Hello guys, thanks for your time and the interview. To start with, please tell us a bit about Skrypt.

Hey man. Thanks for having us. Well as of now Skrypt is a 5 piece metal band based in Hyderabad. We’re a metal band with varied influences. Thrash, Death, Groove, Progressive and melodic elements can be found scattered all across our songs. The band started back in December 2006. The current lineup is –

Scenic Gopi – Vox
Ravi Nidamarthy – Guitars
Ramya Rao – Guitars
Abbas Razvi – Bass
Rajiv Kumar – Drums

We started off doing a lot of covers and just getting comfortable with the instruments and trying to find a style we’d like to play. We used to cover a lot of Pantera, Death, Opeth, Gojira etc. Once we found our sound we started writing a lot more originals and finally picked 4 songs that represented us the best and recorded them. You can hear those on our EP called Discord.

Your EP “Discord” has been reviewed and acclaimed as one of the best releases of 2010! Obviously the band would feel great about it, tell us in brief about the tracks on the EP and the hard work behind launching it.

The response we got to the EP was overwhelming. We knew people would like it but not this much. Haha. The EP consists of 4 tracks –
Artifice
Anathema
Supremacy
Constructing the Absolute.

There was a lot of effort put in while recording the songs. The hardest part was that the band members were living in 3 separate cities. Band practice was really hard and recording was even harder.  We wanted to make sure we could put the best possible record out. We paid a lot of attention to detail and every aspect of our EP, from the songwriting to the artwork and production. The artwork was designed by Kim Crosland of Chaosart in Germany. She did a brilliant job of recreating what we wanted. The album was mixed and mastered by a good friend called Josh Hughes from Auckland, New Zealand. We were amazed by the quality he managed to get out of the recording that we did.  All in all it was a great experience and we are completely satisfied with the output.

Skrypt has come a long way and you guys have had your share of good times and not so good times, how do you guys make it through the not so good times as a band?

Just like every band, we’ve had our ups and downs. The hardest times were during the lineup changes. When we lost our ex-guitarist Joel, it was really hard to bounce back from that. We looked for a suitable guitarist for ages but couldn’t really find anyone. There have been fights among the band. Called it quits on more than 1 occasion, but then we realized that things like these happen and we’ve matured together as a band.  We put in a lot of effort into this and don’t want to let it all go to waste.

What are the bands influences and why the name “Skrypt”?

Some of our biggest influences are Pantera, Death, Opeth, Slayer, Gojira. There’s some really brilliant bands in India too that we’ve seen live or played with and are just brilliant. Some of them are Eccentric Pendulum, Undying Inc, Devoid, Infernal Wrath, Escher’s Knot, Inner Sanctum etc.

When we started there were many bands around and most of them did the same thing or played the same kind of music. We had this vision of scripting something new and didnt want to be like just another band who formed a band just for the sake of playing something. Hence the name Skrypt

Are you guys aware of the metal bands in Nepal and the metal scene there?

To be quite honest I haven’t heard a lot of the bands from Nepal. Heard an odd song here and there by a few bands though. No names that I can recall really. Antim Grahan is one band I’ve heard about. Seen a music video of theirs as well and heard that they’ve been around for quite a while. I know that there’s quite a big metal scene there though. Lot of black metal and grindcore if I remember correctly. Would love to come down there sometime and maybe even play to the crowd there. Would be interesting to see what people would think of our music.

What would you advice the bands there in terms of making it big or promoting their music?

Aim high and promote your music, but don’t sell yourself. If you believe in your music then half the work is already done. Let the music do the talking. So play a lot of gigs and try win people over with the music.

When can we expect the full length album?

We’ve already started work on the new material. We keep writing songs whenever we get a chance. We’re aiming at releasing a full length album by the end of 2011 or maybe early 2012.

Heard that you guys are launching your merchandise too?

Yep. Got our t-shirts designed by a friend called Arun Natrajan. He did a brilliant job of it. So we’re getting it printed and should have it by day after. We’re playing a gig in Pune followed by one in Mumbai and releasing them there. We’re keeping it a very limited edition tee so printing very few copies and don’t think we’d print them again either.

All the best and once again thanks for your time. Any message for the metal heads in Nepal?

Thanks a lot man. Hope you guys in Nepal can stop by and check out some of our music. Let us know what you think of it. Find us at –
www.reverbnation.com/skryptband
www.myspace.com/skryptband
www.facebook.com/skrypt
Beers,
Skrypt

Interviewed by: ABHISHEK RAJAN
ktmROCKS E-Mag Issue 08, FeB 2011