started off, that most audiences found us too self-indulgent. But over time, the audience understood that it became the colours and shapes that come with the band. The songwriting, song-titles, stage persona, story-telling, lyrical content, concepts, guitar tones have all been ripped off at some point. But for the longest time, no one gave a microscopic shit about any of the things we were up to. Most artists don’t do that – stand up for an original idea even if no one’s buying it. Only the good ones do. It’s why even the biggest artists in any field need re-invention. It forces you to evolve and think harder. At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I feel getting ripped off, copied, emulated and what-not is something we’re used to. When established bands do it, we just shrug it off ‘cause it’s plain for all to see; but when younger bands do it, it’s much more disappointing.”Vaas on the other hand puts it more simply “Our ‘sound and stage act’ is something that comes from within us. If you meet us off stage, you’ll notice that’s how we are. If others also feel the same, then they aren’t emulating. But in a way, it’s good to know that we inspire people to ‘do something unconventional’. The only advice would be ‘STOP EMULATING US!’”
Scribe live at Puma Loves Vinyl (Pic Courtesy: Sam Thomas)
With all things good that come to an end, so it is with crowdfunding. Having lived it’s short inspiring life in the scamfest that the Indian Music industry has become, I think it came as no surprise when crowdfunding, sought as more of a viable method for artists to increase the interactivity between artist and audience while having a sound financial return to fall back upon, was soon extended into the event organizing format too, with organizers using it as an excuse and safe-word to refrain from paying bands (Read: Embezzling money a la DalipTahil in every movie of his). The only silver lining is probably the fact that this is more of a regional bane and has not spread on a nationwide scale. Scribe were never one’s to mince words, so Vaas laid it out in layman’s terms the way he saw it, for us: “5 years from now, the crowdfunded scene would be total chaos and anarchist. The fundamental virtue of CrowdFunding is ‘trust’, which as Indians, we seem to lack. That’s why the various allegations of ‘scam’, ‘cheats’ etc. The concept is still very niche here and will take time to grow on people. One can look at crowdfunding as a good exercise to connect with our audience.” On the other hand Vishwesh put it this way “I’m not really sure I have an opinion on crowdfunding but what I can say without generalizing is that a genuine project deserves its crowdfunding. At the risk of sounding retarded, think of crowd funding as tax you pay the government. Except this time the tax money is put to proper use on that one thing you care about. I don’t see anything wrong with it as long as the efforts meet output. People need to be hard-working, sincere and dedicated to what they do; only then will things like how much money you donated to something not matter.”
Remaining tight-lipped about any more details pertaining to “Hail Mogambo”, even the track titles like “Calendar, Khana Lao” and “Tomato Aryabhatta”, which have kept many awake many sleepless nights, the three Scribes still gave us a good glimpse into what they have been baking in the studio for the past three years. Inferring from the kind of dedication it took them to prepare the best draft of all, since the parts were laid down 2 years ago, it should come as little to no surprise that the third full-length from the Mumbai based outfit is going to be the mother of all Indian Metal releases we have seen so far this year.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO HAIL MOGAMBO
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