By Aniruddh “Andrew” Bansal
Bangalore-based old-school death metal band Dhwesha are like a breath of fresh air when it comes to the extreme metal scene, not only in India, but anywhere in the world for that matter. There are just too many bands out there that sound exactly like each other, and have lost the essence of what death metal was when it started out. Dhwesha’s uniqueness was evident to me when I first saw them perform at the Riff52 gig in their hometown last Saturday. Having started out in 2008, the band has developed quite a decent fan-following, based on the strength of their live performances and the 6-song demo tape “Yuddhabhumi”, which came out earlier this year. So besides enjoying their killer performance, I was also glad to see the kind of response they were getting from the fans. As soon as their set was done, I made it an immediate goal of mine to interview the band. And earlier today, on April 3rd 2012 at a pub called Spiritz, I sat down with vocalist/guitarist Ajay, guitarist Somesha and bassist Adarsh for a detailed chat about the Riff52 gig, their influences, demo tape and lots more. Read the conversation below, and do yourselves a favor by checking out Dhwesha’s facebook page.
First of all, let’s talk about the Riff52 gig that took place last Saturday. It was such a great lineup. What did you think of the gig?
Adarsh: It was the first time we were playing with Bevar Sea, so that was a big thing for us. We are huge fans of the band, they are very good friends and they made the gig possible. And Albatross too, as it was their album launch which was a good thing.
Somesha: We had really good sound that day, as compared to our previous shows, and we had enough time to do our soundcheck and everything, which we usually never get. So that was great as well.
Tell me more about that B52 place. Is it a regular metal venue in Bangalore, or was that just a one-off gig?
Adarsh: It was actually the second time that a show had happened there. Usually, the shows in Bangalore take place at Kyra. It’s a theatre-cum-restaurant place, so it has a proper stage, in-house sound and all of that, so people usually pick that place for playing, because they don’t have to invest in the sound and lights. It’s a much better venue according to me.
I want to now go back to the start of the band. It started out as a two-piece, and the other two joined in later on. With the new lineup, did the music change at all, or did you pretty much keep it the same?
Somesha: It actually got better. We put in a lot more variations, and since we had a real drummer, we could actually do a lot more with the drums. Because if you notice our previous songs, it was just me programming the drums and I really didn’t have much of an idea about things. It was actually quite limited, because everything was programmed. So, in that way, the new members brought in a lot more variation in our music. We could experiment a lot more with different kinds of drum grooves and all that.
When the band started out, you [Somesha] used to play all guitar parts, but now there are two guitarists in the band. Did you aim at making it a one-guitar band at least when you started?
Ajay: Not really. We’ve always wrote songs for a two-guitar band, but it was just that he [Somesha] was recording all the parts.
Somesha: Yeah, the two of us were in a band in our college, and even there he used to play the guitar and do vocals, and I was the other guitarist. So we had that in mind always, and even when we recorded, we always thought that if we do have a live lineup we will have him on guitars and vocals.
Talking about your set the other night, your original material was great, of course. But you also did a cover of Bolt Thrower’s “Powderburns”. I’ve seen hundreds of bands, and never saw anyone do a Bolt Thrower cover. So that was great. I was just curious to know, what do you like most about that band, and why do they influence you more than anyone else?
Adarsh: One thing is, their actually keep their music really simple. If you notice, they don’t really employ much of blast beats. It’s very straightforward.
Ajay: Yeah, you can’t say it’s very technical. It’s a very in-your-face kind of music, so we really like their overall sound, the way the lyrics come in, the drums, and very down-tuned slow parts and fast parts.
Adarsh: They are one of the very few bands who sing only about war, and they actually keep that up. They don’t change with each album, and their sound is pretty much the same from the first album to the last.
Somesha: They kind of break the death metal stereotype of needing to have blast beats and things like that.
Ajay: One more important thing I like about them is, once they realized that they can’t make any more records that they liked themselves, they stopped making albums. With some bands, they just go on making albums simply to make money, and that’s not Bolt Thrower’s thing, which is really something we respect.
Well, that brings me to the next question. Do you feel that there are too many stereotypical death metal bands? Do you think it has become too generic and technical?
Somesha: Yeah, that’s something we were never really into. We are more into the Swedish death metal scene as opposed to the American scene where the lyrical themes revolve around gore and that kind of stuff. So we’ve always been a lot into bands like Caducity who write about fantasy, mythology and stuff like that. So that was one of the things we always kept in mind while writing our music, that we’ll try and break the death metal stereotype of just going in one direction. And that’s why we somehow incorporated our own mythology into it.
Adarsh: The thing you see about bands like Origin and Brain Drill is, their focus is primarily on the technicality and in my opinion, that kind of kills the spirit of death metal. Like, Brain Drill don’t write riffs. They just write arpeggios, sweeps and stuff. That’s not really death metal to me.
Somesha: The music loses its essence and feel when you make it technical. When I look at it as a guitarist who plays solos, I was never really into shredding or trying to be able to sweep. I was always really into the really slow, Katatonia kind of stuff. It’s about getting your music a sense of direction through the solos.
You mentioned the Karnataka history. Your song titles and lyrics are in the local language Kannada. That must have helped gain you a local following, and I’m sure people relate to you more because they don’t come across bands that do it.
Adarsh: Yeah that happens, because we have a lot of non-metal listeners coming to our facebook page or contacting us and saying that it’s great stuff. But then it also brings in the mainstream media. They don’t know anything about death metal. They just know that we’re a Kannada band and want to feature us because of that (laughs).
Somesha: It has so happened that there was this page where they cover all events, and they sent us a questionnaire for an interview. They sent us five questions, out of which everything was just rephrased and everything revolved around the same question about why we write in Kannada as opposed to English.
Ajay: Those kind of journalists just look for something different, so once you’re a Kannada band, they discover that something new, and they just keep asking about that. They just want a story for the day, so they just jump on you.
Adarsh: They don’t perceive us as a death metal band. Primarily that’s what we are. For them it’s like, “Oh it’s Kannada music, so let’s listen to it!”
Does that get tiring for you to get that kind of unwanted attention?
Somesha: Yeah, we’re not trying to create a new genre called Kannada death metal. It’s just death metal with Kannada lyrics. It’s just like other death metal bands that write in their own language, like you have bands who write in Finnish. You don’t call that Finnish death metal, and it’s simply death metal from Finland.
Ajay: Language is really not a barrier. I’m growling, and you can’t understand the lyrics anyway (laughs).
The six-song demo is sitting right here in front of me. It’s just a demo at this point, but do you have any plans to make it an official recording?
Adarsh: We want to make a full-length album, and we have enough material for it. Nearly 45 minutes of it. So it’s just something that’s waiting to happen.
That’s good to hear, but it’s amazing that you released the demo on actual tape. That’s so fucking old school. Whose idea was it?
Somesha: It came from all of us. For a long time, even before we had the full lineup I always thought that we’ll probably make a demo tape. Initially we had five songs before we had the complete lineup, and that’s when I actually thought we can have a demo tape and put it across on stalls at one of the shows.
Ajay: It was there for a very long time. We all started listening to tapes before anything else. So that’s the best source of listening to music, and we thought we’ll just do it the right way, and the old school way.
You did the Trend Slaughter Fest recently, where you opened for Japanese extreme metal band Abigail. That must have helped you expand your platform, because it was a pretty big show.
Adarsh: Yeah definitely, because we had members of Abigail in the crowd listening to us, and they took our demos back home with them. So that gives us a lot of exposure.
Ajay: If you’re there for the right kind of crowd, you get the right response, so it was one of those things and it was really good.
Adarsh: And it was not just that. They go home and tell their friends about it, so it’s word-of-mouth and that’s great for us. We got a guy from Japan who contacted us through facebook and asked for a tape, and stuff like that is really great.
Till now, you’ve done most of your shows in Bangalore. Do you hope to get the opportunity to take the band all over India sometime soon?
Adarsh: Yeah definitely, we just need avenues in those places. We need people in Mumbai who can tell us to play there. We’re not going to play absolutely for free. The least they can do is give us travel and accommodation.
Ajay: Moreover, it’s financially a big deal because we’re all just students right now. We have to be dependent on someone to sponsor us for things like these.
Adarsh: Yeah, we can’t put in our own money and go to Guwahati and Shillong like how Albatross is doing. That’s not possible for us.
Somesha: If they can get us down there, we’d love to go to a lot of other places. There are a lot of people in Kolkata who’ve been asking us to go there. So if at all there’s a show, we’ll definitely go there.
Adarsh: Yeah they have a good death metal fan base and they’ll really like our music. Places in the eastern part of India as well.
Ajay: We really can’t snatch money from our parents and go on a tour (laughs).
I saw a picture of your logo which was posted on your facebook a couple of days ago, and I really like that style. Extreme metal is plagued by unreadable logos. What are your thoughts? Why do you think they go for that?
Adarsh: I think that’s the trend only among brutal death metal and deathcore bands, and also black metal bands. But a lot of the good death metal bands have great logos like Deathevokation, Unleashed and a few others. They really have great artistic logos. And of course, look at Bolt Thrower’s logo. Our logo was done by Bevar Sea’s lead guitarist Rahul Chako. We gave him an idea on how to go about it. He gave us a great masterpiece, and we’re really happy with it.
Related: Riff52 Gig Review