By Aniruddh ‘Andrew’ Bansal
Sahil Makhija, also known as The Demonstealer, has been a part of the heavy metal scene in India for a long period of time, and over the years, the Mumbai-based musician has developed into a multi-faceted personality through his endeavors in two extreme metal bands Demonic Resurrection and Reptilian Death, comedy rock band Worskshop and glam metal outfit Hellwind, eponymous record label, recording studio, and metal-themed cooking show Headbanger’s Kitchen. Most recently, he decided to bring back Reptilian Death and released a new album called ‘The Dawn Of Consummation And Emergence’. A couple of days ago, I did a detailed interview with the Demonstealer to discuss the status of his various projects, his individual musicianship and his thoughts on some other topics pertaining to the Indian scene and the music business. Enjoy the conversation below.
First of all, it’s great to finally have you on Metal Assault for a full-on interview. For the sake of readers who might not be aware, can you briefly bring us up to date with what you’re currently up to with your various musical projects?
Hey it’s great to be interviewed by Metal Assault. I’m currently putting the final touches on the new Demonic Resurrection album that is due for release this year sometime. I was fortunate in 2013 to bring my longtime death metal project Reptilian Death back to life and release our second full-length album ‘The Dawn Of Consummation And Emergence’ which released worldwide on Old School Metal records in October, and my comedy rock project Workshop also released their second full-length album ‘Made Love To The Dragon’ in February of last year, so it was an eventful year. This year promises to be even better though.
The year of 2013 saw the return of Reptilian Death, and the gig I witnessed in Thane in March was the band’s comeback gig, I believe? What made you resurrect that band after a period of inactivity?
Yes it was our comeback gig so to speak. The band last played live in 2007 and it was a completely different lineup. Reptilian Death was always a side project which started as a humor death metal band restricted to a one-man studio project which eventually went live and mainly became my outlet to play drums which I love doing. After the 2006 EP, I started writing some material and I took my time with it. I was very happy with the material so I took the project more seriously. I teamed up with Vinay from Bhayanak Maut in 2010 and we collaborated on the project. I decided I needed to give the album its due and go the whole hog, so to speak, and not really treat it like a ‘side project’, so we just put a 100 per cent behind it, got a new look, new lineup and made a big impact.
Because you carry out these different projects, I’ve always wondered, do you change modes completely from one project to another and work on one single thing at a time or are you constantly writing and recording material for all projects simultaneously?
I honestly don’t really know if I am changing modes so to speak but I kind of just jam with my guitar and write songs and build ideas and then I kind of know which song goes with which band. Also my guitar tuning for some projects is different so that makes it a bit easier I guess. More than the writing process, at one point I was recording all the projects at the same time and since I’m my own producer that got a bit hectic for me. However the way everything panned out was good.
You were in the glam metal band Hellwind as a drummer for a while, and then you announced your departure citing time constraints as the reason. I was very excited when I first heard the ‘Taste Of Metal’ track on SoundCloud, because there are hardly any bands pursuing this style of metal in India. Did you enjoy playing in that band while it lasted?
I loved playing in Hellwind because it allowed me to play big rock and roll drums, and not to mention, this was one project where I wasn’t losing money since we got some good shows given our style and setlist. I chose to leave because I was in the middle of DR, RD and Workshop and it was not fair to keep the band waiting to be very honest so I asked them to go ahead without me.
You perform the roles of vocalist, guitarist and drummer in your various projects. Which aspect of your musicianship do you think you’ve developed the most in your career so far, and which one challenges you the most?
I think before anything else I was a vocalist and then a guitarist and then a drummer. I think as a harsh vocalist I’m probably at my best musically. I think my biggest challenges have always been with just proper normal singing. For me that is the hardest and especially when you have to do it in a set where 70 per cent is harsh vocals. The truth is, I think I still have a long way to go still with each instrument. I am constantly looking to learn and be better at my instrument.
I’ve respected and admired the way you’ve packaged your albums in terms of the cover artwork and the visual presentation, whether it be Demonic Resurrection, Reptilian Death, Workshop or anything else. Do you think the packaging still makes an impact on the potential customers, even in this age of dwindled album sales?
I think first as an artist I want my music to be presented in a certain way and that makes me want to get good artwork done to represent my craft. I also very strongly believe that a person should have your album and say this was a steal, so irrespective of dwindling sales I want every fan to get the absolute best quality. I think that does help. With all my releases the idea has been to give the fans the best value for money. While sales dwindle I think for my projects they will only increase in number because the bands themselves are growing and we’re sorting out various aspects of sales that we couldn’t do earlier like selling it in stores and other such things. So hopefully it will all pay off.
You’re always active on social networks, ready to take all kinds of comments head on. Nothing seems to fluster you. What did it take for you to get used to being able to accept and acknowledge criticism?
Probably a lot of yelling by my girlfriend. I think a lot of it comes with age and self assurance. I don’t mean the blind eye that keeps you stuck in a puddle of mediocrity. I wanted everyone to like my band or at least not hate us but I realized that as you become more successful and you do well there are always going to be people who don’t like it or who feel someone else deserves it, and I know that because when I was a 16 year old dumb-ass kid I was like that. So I realized I need to just stop trying to reason or change people’s opinion. The only thing I need to do is lock myself in my own world and do my own work. I realize that I also need to only compete with myself and not other bands. I think the biggest learning lessons were whatever happens do not fucking post your emotions on facebook!
I was also constantly amazed by the incredible patience with which you handled your Ask.FM account. But I noticed that there’s been no activity on it for the past 13 days. Are you taking a sabbatical or did you finally get fed up of the silly questions?
I think I just got bored of it and realized that if anyone wants to really ask me anything that is important they can send me a private message or an email. I’ve always been available to fans or even people in general who want to ask me something so they can just do that instead of using ask.fm.
Coming back to your music, you’ve ventured into Europe with Demonic Resurrection, playing Bloodstock in the UK and Inferno Festival in Norway. I think the financial aspect of it stops most other Indian bands from doing so, even if they get offers to participate in such gigs. Based on your experience, would you say the potential exposure to audiences in Europe is worth the investment?
You are absolutely right, the financial burden is tremendous, which is why most bands haven’t ventured beyond the country. The truth is that it’s not a worthy investment for most bands. For me the first lessons I learnt, and I saw this to be true with bands from Europe as well, is to the numero uno band in your country or at least be one of the top bands. If you do that, at least you will have some ability to recover that investment. Too many young bands are trying to play outside India before they can even make an impact locally. I think you are just denting your longevity as a band when you do that. Be the best at home first, then take the step outside.
If any of your bands really take off and become hugely successful abroad, would you ever consider relocating?
Absolutely man. I’ve been struggling for 14 years now so I’m pretty much willing to do almost anything to make this work. I really don’t want to be Anvil (if you know what I mean).
Talking of your local gigs in Mumbai, you invariably play the same few venues over and over again, like Blue Frog, Furtados, Hard Rock Café or United 21. Honestly, does it get tiring or boring to play these places or are you just thankful that they exist and support the scene?
Yes there are very limited venue choices in the city as well as in the country but the truth is, at least DR doesn’t play very often. We play like one show in Mumbai in a year so it’s always fun because we aren’t overplaying. Even when we travel we end up doing like one or two gigs in a city at best and mostly they are either different festivals or venues so it’s quite a fresh audience.
And finally, even though I never had the chance to enjoy any Headbanger’s Kitchen delicacies, I do enjoy seeing your food-related posts. How did you become such a great cook? Is that something you’ve practiced for a number of years?
I actually wanted to be a chef much before I even got introduced to music. I have been cooking since a young age and I had taken it as a hobby in school, had big plans to kind of be a chef and start my own place, which all got sidelined. But then I just got back to it publicly and once I did that, I had to kind of up my game, basically by watching videos, learning and replicating and then tweaking to taste. Pretty simple, really!
Visit the Demonstealer and his projects on the web:
DemonicResurrection.in
facebook.com/DemonicResurrection
twitter.com/DemonicTweets
facebook.com/ReptilianDeath
twitter.com/ReptilianDeath
Worskhopband.com
twitter.com/WorkshopIndia
facebook.com/DemonstealerOfficial
twitter.com/theDemonstealer
facebook.com/HeadbangersKitchen
twitter.com/HKTweets666