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E-mail interview with Nolan Lewis of Kryptos

March 21st 2010, Los Angeles CA

Andrew: Your last studio album 'The Ark Of Gemini' was released in 2008. When are you planning to record some new material?
Nolan: Most likely we'll hit the studios around October this year. We already have 90% of the material ready for our third album and we should be done with all the pre-production and artwork by the time October comes around. In any case we'll see a lot of activity towards the end of the year since we also have plans on releasing our DVD as well.

Andrew: I believe you have some European gigs coming up in the summer. Can you tell the readers a little bit about that?
Nolan: Yeah we're booked for a few festivals in Romania, Hungary, Germany etc and we're still working on getting more gigs over there. We'll only see a clearer picture of the whole thing after a month or so but until then we're getting all our paperwork and other formalities out of the way. It's a very time consuming process and plans tend to change every second week but we're trying out to work things out as well as we possibly can.

Andrew: What's going on in terms of the gigs in India?
Nolan: This year has gone pretty well for us so far. We've played quite a few gigs all over the country and it's awesome that we've had a good majority of these gigs in places we've never visited before so those definitely turned out to be a real bonus for us. There are more gigs coming up on the horizon and it's pretty awesome since we get to travel every other weekend instead of sitting at home swatting mosquitoes.

Andrew: You guys play thrash metal, but as you are obviously aware, there are numerous bands out there that come under the same genre. What do you do to musically stand out among them?
Nolan: Well actually we aren't really a thrash metal band in the purest sense of the term. We do have elements of thrash in our music but it's really mostly a mix of 80's melodic metal, thrash, doom and some melodic death metal as well. It's hard to pin point what 'category' we fall under since we mix so many styles but I guess that's what makes us stand out from the rest of the pack. We always place an emphasis on melody and song structure though. Sure we could go bang-bang-crash-bang at a hundred miles per hour and throw in a dozen riffs per minute but what's the point? In fact we've toned down some of the thrash/death elements for our latest material and just concentrated on making top of the line melodic metal. We basically try and capture the spirit of what metal is all about, like it used to be in the good old days.

Andrew: I haven't been to India since 2008. Has the underground metal scene over there developed at all?
Nolan: Yeah it's growing really quickly and more and more bands seem to mushroom all over the country every year. I think the next three years will be crucial to the development of metal in India. It feels like it's on the verge of breaking out into something much larger and as long as the bands stick to their guns then there's no reason why Indian metal won't be mentioned in the same breath as the metal scenes from other countries somewhere down the road.

Andrew: Now a question that you must have expected to see. What do you feel about the Rock In India 2010 debacle? Whoever's fault it was, surely it has been a huge letdown for everyone, hasn't it?
Nolan: I guess it was a letdown for the audiences here but personally it didn't bother me at all. Sure it would've been great to watch a few more bands in the league of Maiden/Megadeth etc but it would've been a lot better to see more people turn out for local metal gigs happening at the around the same time.

Andrew: Despite being the biggest Indian metal band and having an international label, why do you think it's been generally hard for you to sell records overseas? Is it mainly the lack of touring?
Nolan: Yeah that's pretty much the main reason. If you can't tour then it's tough to push your music to anyone. You can do a reasonable job of selling your records and merchandise online and through distributors but at the end of the day if you want to make any sort of impact then touring is a must, which is easier said than done considering how difficult it is for bands from India/Asia to tour abroad.

Andrew: Music piracy is enormously huge in India, compared to most other countries. Do you think that's the main reason why people there don't want to be professional musicians?
Nolan: Actually it's really way down on the list of reasons. There are a lot of other factors that prevent people from becoming professional musicians here like societal pressure, careers, family, money, studies and all sorts of other rubbish that tries to drag someone down into the mire. Society doesn't really give much due to musicians, especially to metal musicians, but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. Our country produces enough drones for the corporate machines to chew up and spit out to worry about the likes of us.

Andrew: Would you agree that the Iron Maiden gig in 2007, the first major metal show ever to take place in India, was the turning point for metal in the country? How did it impact Kryptos?
Nolan: It definitely opened the doors for a lot of other international metal acts to play here. A lot of big metal acts have either come down to India since then or have expressed a real desire to play to Indian audiences. The Flight 666 documentary also went a long way in showing the rest of the metal world that India isn't just full of snakes and elephants. When a band of Maiden's caliber comes here the entire metal world sits up and takes notice, which is pretty awesome. As far as it's impact on us was concerned, it was quite surreal to say the least when we opened for them two years later and were fortunate enough to hang out with them as well. It gave us an enormous amount of drive to push our own music forward since they are one of our main influences, in every walk of life. Either way, at the very least I could rest easy in my grave knowing I shared a beer with Bruce Dickinson!