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Heavy metal veterans Brahma are back with a new album after five years. The Record caught up with the band that's been around for a decade, to discuss the changing music industry, their new animated video and the mystery of The Heavy Metal Hair Syndrome.
The Record: Tell us about the new album...
Devraj: The new album comes out five years after our last one (The World Beyond). We've been toying with it for a couple of years now, figuring out what it is that we wanted to do in terms of music, maturity, and how to take it to the next level. We had a couple of songs that were written at about the same time when the first album was written and it took a couple of years and many, many shows to figure out the rest.
In between 1998 and 2003 is when our music changed dramatically. Our whole musical style, our individual skills changed - for example, Cyrus is a far better drummer today than he was five years ago, (the same goes for) our bassist, and guitarist. Vocally I go to another range before that I didn't even know what I had before, now I can on sing on an entire octave higher which technically shouldn't happen in heavy metal vocalists. So all of us I think individually started changing in the last two or three years and this album is a result of those sounds. Experimental singing, very bold, in-your face drumming, guitar riffs which weren't just heavy metal but world metal in a way - different kinds of music, different kinds of issues. So that was where the original thought for the album came.
Why (is it called) Reborn? Specifically to this album because we sacked our guitar player a year and a half ago and in a way after a decade, the whole band finds itself ‘reborn’. We really feel like a new band after a decade of being together with five people.
TR: You have a song about environmental issues. Tell us more about that.
Devraj: All our songs have issues - environment is one of them and we really believe someone has to talk about it. Life cannot be only about romance and love and candlelight dinners. Someone has to talk about (hard) issues. Brahma always, from day one has spoken about issues. Environment is something we are very concerned about individually we are all Greenpeace members and we do our bit. I have a five year old son, and I'm really scared - of what kind of world he's going to grow up in. so the song is on this issue is called Or Not At All. The tag line says “clean it up or not at all”. You do something about it today, clean it up now or there isn't going to be much left to clean up. So that's really in one line what the song is about.
TR: How does the song-writing process work for the band?
Devraj: It's very spontaneous. For us it's always been lyrics first and then the music. So if I come up with an interesting idea, John simultaneously is working on various kinds of riffs, for example. When we meet together, that's when the real creation takes place. It is very democratic. There is no autocracy in the song-writing process. We've seen songs, where say, John and I have a certain idea of what a song is going to be like and Cyrus comes in the song becomes something else - and it just happens. A ballad becomes the hardest song on our album and a hard song becomes a ballad with only the drummer's influence, because of the groove he was playing and what the song sounded like with all of us together at rehearsal.
Cyrus: I don't think we've ever made a conscious effort to say, look lets sit and write a new song. Always it's at a rehearsal, we're playing around and it just happens.
TR: The music scene in India seems to in a confused state. Comment.
Devraj: If you look at it, everything balances out at the end of the day. Technically 1998-99 should have been a great year (for music). The overall buying power of people was at an all time high but the quality of music really sucked. Indipop was at its great high at '96, '97 and '98 with people making great music, but suddenly their albums stopped selling. Right now in the last few years I think the music is again tremendous because worldwide audiences are recognising rock in its new avatar. Bands like Linkin' Park, Evanescence are all heavy bands but are getting that pop place in airplay and radio play. The channels at the end of the day decide what and how which genre of music needs to be popular. If the channel supports it, that segment of music will automatically become popular.
You can read the rest of our exclusive interview with Brahma in the November 2003 issue of The Record Music Magazine available at your local newsagent.
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