An interview with the tantrum's front man Javeen...
Tell me about the new album your recording, what can we expect from it?
Everything from Speed, adrenaline, aggression and pumping sounds too mind twisting dark political music and lyrics.
What took you so long to record the album?
Constant issues basically, lineup changes was one; because every time a new guitarist came in we had to work with him to build a connection up and he had to learn the songs, which are pretty challenging songs, so it takes a while to perfect and play with correct technique. Then we had money issues, in fact still do but we collected for a few years and managed to get some good equipment. Income is always an issue when playing non commercial music and you need a load of that when putting out an album. Our day jobs don’t help with time either.
Are people to obsessed with saying something is thrash metal or heavy metal or death metal?
May be some are, but not so for us. All types of metal bring some element into the picture; of course some may or may not fancy that element. But we like to experiment with various musical elements and I guess that’s what makes our music progressive. Not that we specifically categorize ourselves but I think we fall under Thrash Metal, although we are not the conventional Thrash Metal band.
How do all the band members interact to write and record all the songs?
Well it depends; everyone throws in their ideas at random. Thishan however joined in after all the music was composed and didn’t have the chance to contribute much for this album, although he has thrown a few modifications here and there. For this album however for the majority of the songs I would bring in the base structure and theme, may be a riff or a vocal line and show it to the others and then Akila and Taraka would make it more what should I say fancy and interesting with their touch of guitar and drum parts.
After this album are you promising the fans with constants acts? (Concerts and performances)
Yes definitely or at least look forward to and hope to as there are always issues when organizing a show and as Tantrum we have always managed to organize quality shows where the audience gets their money’s worth with good sound, a good venue etc. It’s tough to organize a show at that level in Sri Lanka, without running at a loss as finding sponsors is tough with the countries financial situation. So after the album is done, we look forward to organize and play many shows to push and promote it around Sri Lanka and the rest of the world.
How would you describe the Sri Lankan metal scene to our international readers? What according to you are the challenges faced for a band over here? Any perceived advantages/disadvantages according to you?
More disadvantages I guess. The fact that Sri Lanka is a Sinhalese speaking country and our music is in English as well as the majority of the audiences around the country listen to Sinhala music. We are actually catering to a very small segment and among the English music listeners, even fewer individuals listen to heavy metal, although it’s improving rapidly and more listeners are building up around the country even in areas we wouldn’t have expected. Another reason is barriers to advertise and market heavy metal music in this country, radio stations refuse to play our songs and therefore exposure to the public is lost. I think if there was more exposure there would definitely be a bigger audience for metal music; its building up already mainly online and by word of mouth. it would be great if media, especially radio got more involved in the heavy metal scene, because now papers, magazines and even TV are getting into it realizing the potential gain through this genre of music. Another disadvantage is when it comes to organizing shows, finding sponsors is tough with the financial situation in the country, finding a decent venue is a problem as well as the good ones tend to be costly. Advantages for us would be the fact that we’ve been around for awhile and there are only a few well known established metal acts in the country and we happen to be one of them; in that sense competition is not so much as other countries when it comes to musical standards.
What’s your most memorable gig?
Bleed for your passion (2009) which celebrated our 5 year reign in the industry as well as the Rock Company 3rdparty show which was back in 2006. Both were memorable in the way the crowd responded that night, we were under the ashes basically in 2006, we went through a major lineup change and we got onstage for the first time with the new line up, we were all nervous as to how the crowd would react to the new Tantrum and the response we got was amazing! In 2009 we were celebrating our 5th year and the attendance and response for that show was truly overwhelming and inspiring, it was one of those shows where the crowd was louder than us. TNL Onstage 2005 finals (the year we won) was a memorable gig too I guess, it’s not every day we get 1500 plus people screaming for us.
What do you think it is about tantrum that makes it stand out from other bands?
Our music I guess; its different to a lot of bands here in Sri Lanka, as I said earlier it’s not conventional Thrash Metal music, it has its technical and progressive side to it as well as it is dark music. Most Sri Lankan bands are accessibly melodic, but not so much in our music. We have a more eerie yet groovy sorter sound and we are the one and only band that uses and composers on 7-string guitars in Sri Lanka. We could also say we are different with our image, when you check out our band pages & band pictures you will know what we are talking about.
Feel free to end this interview with anything you feel needs to be said.
We like to thank News Now.lk for featuring us and all our fans and friends from the bottom of our Tantrumental hearts for supporting us, we really appreciate it.
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