Interview with Bangalore based technical death/thrash act, Inner Sanctum.

Hello Inner Sanctum, How are you guys doing? Nowadays Bangalore seems to be flooded with a set of new bands, being a relatively new band is there an additional set of responsibility that you feel coming from the Rock capital of the country’?
Responsibility!! Hmmm, haven’t really looked at it through that perspective. We as a band do what we do for the love of it. The only responsibility is to do our best at what we do. Having said that, listeners today expect good music from bands not only from Bangalore but all over India.

Since all of you have prior band experiences, Kindly elaborate your past band and gigging experiences before Inner Sanctum? How did Inner Sanctum came into being, talk us through that as well?
We’ve all been part of bands, struggling bands but bands none the less. I think Abhinav, our drummer, has been the only one who seems to have kinda made a mark, if I may so, with his rock band Illusion back in Delhi. I’ve played for this old school thrash metal outfit called Premonition for a year or two, along with Tejas, but that didn’t go anywhere primarily due to the constant line up changes and lack of direction. Abhishek played with some college band for a few years which didn’t take off as well. Gaurav has never been part of a band before but he did try his luck in the inter-house choir competition in school 6 years back hehe

Playing under any sub-genres of death and thrash metal is generally associated with the challenges pertaining to attaining a distinct sound; tell us how do you classify your music? What influences directly or in-directly affect your sound?
To tell you the truth its really hard, even for me, to classify our music under one particular sub-genre of metal coz our music is kinda like a cocktail of several genres. We as a band have influences ranging from tech death metal to jazz so its gonna be tough narrowing it down to one. However, if I am forced to pick one sub-genre I would say technical thrash/death metal. Oh and before I forget, our influences include- Atheist, Martyr, Death, Lamb of God, Arch Enemy, Opeth, Coroner, Annihilator, Testament, Nevermore, Pain of salvation, Symphony X, Theory in Practice, Non-Human Level, Behemoth, Slayer, Dark Hall, Behold the Arctopus, Psycroptic, Bloodbath.

Looking at your influences it’s evident that all these bands play exceptionally technical stuff, do you feel, to assimilate all these under a set of brackets, one needs to be highly involved listener? At the same time, do you agree with me when I say highly involved music listeners are eventually better musicians?
hmmm highly involved music listeners????? I have no clue what that means!.. but if you mean chaps who have a little too much time on their hands I would say, yes. You listen to more music you get more ideas. I hope that made sense!.

In India there is a strong trend that many aren’t able to pick up technical sub genres of metal because of most of these musicians aren’t very mature and elaborate listeners? What according to you are the reasons for it?
I would like to supplement that, I guess musicians avoid technical genres of metal not only because they aren’t elaborate listeners but also because there is this inherent fear that the Indian audience would not relate to technical music. In my view, the audience is underestimated!

Based on whatever little gigging experience you have as inner sanctum, tell us how receptive the crowd has been towards your tech style? Have you played outside Bangalore? Any specific places you have shortlisted, where you would like to play?
So far the responses we’ve received have been quite good.!.the crowds seem to enjoy what we play. We haven’t played too many out station gigs, just 2 so far. Vellore was the better one since we came second there and also bagged the best drummer award. We wanna do more outstation gigs, hopefully we’ll be able to play in Bombay and Delhi soon. I also hear Pune metal scene is pretty good and Shillong too, I won’t count them out.

Since you are a five-piece, I feel control & production& understanding of your own sound is very crucial, in order to attain that, what all measures do you take? How often do you jam? Mreover, tell us how important is the gear quality to bring out that perfect sound?
We just jam whenever we can and feel like. And we achieve control, production and understanding of our sound through yoga and feng shui lol! A good musician can make a bad piece of equipment sound good.

How closely do you follow the Indian scene? Now that many Indian bands are moving away from conventional and more orthodox style of heavy metal, in today’s scenario how many such bands are present in the country, would you like to name a few? Are there Indian bands that have influenced you over the past?
We attend as many gigs as possible to keep track of the standards of the bands playing in them. At the end of the day its quite evident that the scene has improved, there are many bands that are out there that are kicking ass!to name a few there is Devoid, Exhumation, Bhayanak Maut, Extinct Reflections, Kryptos, Demonic Resurrection, Brute Force,IIIrdSovereign!!!!!!!!!!.

Lyrical themes and recording process contribute in tons for the success of any Indian bands; tell us what direction are you taking regarding both these aspects?
So far we have only 4 own compositions, out of which one is an instrumental. So lyrics wise we don’t have much. However whatever little we have is based on ills of society, war, politics and tyranny. Recording wise!.care to sponsor us !.please!!

Next one is our regular question put up to every Indian band we feature, Are there any Asian bands you like? Since there is a huge brotherhood amongst the bands in SE Asia, it has led to wide scale popularity of such bands, why according to you there is a lack of such a spirit on the Indian soils?
How can you have a brotherhood going with every second gig being a competition????

Time to choose-
a) Mikael Akerfeldt or James Labrie?
I guess you expect me to say Mikael Akerfeldt, so I will.
b) Female Indian rockers or Female rockers abroad?
Females anywhere
c) James Murphy in Testament or James Murphy in Death?
James Murphy in Testament.
d) Woodstock 69 or 99?
Wacken
e) International acts in Bangalore or outside Bangalore?
Inner Sanctum In Bangalore

Since most metal movements have had their roots laid down in a specific region or country to name a few- New wave of American metal/New wave of British heavy metal/Scandinavian melodic death metal/Norwegian black metal etc, do you see an Indian metal genre emerging anytime soon? If yes by when, if no why? And if yes what will be the sound like? How constructive do you think is the idea of mixing Indian instruments with rock music?
Don’t really see an Indian metal genre emerging now or ever!!

Thanks a lot ‘Inner Sanctum’, any special messages you have for your fans or readers?
We accept cash and all major credit cards, payment towards the Inner Sanctum trust fund would be appreciated!.

Metalindia wishes you all the best!

Interview by Atul Sharma