“I write about what touches me the most”
Thanks for such beautiful answers, mates! Rock on!! Messiah
Kastadyne interview on indianmusicrevolution.com
India's leading rock and metal portal IMR interviewed Kastadyne's TJ and Sheldon and got their views on composing, songwriting, their origins, their debut album, their choice of gear, their favourite bands, their future plans... in a freewheeling interview.
The interview is reproduced below:
IMR (Pravin): Hello "KASTADYNE”! At last you people are out with your debut album “ELEVEN COMPLAINTS”. So how is the feeling?
TEJAS (TJ): It's awesome! It took us almost 4 years to create this album and it feels fantastic to see it in stores and on the web.
SHELDON: It feels good... we've got a lot of good response.
IMR (Pravin): First of all, let us know what does "KASTADYNE" mean? Give a brief introduction about all of them and how did the project came together?
TJ: This is one of the first questions people ask when they come to know about us. We wanted a unique band name. So one of our friends played around with words and came up with Kastadyne. Just sounds cool, lol!
SHELDON: Its just an array of letters scrambled together in order to form an extremely unique word. When you log on to google and type ‘kastadyne’ you get about 1800 links all directed to us.
IMR (Pravin): Never heard "KASTADYNE" performing in any of the gigs, is it just a studio project? Why?
TJ: The band actually started out with just me and Sheldon. He wrote and I composed. The entire first album was recorded at my home studio. After releasing it, we decided to go live. But we played a couple of shows only to return to the studio. The songs we make have many instruments and often up to 5 guitars playing at the same time. This coupled with the fact that sound systems at local gigs are pathetic, we decided to remain a studio project for now while having a good presence on the web.
SHELDON: We do perform occasionally. Big & small gigs. But we love what we can do in the studio. We get OUR sound - the way we want it.
IMR (Pravin): Give a brief introduction about your debut album "ELEVEN COMPLAINTS"
SHELDON: Eleven Complaints speaks about revolution at a personal, social & political level.
TJ: As I said, it took us 4 years to make the album, so some of the material in the songs actually changed as time went by. We had so much fun making this album because we experimented with so many different sounds and song styles. I think the most radical of them would have to be the last track, "Rat Race" since we recorded vocals and made it sound like a reverse flute. You'll find that none of the songs have anything in common, they're all different and we love this album for that.
IMR (Pravin): Lyrically, you people are just out of the world. Who writes lyrics for the project and how do you focus yourself to write such beautiful and thoughtful lyrics?
SHELDON: I write about what touches me the most. Hence they are songs I have something to speak about. I started writing when i was in the 9th standard :)
TJ: Sheldon writes all the lyrics. He's a genius. Many times when I am laying down a bass track and I find that the lyrics are too short, Sheldon can add more lines to verse or chorus without losing meaning or making it muddy. Crazy talent!
IMR (Pravin): "ELEVEN COMPLAINTS”, the debut album is all about political issues, awareness etc, but not what our Indian Bollywood crowd is addicted. What do you think - how many hearts you will able to reach by these complaints?
SHELDON: We're trying our best to reach out to everyone, across india and as well as the world. The web makes this possible today.
TJ: Neither of us were ever interested in anything to do with Bollywood. Our songs are about what really happens in everyday life, all the hardships and happiness. Indian Rock has always had a relatively small audience, and we are carving a niche within that for ourselves. The support and interest is growing, though. So it's only a matter of time.
ELEVEN COMPLAINTS - HOW TO BUY
IMR (Pravin): Let us know, if you people are planning to release a video for your album as it would boost the album promotion. If yes, for which track you will make a video and what it would be like?
SHELDON: Yeah, in fact, we already made a music video for ‘Victim of my Anger’. It will be aired soon. We are working on some more vids in the meanwhile. Basically we intend to reach out to many people as possible & fulfill our producer’s desire to dominate the world with quality music :)
TJ: Our video for ‘Victim of my Anger’ is set in the lush hills of Karjat (outside Mumbai). It should be out on TV soon. It’s quite intense. Just another way to reach out.
IMR (Pravin): Which are the instruments that “KASTADYNE" uses for their sound production?
TJ: Kastadyne records in Studio B, with all the latest equipment.
Ibanez SA series Guitar
Ibanez BTB Bass Guitar
Samick Guitar
Ovation OP30 Semi-Solid Guitar
Samick Bass Guitar
Fender Rumble Bass Amp
Line6 Spider Amp
Line6 X3 Processor
Protools Software
Digidesign 002
Presonus Preamp
Dynaudio SM5A Monitors
And mics by Shure, Rode, Brauner, M-Audio and Sennheiser
Not to mention, the countless software plug-ins from Waves, McDSP, Massey, URS, etc.
IMR (Pravin): List down some of your major Indian/Foreign influences from whom you draw inspiration?
SHELDON: Tool, Porcupine Tree, LimpBizkit, Perfect Circle, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Rage against the Machine, Korn, Audioslave, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. etc.
IMR (Pravin): Which is the Record Label that you people have signed up for releasing “ELEVEN COMPLAINTS”? Is that true that the album have been mixed and mastered mostly in Germany?
SHELDON: We self-released the album. Yes the songs were mastered in Germany but mixed here by Da Producer (Narayan Kumar).
TJ: The album is an indie effort. All the tracks have been recorded and mixed in Studio B. Only the final stage of Mastering was done in Germany by XARC to bring the songs to commercial quality.
IMR (Pravin): Which was the first track that you people recorded along with your project, how was the feeling?
SHELDON: The first track that we composed was ‘I Don’t Know Why’.
TJ: ‘I Don’t Know Why’ is a very simple song with a hook and has a special place for us because we have discarded a lot of songs and this one has always stayed.
ELEVEN COMPLAINTS - HOW TO BUY
IMR (Pravin): Most of the Indian bands go out for Death/Black/Heavy metal bands that are what the scenario demands. What made you choose Nu-Age as your musical genre?
SHELDON: Why be like most bands and do the usual stuff... we're mainly influenced by alternative & nu-age rock. So we tried our best to come up with some thing truly original that falls in these categories.
TJ: Both of us always liked music that could make a band stand apart from the crowd. And we never found this in death metal. We never decided what genre to play. In fact it took us a long time playing before we could figure what our genre was.
IMR (Pravin): List out some points, why are we lagging behind in the music scenario even though we have plenty of well deserving bands?
TJ: There are tons of good bands in India! It's just that people are used to certain heavyweights in Indian Rock, so it's tough to find a good gig to play at. There are always many gigs for upcoming bands and they really don't get the best of equipment for such shows.
SHELDON: It’s the audience that they reach out to. We should know no borders and try our best to reach out to the whole world.
IMR (Pravin): So, until now how is the review for the debut album "ELEVEN COMPLAINTS” and are you planning up for the next full length album . What it would be like?
SHELDON: Eleven Complaints received spectacular response & still is... we're currently working on our second album and will keep on making music for ever... our second album is even more power packed.
TJ: It's been received very well. We've already sold many of the songs online and one of the Planet-M shops Mumbai actually ran out of stock. We've already started work on a second album, and the songs are more clear in terms of what we want to convey.
IMR (Pravin): Any message that you’d like to give to Team IMR and all your fans out there around the globe?
SHELDON: We'd like to thank team IMR and all our Kastadyne fans for all their support & their faith in our music. To all who've not been anointed Kastaholics yet, go get your self a copy of Eleven Complaints.
TJ: Thanks for supporting Indian rock! Your feedback is really important to us. We read each and every e-mail we receive.
Sheldon: “They are songs I have something to speak about. I started writing when i was in the 9th standard.”
TJ: “ We wanted a unique band name. So one of our friends played around with words and came up with Kastadyne. Just sounds cool.”
TJ: “The songs we make have many instruments and often up to 5 guitars playing at the same time. This coupled with the fact that sound systems at local gigs are pathetic, we decided to remain a studio project for now while having a good presence on the web.”
TJ: “ Neither of us were ever interested in anything to do with Bollywood. Our songs are about what really happens in everyday life, all the hardships and happiness”
Sheldon: “ We self-released the album. Yes the songs were mastered in Germany but mixed here by Da Producer (Narayan Kumar)”
TJ: “[Eleven Complaints] The album is an indie effort. All the tracks have been recorded and mixed in Studio B. Only the final stage of Mastering was done in Germany by XARC to bring the songs to commercial quality.”
Sheldon: “Why be like most bands and do the usual stuff... we're mainly influenced by alternative & nu-age rock.”
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