GUITAR PLAYER WEEK: R. VENKATRAMAN (BHAYANAK MAUT)

R. Venkatraman, better known as 'Venky baba' is one of two powerful guitar players of Mumbai metal band Bhayanak Maut. Besides leading the life of a media professional, Venky's sole band has gone places and won a name for Indian metal music.

Here is an interview with the man himself. Baba se aashirvaad lena!

METAL BHARAT
Photo credits: Roycin D'souza

Full name and age.
R.Venkatraman, Age 30. Aka, all the variations of baba.


What is your favourite dish/cuisine?
Japanese. Japanese. Malvani. South Indian. Japanese.


Kindly tell us about all your precious gear! (guitars, processors, software)
ESP SC 607B(Mulder), ESP AW7(Scully). Suprisingly, both signature series guitars. The SC607B is a tank and the AW7 is a screamer! A big shoutout to Furtados for the guitars.

I use the Axe-Fx 2 for my entire guitar processing needs. A Line 6 HD500 to control the Axe-Fx onstage. Audio Technica Wireless Unit. On the computer, it’s mainly Reason 7.1 for sounds and Presonus Studio One to record.


How long have you been playing guitar?
Close to 13 years now.


What got you into playing guitar?
Failing singing.


Have you learned to read music as well, or do you just play by ear?
Not at all. It was just about developing my ear. I play mostly by feel – basically, I don’t know what I am doing.


Electric vs. acoustic. What do you prefer?
Electric, although it’s been a while since I picked up an acoustic and would like to revisit. In fact, when I started writing, it all used to originate on the acoustic.

Photo credits: Roycin D'souza

What thought goes into riff construction/is there any particular pattern you follow to make riffs? 
All it takes is a feeling and a riff pattern follows, usually played to a basic drum part on 'Reason'. Then the song writes itself. Although, it’s very frustrating when it does not. But nothing you cannot solve with some noodling or with help from your band mates.


What music projects are you currently a part of? 
Bhayanak Maut only


Do you have a day job? What is it that you do? 
I work for TBWA\INDIA as a Creative Director.


Your favourite musicians (Indian)

Guitar: Prashant Shah. Dhruv Ghanekar.
Bass: Rushad Mistry, Krishna Zhaveri
Drums: Jai Row Kavi, Lindsay D’mello.
Vocals: Siddarth Basrur.


Some of your favourite musicians (international)

Guitar: Adam Jones, Stephen Carpenter, Tom Morello, Joe Haley, Adam D, Peter Wichers, Ben Sharp. Recently discovered John Scofield and he is revelatory.
Bass: Marcus Miller, Flea.
Drums: Danny Carrey, Brann Dailor, Dirk Ververurennfhheldeben (Dirk Verbeuren), Gene Hoglan,
Vocals: Maynard James Keenan, Jesse Leech, Greg Puciato, Chino Moreno, Ben Howard
Any other instrument: Does Meshuggah qualify as an instrument?


Can we expect a release from your band(s) any time soon?
Yes. The third Bhayanak Maut full-length album will release this year. You’ll see six of the proudest musicians when it comes out.


Whom do you look up to, as a musician and a band? 
Work ethic-wise, it has to be Tool. They really don’t give a rat’s ass about anything except the music. And their sense of humor makes their approach very unique towards their music and everything that surrounds it – the art, the videos, the live shows, all give me something to look up to.


A message to all your fans (hello ladies!)
Don’t take school seriously. It will take you a lifetime to unlearn that nonsense.

Be nice because we are all in this together.

Visit Bhayanak Maut on Facebook and Reverbnation.

Bhayanak Maut
Photo credits: Satya Naren

Thanks for being a wonderful audience. Stay tuned for many more posts on a variety of things 'Indian metal' can cover. Cheers! \m/

INDIAN ROCK AND METAL DOCUMENTARIES

From when rock began in India for the very first time till today, we've been a very interesting growing scene. Here are a few videos of rock and metal documented in India, with a few international ones as well. 

Rockumentary - the evolution of Indian Rock was Directed by music journalist Abhimanyu Kukreja during his stint with NewsX, a national English Channel based in India. The documentary was released on national Indian television in the year 2008 and still gets broadcast occasionally. In 2005, while still being in university, Abhimanyu realised that not much was written about Indian rockers as compared to their international counterparts. This prompted him to start his own word of mouth research and document the roots of Indian Rock and Roll music. So by the time, he passed out of University, the script was almost ready. Instead of practicing hard news and make an easy career in the news industry, he decided to be a music journalist. He wanted to make a series that would document the history of Indian rock but unfortunately the channel gave him a 24 minute slot. Approximately 450 minutes of footage was shot but a lot of it could not be aired as news stations in India prioritise hard news over rock music. Not their fault, rock is not exactly a selling point for them. During his time with zeenews.com and NewsX, he is also credited to have shot and interviewed the likes of Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit), Jethro Tull, Boney M, Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Chaka Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Indian Ocean besides a host of other Indian and international acts. Since his resignation from mainstream television, he has been working on his second one which is independent, details of which will be out soon.



Part 1

Part 2


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This is the most popular one. 'Global Metal' (2008) is a documentary film by Sam Dunn of Banger Films Inc. Sam studied anthropology and his work mostly focused on the heavy metal culture. He made this documentary after 'Metal: A Headbanger's Journey' (2005). He is also popularly known for the Iron Maiden film 'Flight 666'.

The documentary is on parts of the world where most of the west doesn't really believe metal thrives. Some people still think we don't have Internet. But fuck them, check this one out if you haven't. It's a must-watch for every metalhead. Featured are some popular dudes like Sahil 'Demonstealer' Makhija of Demonic Resurrection, Reptilian Death and Workshop, and heavy metal cooking show Headbanger's Kitchen, Nolan Lewis of Bangalore band Kryptos, Ananth in Prakalp days, Spiked Crib and an amazing gig at Razz in Bombay.


This was shot back when no major headliners had really played, Iron Maiden being one of the first and biggest bands.
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There was something amazing that came out last year, a film on heavy metal in India by Mehr Singh. At the time, Mehr, a Delhi filmmaker submitted this as her final project while she was doing a course in film and design through the Symbiosis Institute of Design in Pune.

This is another must-watch.


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Now Rock el Casbah hosted by 'Yusef Hashish' (I see), had a small episode where he promoted videos of Indian Metal bands like Demonic Resurrection (Mumbai), Scribe (Mumbai), Artillerie (Delhi) and Kryptos (Bangalore).

This guy is epically cute. Please watch! :P



Bhayanak Maut was also playing randomly in the background!
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We are all aware that Iron Maiden had segments of India in Flight 666. There are some other bands that did so too, like Meshuggah and Parkway Drive. Here are the featured parts of India from their documentaries.

Meshuggah played 'Great Indian Rock' in Pune and Delhi in 2010:



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Parkway Drive played Kolkata, India in 2011. This was pretty cool! The crowd was on stage! xD


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And then we have these guys too


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And these guys


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India has also featured in the Lamb of God documentary film 'As the Palaces Burn' with me and a segment from the Indian show, which will soon be out of DVD this year.

That's all for now! :)

Q&A WITH PRATEEK: GUITARIST OF GUTSLIT AND REPTILIAN DEATH

One of my favourite guitar players to have jammed with, Prateek Rajagopal is a prodigy. For those who do not know who he is, he is the guitar player of Mumbai bands Reptilian Death and Gutslit. He also has a solo project of his own which most people have no idea about.

I met Prateek when he jammed with Chronic Phobia while the band properly existed but now is more like Chronic so gaya. I was surprised knowing he was younger than me (come on, everyone know I'm not used to it :P) and he could play exceptionally well. I remember while recording, he took a solo in one take, but just for the sake of doing it again, he went for another take!

We call each other Prackticks. I did a little question and answer with him, so that people got to know this talented fucker a little more. I've also included links to his personal modern progressive solo project below.

What is your favourite food?

Prackticks: Honestly, anything Mexican. FOSHIZZLE. Especially my mum’s Mexican food. NOMNOMNOM. I do enjoy most Indian and Italian as well though. But Mexican first. And I HATE Thai food! (Ladies, take note.)

State all thy gear, in detail. 

Guitars – Schecter Hellraiser C-7 , Jackson WRMG Warrior, Ibanez Gio (That jumpstart kit guitar, I don’t even remember where it is), and a Yamaha F370 Acoustic

Processor – Line 6 POD HD500.

Software – The DAW I use is Cubase 5 and for drums I use Superior Drummer. I’m still a noob at this whole production stuff though J

Tell me about your first time in India and where you’re from?

P: I’m born and brought up in Muscat, Oman. (Superb place, you guys should visit!) This is the first time I’m actually staying in India ( 1 ½ years passed actually) and it’s been pretty nice so far.  It definitely has its ups and downs, but it’s alright. It took a while to get used to, especially infrastructure and what not, but that’s life. :P

What did you come to India for? Do you plan on going back?

P: I came here for studies (yup, I’m sure many of you guys are like – WHY INDIA?!?) , but most of us NRIs have a wrong notion about how things work here, and I’m not even joking. Anyway, I’m studying BMS in NM college.. I’m in my 2^nd year.  I don’t plan on going back, for good at least.  I’ll work here for a bit before going for my post grad abroad (still tentative, of course).  And I’m sure by then my parents would end up coming back to India. (I’ll definitely keep going during vacations though, as long as they are there!)

What did you like most about India?

P: THE ROADS. Lulz.
I think the good scope for pursuing what you love/anything for that matter is really good in India. It’s pretty damn dynamic that way! Lots of things happening every moment! Aaaaaaaaaaand I love the exchange rate xD

You play for two pretty different bands – Gutslit and Reptilian Death. You also have a killer modern progressive project which is highly underrated. How do you manage projects that are so different from each other?

P: Well RD was on hiatus for a while since Vinay was sick. And this happened when I had just joined Gutslit. Vinay has finally recovered, so only now will I be able to actually judge how difficult it is to manage different bands.(Though I don’t think it should be an issue at all). In terms of managing the writing bit, I haven’t started writing anything for RD yet, it’s only been Gutslit and my solo stuff. It is a little weird to write grind/brutal death and then think of new ideas for a modern progressive metal project(or vice versa), but it’s good fun. Keeps you going. :D

How has your ride been with your bands so far?

P: Pretty amazing. I never thought I’d even play an outstation show till I joined these bands :P It’s cool. Plus I get to meet so many cool people. It’s cool how I saw a Bhayanak Maut LOG 11^th hour cover on youtube and I saw this guy with this massive beard (Vinay) in 9^th or 10^th std, and I knew about this ‘Demonstealer’ guy because of Workshop(on Channel V Launchpad) and his big band ‘Demonic Resurrection’ etc etc and I knew how prominent these guys were in bringing up the scene and stuff. Never thought I’d actually play with them in the same band someday. Especially considering I’m pretty young compared to these oldies! Gutslit is giving me some crazy exposure as well. It’s fun!

Tell me about all further releases that are planned.
P: RD – Writing begins end 2014, if I’m not wrong. (for the 2^nd full length)
Gutslit – We’re releasing an EP soon, hopefully sometime in the next 3 months. Gonna be Br000talz.
Self – After I release the Gutslit stuff, I shall work on this full on. Done with 9 songs currently, 1 more and I need to polish/finalize my previous tracks. I guess it’ll take a while, hopefully by end 2014 or early 2015.

Who are your favourite Indian musicians?
Guitar – I really like Akshay from Scribe. Sanju from Devoid is an epic guitarist as well. Nishith Hegde is kickass too!!
Bass – Ashwin Shriyan from DR/RD and Gurdip Singh from Gutslit/Agnya. Both mad bassists.
Drums – Viru from DR/Scribe, Aaron Pinto from Gutslit/Providence, and Mayank from Atmosfear/Zygnema
Vocals – Aditya Barve from Gutslit, Sunny and Vinay from Bhayanak Maut, Neerav from TimeFrames(Manipal band – check them out), Shashank from Undying Inc.
Keyboards – Ummmm.. I’ve heard Mephisto from DR is good. And the Chaotic Years keyboardist is pretty sick as well!

Which musicians have you utterly enjoyed playing/jamming with?

P: I love jamming with the Gutslit guys. Like honestly. We get these crazy doom and black vibes sometimes which are KICKASS! :P I also loved jamming with you and Pritesh. Hah :D Sadly I haven’t jammed too much with other people. Wish I did!

Who do you look up to as a musician/guitar player? (your idols)

P: This is easy. Dave Mustaine, Mikael Akerfeldt, Steven Wilson, Misha Mansoor, JOHN GALLAGHER, Matt Heafy, Tosin Abasi, Keith Merrow and Ola Englund, Devin Townsend

Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?

P: Blah. Working in some corporate with a family and shit. Hahahah. Hopefully earning enough to fund my music and if not play in bands, make music for myself. J

Do you want music to be your life? Otherwise too, what are you studying to become?

P: Who wouldn’t? Lol. Too bad it’s pretty difficult to make a living out of it. Let’s see, though.. never know what might just turn up! If I could get to even this little level without expecting much, I’m sure something CAN be possible. :P I’m studying management. I’d love to have my own business someday, it’s been my childhood thing. Lol. If that doesn’t work out, something finance related. (probably banking)

One message for all the ladies, and the fans.

P: Can’t think of anything cool, so I’m gonna be cliché and go all ‘thanks for supporting me’. Lol. <3

And if you like what you hear, check out the rest of  my channel on Soundcloud. CHEERS NIGGAS.

This song is my personal favourite:

Prateek's new song that he posted just yesterday on Soundcloud: 

This is Prateek on Facebook and Soundcloud

GUTSLIT and Reptilian Death

All the best dude. I hope you make it big. Much love! :*