THE FREAK GUITAR CAMP BY MATTIAS EKLUNDH, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN INDIA!

For the first time, guitar Guru and the creatively insane Mattias Ia Eklundh, frontman of Swedish progressive metal band Freak Kitchen, brings the Freak Guitar Camp from Sweden to India! Presented by BAJAAO, the Freak Guitar Camp is a week-long program for guitar players which will take place from the 13th – 19th of October, 2014 at Jal Srushti Island Resort in Mulshi, a serene location situated a few kilometers from Pune.

Here’s a video Mattias made for Freak Guitar Camp India:

Mattias is widely known for his unique style of guitar playing and song-writing. After years of learning, knowledge-sharing and patience, Mattias will now bring down the Freak Guitar Camp from Sweden to India. The Guru has always had a soft corner for India, Indian music and Indian musicians. This time, he will share his bit with us in our very own country! During the camp, Mattias will sink his teeth into odd time signatures, tons of poly rhythm techniques, licks and tricks to spare, how to make a guitar sound anything but a guitar, song writing process tips and talk about how to use synthetic modes and unorthodox scales.

The course fee is Rs.43,000/-. All candidates have to do is carry their instruments. Besides all the lessons and fun activities, the registration fee will include all the course material, luxurious beds, nutritious and lip smacking meals cooked by the Jal shrushti resort cooks.

 Here's a look at the camping spot Jal Srushti. Uffff. 

Take it from people who’ve attended the Freak Guitar Camp before. Mangesh Gandhi, frontman of Mumbai-based Hindi progressive rock band ‘Coshish’ shared his experience. He attended the 2011 camp in Sweden. “The Freak Guitar Camp is the best experience I had as a guitar player. IA is simply amazing and I basked in his awesomeness for a week in the Swedish woods. Beware, the musicality quotient takes a massive leap and might turn you into a musical zombie by the end of the week” he said.

Sidharth Kadadi, guitar player of Mumbai power groove metal band Zygnema said, "Freak Guitar Camp is truly a surreal experience, a must for all guitar players. Mattias is a living genius and he knows how to condition his campers. I learned a lot under IA's guidance and am looking forward to be a part of this again. You have to be a part of it to experience it. As our guru says -Once a camper, always a camper"

For registrations and further details, visit the official Freak Guitar Camp India website: http://www.freakguitarcamp.in/

Here's the official Freak Guitar Camp India Facebook page
Here's the event page for interested guitar players.
Mattias Eklundh
Freak Kitchen on Facebook

Here’s a link to the official video of Freak Kitchen’s ‘Teargas Jazz’ made in India.

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GUITAR PLAYER WEEK: KESHAV DHAR (SKYHARBOR)

Keshav Dhar can easily be named one of the pioneers of modern metal in India. Taking his solo project 'Hydrodjent' out of the bedroom and staging one very sought-after modern progressive outfit 'Skyharbor', this man is more than just a guitar player. Having aboard Dan Tompkins (ex-TesseracT), and also drummer Anup Sastry (Jeff Loomis, Intervals) Skyharbor's lineup is now across three continents!

The interview is with the genius behind 'Dots' and 'Celestial', brought to you by the very own me! (ikr?!) Here's an interview many of you might be eager to read. Go ahead, have a look, I'm sure there's something new and unique with every guitar player, especially when it comes to composing music!

Don't forget to vote for Skyharbor at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods in the 'Global Metal' category right HERE.

Photo credits: Pixel Matrix

Full name and age
Keshav Anand Dhar, 27


What is your favourite dish/cuisine?
Indian: Prawn Chettinad curry, Non-Indian: Sushi or Pho


Kindly tell us about all your precious gear! (guitars, processors, software)
I currently have four guitars. My main writing guitar is a gorgeous Mayones Regius custom 6 string. I also have my trusty old Ibanez SZ2020, which still sees a fair bit of use and I absolutely love writing on it. I also have a PRS Custom 24 7 String which I use live. I rarely write songs with it though as I’ve always been a 6 string player at heart. In addition to this I have an Ovation acoustic which I don’t play very often but it’s recently seen a fair bit of use.

My 'rig' at the moment is quite simple, I've never been into pedals and endless knob tweaking, I just like to dial in sounds quickly and jam, and my Fractal Axe-FX II does this job perfectly! The amp modelling is second to none, it's incredibly versatile and responsive to my playing, and the effects are gorgeous. It's also completely midi controllable, so when playing live all my patch changes happen automatically in sync with the click tracks, which is really cool. All I need to do literally is play!

In the studio, I record, edit and mix between Cubase 7 and Pro Tools 10. I've been a Cubase user pretty much ever since I started recording many years ago, and I know it like the back of my hand now. I've started using Pro Tools a little more of late just because it's industry standard and clients send me a lot of PT session files for mixing, but I mostly just consolidate the files in there and bounce them out into Cubase again haha.

How long have you been playing guitar?
About 11 years or so now.


What got you into playing guitar?
Well I started playing guitar casually because I wanted to be able to play Metallica songs. Haha.
But I really got serious about it after watching Joint Family play live in Delhi at the 'Numero Uno Rock Out' festival in 2005. That show really fired me up. It was like, fuck! THIS is what I want to do!


Have you learned to read music as well, or do you just play by ear?
I had 10 years of piano lessons so I can read sheet music, but ever since I started playing guitar I have never ever looked at sheet music. I actually got so fed up of the bullshit that piano lessons involved – reading music, zero room for self expression, so regimented and boring – that when I started playing guitar, I sort of swore to myself that I would only ever play by instinct and only do what sounded good to me, theory be damned.


Electric vs. acoustic. What do you prefer?
I am a terrible acoustic player, and a great many of the songs I write depend heavily on effects, delays/reverbs/choruses/wahs/phasers etc, so electric for sure haha.

Skyharbor live at Moscow (2013)

What thought goes into riff construction/is there any particular pattern you follow to make riffs?
I have a really weird approach to writing riffs. I’m not really that good of a guitar player from a technical standpoint, so when ideas come to mind I immediately record myself bullshitting through it – basically whatever my fingers are able to interpret of the idea in my head. Then I pick apart the notes, phrases, licks etc, and keep what I like and discard little bits in the middle.
Then I fill in those gaps in the middle one by one. Often, I come up with a bunch of different riffs which I have no idea what to do with. Then just for fuck’s sake, I chop them up and paste parts of different riffs together to form new riffs. Hahaha. It’s really weird, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else do this unless it feels natural to them. It’s just that I started recording and mixing before I started seriously playing guitar, so the computer and the DAW has always been an integral part of my process. It works for me.


What music projects are you currently a part of, besides Skyharbor?
I’m part of White Moth Black Butterfly which is an experimental sort of proggy rock project I have with Dan (Skyharbor singer). I also write music with my old buddies in Another Vertigo Rush, in the background. Apart from that, not much really – Skyharbor keeps me really busy most of the time when I’m not producing.


Do you have a day job? What is it that you do? 
Yes! I have my studio Illusion Audio, where I record, produce and mix bands and also generally do any and all music production related projects that come my way. Apart from working with bands which forms the bulk of my work, I also score for documentary films and ad films from time to time, although I always come back to working with bands. It’s what connects the most with me.


Your favourite musicians (Indian)
I’m guessing it wouldn’t be fair to name my own band members…

Guitar: Vishal J. Singh/Prashant Shah
Bass: Nikhil Rufus
Drums: Jivraj Singh/Jai Row Kavi
Vocals: Sunneith Revankar/Siddharth Basrur


Your favourite musicians (international)

Guitar: Ben Sharp
Bass: Jon Stockman
Drums: Steve Judd
Vocals: Ian Kenny/Devin Townsend


Can we expect a release from your band(s) any time soon?
Yes definitely – Skyharbor is wrapping up recording our second album and it’s off to mixing soon. There’s a pretty big PR campaign that will surround this release, so it won’t be before this fall, but it will definitely be this year. Probably around October or November.


Whom do you look up to, as a musician and a band?
Ben Sharp and Devin Townsend are my heroes!


A message to all your fans (hello ladies!)
Thank you all for the love and support through the years – we’ve got a lot of new music coming your way and we can't wait for you to hear the new album!


Visit Skyharbor on Facebook and Soundcloud
White Moth Black Butterfly on Facebook

Photo credits: NAD Visual Art

GUITAR PLAYER WEEK: SANJU AGUIAR (DEVOID, THC, ETC ETC.,.)

The best part about this interview is that Sanju's real name is Sanjeev! YYYeeeEEEV! On a more serious note, SANJEEV is a great guitar player. I play in a band with one of his students too. Sanju is the guitar player for Devoid as all you metalheads know, and also has bands and projects like The Hoodwink Circle, Far Travel music and The Mihir Joshi band.

Another thing about him is that he can eat a lot. And I mean, A LOT.  It's sad he couldn't be there himself on the Headbanger's Kitchen season 3 premiere episode with Devoid (WATCH IT HERE), because there wouldn't be any pie left for sure! Fun-loving happy guy as he is, let's take a look at some of his favourite things.

Full name and age.
Sanjeev Aguiar, 26


What is your favourite dish/cuisine?
Scrambled eggs with bacon, ham, cheese and Tobasco.


Kindly tell us about all your precious gear! (guitars, processors, etc.,.)
Guitars: Ibanez RGD2127z Prestige and a Fender American Stratocaster.
Processor- Line 6 Pod HD500


How long have you been playing guitar?
I've been playing music for the past 9 years


What got you into playing guitar?
While growing up I was heavily influenced by Bon Jovi so I guess the solo that Richie Sambora played in 'Bed of Roses' on the mountain is the reason why I first picked up the instrument!


Have you learned to read music as well, or do you just play by ear?
I'm primarily self-taught, but I also had a year's training in Western Classical with Ashley Quiney.


Electric vs. acoustic. What do you prefer?
At this point, electric.

Photo credits: Adityaraj Mehta

What thought goes into riff construction/is there any particular pattern you follow to make riffs? 
As far as riff writing is concerned, I find playing over a metronome or keeping a drum pattern is what works for me. The rest happens as it goes over this.


What music projects are you currently a part of?
I'm currently a part of Devoid, The Hoodwink Circle, Mihir Joshi band, Far travel music and I'm also doing some session work here and there.


Do you have a day job? What is it that you do?
I would have to say my day job is guitar classes at this point.


Your favourite musicians (Indian)

Guitar: Floyd Fernandes
Bass: Sheldon D'silva
Drums: Debashish 'Debu' Banerji
Vocals: Gareth Dmello


Your favourite musicians (international)

Guitar: Guthrie Govan
Bass: Victor Wooten
Drums: Marco Minnemann
Vocals: Maynard James Keenan


Can we expect a release from your band(s) any time soon?
As far as releases are concerned for now,
Devoid should be done with an album by the end of 2014
Far travel music will be done with an EP by July
Both The Hoodwink circle and Mihir Joshi band will be done with debut albums by June.


Whom do you look up to, as a musician and a band? 
I look up to many vocalists like Maynard, Ian Kenny, Steven Wilson, Dave Mathews, the Zero 7 chick (Sophie Barker), Myles Kennedy and as for guitar players, there's Guthrie Govan, Tosin Abasi, John Scofield, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale and my new found favourite Derek Trucks.


A message to all your fans (hello ladies!)
The message is to my male fans as there might be a total of 5 female fans at best obviously: Please come to watch me live with artists that I play for/with and support all of them by buying their merchandise.

Hello ladies!

Devoid on Facebook and Soundcloud
The Hoodwink Circle on Facebook and Reverbnation
Far Travel Music on Facebook and Soundcloud
Mihir Joshi Band

JAI IPL!

GUITAR PLAYER WEEK: PRASHANT SHAH (SCRIBE)

Prashant Shah, popularly known as 'Pra' is the guitar player of Scribe. Having played in bands like Demonic Resurrection and Exhumation in the past, this guy is a riff attack. With bright pants & shirts in Goa feels and a colourful personality, Pra is easily one of the best riffers around. This interview is meant for everyone to get to know him better as a person and not only the jolly jumper you see on stage. He just got married, btw. Congratulations!

Also to notify you, there's a Scribe gig happening this evening (8th May, 2013) along with Vice Versa at Hard Rock Cafe, Andheri (W), Mumbai, India.

Photo courtesy: Prashant Agarwal

Full name and age
Prashant Shah, 32 years old.


What is your favourite dish/cuisine?
All vegetarian: Indian Street Food/Gujarati(non-sweet)/Rajasthani/Chinese/Japanese/ Mexican.
I love all food with exception of maybe things that your head perceives should be non sweet and it turns out to be exactly the opposite; Puran Poli, for example. I like cooking Italian food, since it's the easiest to conjure and the only cuisine I can cook and make myself believe that I'm as good as Gennaro Contaldo.


Kindly tell us about all your precious gear! (guitars, processors, etc.,.)
Primarily I only use extended range guitars (7 or 8). I've been playing them almost 12 years.

Guitars:
Ibanez Prestige RG1527 w EMG 707 (bridge)
Ibanez Prestige RGD 2127 w Dactivator 7 (bridge)
Ibanez Prestige RG 2228 w EMG's
ESP 6 string modded with EMG 81 (bridge) 85 (Neck), (I have this one only for sentimental reasons.)

Strings: D'addario XL 120-7 (.54 to .09)

Processing:
Axe-Fx II for the last one year on record and live. I feel it's the most convenient option if you play live. It's all the amps and stomps you ever wanted in a box, that you can carry easily on the road and plug into any setup.
I do love the sound of a real amp, however lugging around a head on a flight is very cumbersome and at times a waste of money if you land up paying for baggage.

Amps
I have a defunct Kustom (Kansas) 250 tuck and roll Head and a 4x12 cab to go with it. I've been meaning to get that repaired.  The clean channel on that amp is ethereal! I also use a Laney 1x12 practice amp at home (very rarely though).


How long have you been playing guitar?
I've been playing for almost 16 years. I picked up my first guitar, a Givson in 1998. It was sparkling red in color. Josh, The drummer in Severus (RIP), burnt it down.


What got you into playing guitar?
Metallica. Metallica. Metallica. Metallica. Metallica.
Siddharth Khare, a friend from school introduced me to the instrument, he used to play in a band with his dad. We'd listen to Metallica, Guns 'n Roses, Van Halen, Aerosmith and Bon Jovi.  He taught me my first riff, 'Enter Sandman'. All I wanted to do from that day on was just play the guitar. From then on, everything else in my life became secondary.


Have you learned to read music as well, or do you just play by ear?
Sheet music always has eluded me. Regular tablatures were just fine when I started.
However as the years passed, I started shifting more toward playing by ear.  I developed an interest in sheet music and theory somewhere down the line but somehow never got around to doing it. I study arrangements of a song I really like. Songs and structure are far more gratifying than just sticking random riffs together.


Electric vs. acoustic. What do you prefer?
Thats like comparing a sword and a knife, both are deadly if used correctly. My weapon of choice is the electric though.


What thought goes into riff construction/is there any particular pattern you follow to make riffs?
No pattern in particular. Whatever comes out with the flow. I tend to write a song idea in one go. I record a scratch single guitar take with whatever flows naturally. Sometimes I'll go on for 15 minutes at a stretch. I'll hear it back a few times to see whether I can connect with the music. If not, I scrap it and rearrange/re-record. Other times I go part by part. There's no formula.

Photo courtesy: Kunal Kakodkar

What music projects are you currently a part of, besides Scribe?
None as of now. Once I get some time, I've been meaning to do another extreme metal project, I've got a few scratch tracks done. I'll talk about it more when the time comes, as of now I have no name no members, just the direction I want to go in musically.


Do you have a day job? What is it that you do?
Yes very much so, that's what pays the bills. I'm a 3D Team leader at RedChillies VFX.  We do visual effects for films, To simplify it, we create anything and everything that you can't shoot physically. Working on a dream Hollywood project, I can't reveal which one because that would lead to genocide. I love it as much as I love playing the guitar.

I love the freedom of being able to visually recreate anything I can dream of.

Your favourite musicians (Indian)
Apart from my own band members, there are singular musicians from bands that inspire me, Indian and international, but personally, I prefer bands over individual musicians.
Indian bands I really like are Skyharbor, Bhayanak Maut, Gutslit, Undying Inc, Devoid, Extinct Reflections (RIP). So many upcoming bands! There's a whole bunch of young and killer bands in the North East of India. I keep hearing demos or singles and it's so unfortunate that there is such a huge disconnect from that part of the country.

Guitar: Warren Mendonsa, Sidharth Kadadi, Dhruv Ghanekar, Zorran Mendonsa
Bass: Rushad, Krishna Jhaveri, P-Man (Rohit Pereira)
Drums: Rahul Hariharan, Jai Row Kavi, Sid Coutto, Mayank Sharma
Vocals: Siddharth Basrur, Sid Coutto,
Any other instrument:
I respect classical musicians like Zakir Hussain, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Amjad Ali Khan. I grew up listening to them, my parents would drag me to Rang Bhavan and Dynasty Club shows to watch these guys play. The kind of dedication they have towards their craft is inspiring. I was a huge Remo fan as a kid, way before he got commercial.


Your favourite musicians (international)
Bands like Sikth, Emperor, Textures, old-Soilwork, Cannibal Corpse, Soreption, Morbid Angel, Fear Factory, Machine Head, Aeon, Devin Townshend, Meshuggah, Veil of Maya, Born of Osiris, Periphery, The contortionist, The Faceless, too many to name really, I hate this question it's so annoying.


Can we expect a release from your band(s) any time soon?
Yes Scribe, will release something this year for sure, if we don't we'll just disband. I don't think even we have the patience anymore for a record we've been working on for almost 3 years.


Whom do you look up to, as a musician and a band?
Refer to question 12 and 13. Life-altering bands were Sikth, Emperor,Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Fear Factory. I love orchestral music and soundtracks a lot as well. Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Goldman. There is so much to learn about arrangment, orchestration, layering, timing, rhythm from the smallest piece.


A message to all your fans (hello ladies!)
Thank you, Cheers and Stay chromatic.

Photo courtesy: Kunal Kakodkar

To listen to Scribe, visit their Soundcloud and Facebook. 

More interviews coming up this week!