By Aniruddh ‘Andrew’ Bansal
Based out of Pune, India, ‘sci-fi metal’ band Gaia’s Throne present an intriguing combination of a lyrical story based on science fiction, and musicianship that draws influences from Western classical music as well as from classic metal and progressive rock. This young quintet somehow makes sense of all of this and composes compelling music for the progpower metal fan. They’ve also been playing a few shows here and there, and catching people’s attention in the process. They’re still very new, but they’ve shown to have tremendous promise, and it’s high time I featured them on this website. I caught up with vocalist Sidharth Raveendran and guitarist Aditya Shukla to discuss the concept, musical influences, future plans and lots more. Read the conversation below, check out their music via the SoundCloud and YouTube widgets embedded within, and visit them online using the links at the bottom of the page.
The band’s music revolves around a very clearly written concept, which you have described in great detail. How long did it take for you to write this concept?
Sid: Originally the band name was something Aditya had thought of. He did have some sort of sci-fi theme in his mind when he thought of starting out with a new band. It grew into something much more detailed, a universe of its own after I joined in June-July 2012 and we kept writing the story ever since!
Aditya: It began with a realization of the big picture in terms of the earth’s scientific advances and my academic interest in brain evolution. The very primitive structure of the band’s story was developed during a week of excessive academic reading in the early months of 2012. My obsession with science fiction only fueled this process and reached warp-speed with Sidharth’s entry in the band! So you could consider it to be a few dedicated months to get the story to where it is today.
Where did the inspiration for the concept come from? Are you all big fans of sci-fi books, movies or TV shows?
Sid: Me and Aditya are the obvious sci-fi buffs in the band. I love comics and graphic novels, stuff Alan Moore writes, Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan, D.C. Universe and all. We’re avid manga/anime fans too! (Though I’m more of a newb in that territory).
Aditya: This story began with my understanding of ‘what Darwin said’ along with some psychologist’s take on the human brain. I could not stop at that, I had to take it ahead and complete the picture and I developed a chain of theoretical possibilities which lead to the core of our story: The evolution of man to a higher order species we’ve termed ‘Homo Eternus’. This was quickly wrapped with a few other things like an Alien invasion and a distant future setting.
Yes, I’m a huge fan of Sci-Fi movies, series and anime. My inspiration comes mainly from The X files, Fringe and many more similar series and movies. I’m not that much of a reader.
You’ve presented this concept in a musical form with Western classical influences. That’s a striking contrast because the concept is set in an imaginary 31st century while Western classical music originated sometime in the 16th century. Why did you go for this combination?
Sid: Think power metal. Can you resist the draw of writing stuff about epic sagas and fantasy? I guess not! (laughs) Plus all the good music there is was already written by those dudes with wigs and stuff in the 16th century. I’ll let Aditya elaborate.
Aditya: Totally agreed with Sidharth. You can’t resist certain things about this combination. A grand classical theme to an Epic saga just fit in perfectly! My guitar playing has been developed with a classical composing sense. And as a primary composer I could make a lot of sense through this. I liked it, the others liked it and everyone found space in it to express themselves! Though I really am primitive compared to the greats of the classical era. A strong foundation was also laid with casual jams with Vikram, our second guitarist!
The Western classical influence gives rise to a neoclassical style of lead guitar playing, which fits into heavy metal rather well. But purely as a metal band, which musicians and bands are your major influences?
Sid: Influences as a band would be the classics we all enjoy – stuff like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Helloween, Queensryche and the likes. Vikram (guitarist) and I listen to a hell lot of other stuff too – he likes a lot of electronic music while I love everything from bands like Foo Fighters to heavy music like Tool, Neurosis, ISIS. Influences as a vocalist would be Halford, Dickinson, Mike Patton, Warrel Dane, Geoff Tate and Maynard James Keenan to name a few.
Aditya: Our only common ground is is the work done by the popular greats. It sometimes does sound odd that we don’t have much common ground hahha! Our bassist, Neeraj listens to a lot of bands listed in the history of rock, metal and pop. From ABBA to Decide! Everyone usually has some match with him. I listen to a lot of solo guitarists, Scorpions, Helloween, Rhapsody and the likes. Our drummer Aashish is into progressive bands like Dream Theatre, Opeth, etc. and into some old Hindi songs as well. So we’ve all got a wide variety of musical influences personally.
The band is still very new, and you have a long way to go. Do you think you’ll be able to keep this conceptual story going throughout?
Sid: (Laughs) That’s something we don’t really ponder too much on because life is unpredictable. For now, our only objective as a band is to work on material, finish the story arc for our first release as we write and finally tour promoting it. By the time we reach that point, we’ll have thought of where the concept and the band goes!
Aditya: For as long as we can, we will! We keep a few long term goals in terms of song writing and story writing. Our current situation has developed a pace which we will try to increase if not enough. Apart from that, can’t say much about how long we will go with this. Our best approach to this would be to ‘not leave it incomplete’ and be satisfied in the end.
Has this storyline helped you get more attention than what you would have otherwise got purely for being a prog-power metal band?
Sid: That wouldn’t ever happen because we’re always writing the music first, and it’s the content we put out musically that is strengthened by the concept. People will always enjoy bands writing quality good music they can headbang and/or sing to.
Aditya: Maybe in a parallel universe, we are rapping about our story hahah! It is safe to say that we have a possible wider reach with the non-musical aspect of our band: that is the story. We definitely can attract an audience with the music and possibly make it bigger with a story.
You released a new single called ‘Contact’ recently. When can we expect a full album or an EP of some sort?
Sid: We’re still writing more music. Hopefully end of 2013 we’ll have a full album out!
Do things like album artwork and packaging become more important for you than most other bands because of the conceptual nature of your music?
Sid: We’ve done some really cool artwork related to our concept with a talented artist named Neil Gurung recently. We wanted to have some sort of visual aspect to our releases, so yeah it’s always a priority to make sure the visuals go well with the music too.
Aditya: Can’t tell you in comparison with other bands as it’s a matter of proirities! But we do emphasize on developing artwork and some merchandise, afterall it comes down to ‘Art’ in several forms!
This kind of prog-power metal with clean vocals and neoclassical guitar leads might not be a popular trend in this country’s metal scene. What’s your opinion on that? Why do you think the ‘cleaner’ forms of metal aren’t as appreciated as the others, say death metal or deathcore for example?
Sid: Like I said earlier, I’m not averse to listening to a wide variety of genres. I love lots of metal music with growled/shouted vocals. It may be possible that the youth in our nation relate more to the angst and aggression such bands bring to the table. That’s why you see a hundred shirtless kids going apeshit when Zygnema play in their hometown haha! It’s all cool, because in reality having clean vocals helps us reach a wider audience than metal even. Look at Motherjane for example, loved by prog-rock fans and casual listeners equally.
Aditya: Aggression is primal in us. If there are bands which bring it out, connect emotionally to such primal things like aggression and rebellious behaviour, a strong fan following is created. It really is normal. If not a trend, this style of music will always have strong genuine followers. This being just a stereotype, many other death/deathcore bands make it artistically appealing. I’d say the same as Sidharth, clean vocals give us a wider audience. Neoclassical solos have a very unique feel which is not commonly seen here and hence it’s an attraction.
You played a show in Bangalore recently, with Bevar Sea and Inner Sanctum. How was the crowd’s response to your music and how well did you fit in with those bands?
Sid: It was a huge deal for us. We’re a 5-6 month old band and still haven’t played a proper ‘gig for gigs sake’ in our own town yet, but the guys at Bevar Sea were nice enough to put their faith that we’d put on a great show. They invited us, let us stay in their awesome Cave of Doom and even treated us to some whiskey hahaha! Was nice to meet the folks from Inner Sanctum too, I mean I was a fanboi in the crowd a year ago at Metallica watching them, and Bevar Sea and Kryptos at Kyra for the pre-party Riff Em All gig. Felt really awesome to play on the same bill as them!
Aditya: The Bangalore gig was the first one where we felt like it’s the beginning of a new level for us. We must deliver with full force. A lot of faith has been put into us, we must not disappoint anyone….We’ve actually been given a chance to play before bands with full albums to their name… in a different city and to a highly responsive crowd. We return with pride and glory. Thanks a lot to Srikanth and Rahul from Bevar Sea who helped us make all of this possible. We are honored to have played this gig.
If more such opportunities come to you, will you be able to play shows outside Pune, or will work schedules and/or studies come in the way?
Sid: We’re expecting more opportunities come our way! We’ll be taking a small hiatus in a bit since three of our members are to graduate by summer hopefully (laughs), but after that we intend to play as much as we can wherever we get a chance.
Aditya: Apart from Neeraj, who works; we are all students! For some of us, academic pressure will keep piling up for a while but we’ll handle it. This hiatus means we resume with much more than what we stopped with!
Progressive rock/metal bands always have a certain degree of liberty to improvise on guitar solos and play extended live versions of songs. Do you attempt that in your shows or are you more contented in play the songs exactly like the recorded versions?
Sid: We’re not a ‘click-click’ band that changes from verse to chorus at exactly the 47th bar when we play live hahaha. It’s a good thing we have natural chemistry to save us from that. Everyone gets their cues live and we stay solid that way. But on the other hand we don’t exactly improvise either, the structure of our songs always stay the same. Just bits and pieces sound different every time as we play in the ‘vibe’ of it.
Aditya: We know every other member’s part in the song and we know everyone’s tendency to improvise and change certain things with the stage’s feel. A lot depends on the ‘vibe’ we get on stage. No extended solo’s on stage, there is enough space for solos already hahaha. We’ve internalized our song structures, now it just depends on the feel.
Sid: Thanks a lot for the interview Aniruddh! Hope we’ve answered everything to your satisfaction. Here’s to more heavy metal to come in 2013! Cheers!
facebook.com/GaiasThrone
soundcloud.com/gaiasthrone
reverbnation.com/gaiasthrone
gaiasthrone.wordpress.com