Albatross Bassist Talks About Three-Guitar Lineup, Next Album & Lots More

By Aniruddh ‘Andrew’ Bansal

Hailing from Mumbai, India, Albatross is a horror-themed traditional heavy metal band that’s released two EPs ‘Dinner Is You’ and ‘The Kissing Flies’ in their 5-year existence so far, and have been featured on this site plenty of times in the past as they truly stand out amongst an ever-growing plethora of Indian bands in a fledgling metal scene. Having completed their first ever tour of Australia and expanded their wings within India to newer pastures in the past year, Albatross are ready with material for their next release ‘Fear From The Skies’ and with the addition of a third guitarist, are presenting themselves in a whole new incarnation. Yesterday on August 20th 2014, I caught up with bassist and principal songwriter/lyric writer Riju Dasgupta a.k.a. Dr. Hex to talk all things Albatross. Enjoy the conversation below.

First of all, it’s been more than two-and-a-half years since you released ‘The Kissing Flies’ EP. What’s the current state of Albatross’ new material?

Hi Andrew. It’s great to catch up with you after such a long time. I remember you headbanging in the front row at Chennai and Bangalore, when the last album was released. We’ve written some of the best songs of our career-span for ‘Fear From The Skies’, but unfortunately the album’s kept getting delayed because of our schedules and that of our producer. I think it’s safe to say that the album will take another year for release. The songs are not as straightforward and concise as ‘Dinner is You’, but neither are they as long and meandering as ‘The Kissing Flies’. However, we do not wish to give you the impression that we’ve ventured into ‘safe’ territory. If anything, they’re more eccentric than ever before. Much like a good horror story or a Venus Fly Trap, we give you the impression that all’s going well, and then, as Rob Halford would say you’ve got another thing coming!

Since the last time I saw Albatross play a show (March 2013), some of the members have joined or started other bands, but the biggest change in Albatross is the switch to becoming a three-guitar band and the addition of Varun Singh as the third guitarist. How did you arrive at that decision and what was the inspiration behind it?

So, while Demonic Resurrection, the other band our guitarist Nishith plays for, was on tour in Europe, we were invited to headline the Thunderstorm Festival in Thane. Even though Nishith would have been back and kicking ass by the day of the gig, we realized that we’d played the same set in Thane twice already, in 2014 alone. So we decided to whip up something special for the festival, and our guitarist Vignesh suggested that we cover Iron Maiden’s ‘Dance of Death’. Now Nishith is a shredder par excellence, and to get someone at his level to fill in would be no mean feat.  Both Vignesh and Nishith suggested Varun as a replacement. Not only did we immediately connect with him when he walked into the jamroom, his natural classic metal style was a great contrast to Nishith’s fury and Vignesh’s progressive leanings. Shortly after the brilliant Thunderstorm gig, I suggested that Varun come on board full time to lend another dimension to the music. Thankfully, everyone in the band was in agreement! He’s an immensely likeable fellow and a naturally talented musician, so we’re all excited at the many gateways to shredxellance that have opened up.

This came as a surprise to me I must say, because I thought you always avoided crowds and six-member bands. How are you going to deal with being a part of one from now on?

Well, if three’s a crowd, then six members result in two crowds. But then two’s not a crowd… so I’ll manage.

How has this impacted the material that was already written for the next Albatross release before Varun joined the band? Are you going to rework any of those compositions to fit a three-guitar setup?

Not really. He’s going to be playing a few solos on the album, but the compositions remain as they are. Ideally, when an Albatross album is recorded, we record 4 rhythm guitar tracks. So with 3 guitars, the songs might sound closer to the album sound.

I see so many 2, 3, 4 and 5-member bands using backing tracks while playing live and even on studio albums, and I wonder, why not just add another human being to play those parts? Do you think becoming a more ‘live’ or ‘real’ band is (in general, not just in Albatross’ case) a fair tradeoff for having to deal with an extra member, and do you empathize at all with bands that take the shortcut instead?

It’s about what works, honestly. I’m not opposed to having backing tracks playing with the song, but in our case since we go all guns blazing in the lead guitar department, this is also an added visual treat for the audience. I guess you have to use a metronome on stage to sync with the background tracks, and our drummer Jay’s natural fluid style might, in fact, be hampered if he plays with a metronome. Let me put it like this- the third guitar is not to make up for any shortcomings in the live act, but it is an enhancement of our overall sound. I think bands such as King Diamond and Jag Panzer make brilliant use of background tracks though!

I’ve followed your activity on social media over the past one year or so, and you’ve delved into quite a few newer territories within India itself. Do you see enough potential and interest for your music in those cities for us to finally say that metal in India can some day be a truly nationwide thing and not just limited to Mumbai, Bangalore and the North-East?

Very good question. I think because of the internet, there are metalheads in every city, and the ones in smaller cities are more starved for metal than the ones in which gigs happen on a regular basis. We shared the stage with Coshish, a very talented Hindi prog rock band and another fusion band in the city of Surat in late 2013, and the audience comprised of entire families… women decked in saris with children. As we closed the show, little by little, the audience cleared and all that was left were a handful of metalheads in Albatross t-shirts raising the horns. Similarly, Nasik the year before was a memorable show as well kids actually invited their parents to invite us to add them as their friends on Facebook. We also headlined a college show in Goa, a city definitely NOT known for metal, and that was probably the largest crowd we’ve ever played to. They say metal is the music of the outcasts and the slightly weird, and we exist all across the country.

You also toured Australia last year. What was that experience like and what did you think of the atmosphere down there at metal gigs?

I think the Australian Tour remains the best weekend of my life. We played Melbourne and Sydney on the same day as Behemoth and Limp Bizkit (in separate shows) and still got packed houses in both cities. Our tour manager, Andy Dowling (bassist for Aussie legends Lord) said that the overall reaction to our music was- ‘Where the hell did you find these guys?’. The people were some of the warmest and friendliest metalheads that I’ve come across, and as a fan of traditional and old-school metal, it was a treat to share the stage with Vanishing Point, Darker Half, Hobbs’ Angel of Death, Crimsonfire, Alaskan Thunder and the rest of the bands. The reception was so good, that I remember being torn between a desire to speak to the metalheads who came up to congratulate us for a good set, and missing the next band up on stage!

On a personal level you attended this year’s Wacken Open Air, where every year one band from India is chosen to represent the country through the Wacken Metal Battle. Having attended the festival, do you honestly think it’s worth the investment for an Indian band to fly out to Germany to just play a one-off gig on probably the smallest stage of the festival?

Tough one, really. It all depends on what your goals as a band are. If you believe that after returning from Wacken Open Air, you can play enough shows at home to cover the investment, I’d suggest you go for it. If you believe that playing at Wacken is your ultimate dream, and your entire life has led you to the point, go for it. If you dream of sharing the backstage area with some of the best bands in the world, go for it. Personally, my bands would never participate on the competition stage, but if either of my bands were invited to play a festival of this magnitude in Europe, I’d be a fool to say no!

As you said in your review of the festival, there’s so much going on that it was literally impossible to absorb it all as a spectator. What are some of the bands you regret missing due to scheduling conflicts or peer pressure?

(Laughs) my biggest regret by far, is missing out on Hell…one of my 5 favourite bands in the world. Thankfully, they did a scaled down set and I will, at some point in my life, catch them somewhere else (hopefully in all their glory). Also, Lemmy and Motorhead were playing what was, back then, being called their last show… but I was on the adjacent stage catching Carcass (who put on quite a show, honestly). WASP played from 1:45 to 3 in the morning, right after Motorhead, Slayer and King Diamond and me and my friends were too tired to catch them. But honestly, I cannot complain… catching Hammerfall, Saxon, Steel Panther, Accept, King Diamond, Slayer, Skid Row and Carcass over two days was a life changing experience.

If given the opportunity to do a full-on tour of Europe, America, Japan and/or any other parts of the world, would you and your band mates be willing to sacrifice the comfy day jobs and normal human life to become a full-time band, even if it involved relocating to a different country?

The music industry would have to change drastically for that to happen, man. Right now, two of our members are married and unless the proposition to shift was financially viable, I’d have to say no. I’d say we’re in a very good place right now… where we can balance our day jobs with the music we love. I’ve personally invested so much of my money and time into Albatross and organizing shows, that I’d be the owner of a very nice car had I thought otherwise. Luckily, I cannot drive. Even right now, money can become a huge roadblock, and unfortunately, everything we decide to do… practice, record, upgrade gear, tour costs an awful lot. Even where we are, we’ve taken various steps… such as not releasing a music video, not taking up offers to tour cities like Jaipur simply because the offer wasn’t good enough, cut down on our social lives… simply to stay in the green. It’s better to plan how to best spend our resources, for the ultimate longevity of the band, instead of blowing it all away in one go.

Coming back to the music, ‘In The Lair Of Dr. Hex’, the new song you released a few months ago, has a very doomy feel to it that’s completely different from anything on your first two EPs. Does this song represent the musical direction on the new Albatross material or was it just a one-off experiment?

The beautiful thing about Albatross is that we have no musical direction. While I know what we should not sound like, I also know that there are no restrictions on what we can sound like. Some of the songs on the new album sound like nothing we’ve ever done before, and definitely not like one another. ‘In the Lair of Dr. Hex’ was based around a drum groove and a doomy riff Jay and Nishith were jamming on, and Vignesh thought of a melancholy outro in stark contrast to the rest of the song. No other song on the album sounds like this one, and neither do they sound like anything we’ve done before. Do check out our other track from the album that we play live – ‘Children of the Cloud’ on Youtube. That goes from doom to thrash to a Manowar like big chorus, in some 5 minutes.

And lastly, you’ve also been a big literature fan and apply that in your lyric writing for Albatross. What are you currently reading that’s inspiring you in this aspect?

Funny you should ask this. I’m very inspired by the storylines in video games these days, maybe even more so than books. The voiceover that happens in ‘In the Lair of Dr. Hex’ during Jay’s drum groove, was inspired by a game called ‘Dishonored’. Anyone who’s played the game will know what I mean. My brother introduced me to a fantastic game called ‘Dark Souls II’ recently, which has the best story that I’ve come across in a long, long time. Essentially, it is the same genre as the first part of our new album, which is dark fantasy. But then again, when I seek inspiration to write a story, I have no idea where it’ll come from. Books, films, games, real life… all of them influence my stories in some way. I just finished reading ‘Stardust’ by Neil Gaiman, a beautiful story, but unless I form a band like Queen, I don’t see myself being influenced by it.

Albatross links: facebook | twitter | bandcamp

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