On the day I decided to leave Facebook for a bit, a young man reached out to me and asked me to listen to a song his band had composed. Seeing a lot of potential sounds in the record and the in your face influence that Mike Portnoy (Yellow Matter Custard and formerly Dream Theater) and John Petrucci (Guitarist- Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment) had on the record, I offered to interview them.
What follows is a brief interview with the talented musical act that is Oracle's Eye!
The Bilge Master
•
Tell us why you like music
Prince : Well, for
us, music is more like a part of our personal and professional life both, so I
guess answers like "Music is a really good way of stress relief" or
"It makes us happy" will be understatements. So, for us, let's put it
in this way, music is the very language or mode of expression that suits us,
being a fundamental part of our lives now.
•
How were you introduced to music? I want each of you to answer with
the song that made you fall for music and later influenced your decision to
step into music
Prince : I was
introduced to music at the age of 3 as far as I can remember, as my family has
a cultural connection to Classical music, thus it's hard for me to pin point a particular
thing which drove me into doing music, but I can definitely pin point the thing
that drove me into Metal and Rock stuff. It was my elder cousin brother who
first asked me to listen to an Avenged Sevenfold song, it was the title track
of their album "Nightmare", and in seconds, the guitars, drums, bass,
vocals everything made me speechless.
Baron : For me it
was an influence by some of my known seniors who were into band music and
stuff, I can still remeber the day I was invited to one of their jamming
sessions and there I heard "Ghost Of Prediction" by Opeth for the
first time. Before that I used to unknowingly listen to stuff like Linkin Park,
Alter Bridge, etc... while gaming in my local cyber cafe.
Debarun : I used to
be really into Bollyrock and Rap ( stuff like Eminem ), I remember one day
YouTube randomly played song by Necrophagist while I was listening to some
underground hip-hop, I believe that was the song "Stabwound", that was
the first time I heard a metal song. Then curiosity made me listen to stuff
like Bullet For My Valentine, Metallica, Nirvana and much more and it never
ended.
Devjit : My Mom was
into music very much which made me pickup my first instrument ever which was
actually a guitar ( not bass that I play right now ), so that made me listen to
western bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold and more. The first
song that got me really intrigued was 'Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica.
•
What’s the most frustrating thing about song writing according to you?
Prince : I
generally write the lyrics for our songs, but considering what our genre is and
how much the time signatures of our songs get twisted, it's really hard to
directly write the lyrics for the songs. So I have to write the full story and
progression of the song first, then we proceed with the composition and
arrangements ( I know this sounds really weird ), and then it comes on me to
somehow formulate the lyrics that fits the musical complexities and time
signatures, out of the story script.
Baron : As our
genre suggests, we use a lot of Polyrhythms and Polymeters with twisted time
signatures in our compositions, which is really cool and all, but on stage or
even while composing, I become the one who is tasked to backup every individual
time signature at the same time. Generally while using Polys, everyone in the
band plays their own time signature which doesn't really complement each other,
thus creating a really confusing pattern / musical illusion, but as the drummer
it's my duty to stitch all those
different time signatures together to form one pattern that backs up everyone
individually and also the song as a whole ( I know it sounds even more
confusing but trust me that's how it works).
Debarun : Those
filthy riff transitions man... it literally takes me a lot of time to figure
out how to properly stich together all the very different verses, chorus
sections, pre breakdowns, breakdowns, bridges and all the other ( don't have
enough words ) parts that each sound like parts from different songs; to
formulate one single song that makes sense. I know Prince being another
guitarist, also faces this same issue. But it also makes the composition
procedure much more fun.
Devjit : My
brothers do have a weird fetish ( which I do like very much btw ) that is they
prefers to have parts in the compositions that only has the bass accompanying
the vocal and ambience, which is cool and all. But these dedicated bass parts
also play a major role in formulating the storyline and progression of the
song, which sometimes become a headache as our compositions do have a lot of
twist and turns in the storyline itself, but I enjoy it too no doubt.
•
Why metal? Why not rock or pop?
Prince : Well, as
listeners we do prefer both Rock and Metal, as they are more or less like long
lost brothers in terms of expressions and feel of the music. But we do metal
exclusively as it is a bit more expressive and aggressive and helps us portray
our themes in a much bolder fashion which we intend for. Talking about Pop,
with due respect to every artist from every genre, as musicians, we find Pop to
be a genre targeted towards simplicity and mass appeal which actually restricts
the growth and playability of a musician in general. And being a fan of rather
complex music, we don't really prefer doing Pop. Although personally as I am a
vocalist too, I do prefer some old school Pop stuff while practicing as being a
vocal driven genre, it really helps me maintain the melodious aspects of my
vocals.
•
I’m getting a lot of influences in this song- Mike Portnoy, Behemoth,
a little Judas Priest…fill in the blanks
Prince ; We are indeed somewhat influenced by bands
like Dream Theater, Opeth, King Crimson, Tool, The Dillinger Escape Plan; a
little bit of Gojira, Jack The Joker, Leprous, Symphony X; and artists like
Mike Portnoy, Marco Minnemann etc.
•
What’s more important in a song- lyrics or melody or do they go hand
in hand?
Prince : For our
compositions, they are both equally important to us, as besides of all the
musical complexities and twisted arrangements, it is really important to us
that our song conveys the emotions and progressions of the theme and storyline
properly.
•
What’s the way you approach composition? Melody first, lyrics second?
Both at once?
Prince : It is a
bit more complicated than that actually, we generally decide the tonality and
overall theme of the song first, then I write the story, and after that we
proceed with compositions and arrangements that fits the storyline progression.
And then like crafting a statue out of a chunk of stone, we craft the lyrics
fitting to the composition out of the story script.
•
Does your music have a message?
Prince :
Definitely, it's one of the main goals that we keep in mind while making every
song.
•
Let’s say you had to sell your song to a record label in 30 seconds.
Pitch it
Prince : We are Oracle's Eye, a Neoclassical Symphonic
Progressive Mathcore band from India, Following the musical paths of bands like
Dream Theater, Opeth, Tool, King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd, The
Dillinger Escape Plan we aim to form our own signature combining modern
Mathcore with the essence of neoclassical melodies and classic symphonies
presented through extensive storytelling that revolves around the darker
corners of human psychology, self contradictory morals of society, dark
alternate outcomes of human civilization and much more weird stuff like that,
overall a dark atmospheric vibe some pronounced uplifting moments here and
there. Being the very first kind of our genre from this country, we aspire to
pioneer these musical influences of our kind if we're given the perfect
opportunity.
•
Why should we listen to Oracle’s Eye?
Debarun : If you
want to culture complicated musical stuff.
Devjit : If You
want to hear something that defies the norm.
Baron : If you like
brainstorming while listening to music.
Prince : I guess
all of the above, but mostly, if you love picturing a living breathing story
with complex emotions and conflicting phases, ups and downs, rise and falls,
while listening to a song, and if you love to imagine that you are actually a
character in a story, then you are in the right place.
•
What’s next on the cards for you? Where can we see you or where do you
see yourself in 2 years from now?
Prince : More songs
to come, more stories to tell, several national shows to hit, and an entirely
new era of musicality to form. 2 years from now, nothing will change really.
Yes we will improve a lot, and a lot more people will know us at that time, but
other than that, we will be the same band after all.
•
How important was the patience of your elders when you came home and
declared that you wanted to make music?
Prince : None of us
really faced any issue telling our families about our ambition, in fact, we do
have direct or indirect influences by none other than our family members that
helped us take the decision that we want to do music for the rest of our lives.
•
What is the one thing they don’t
know about making music? (Does not have to be one thing. It can be multiple
things)
Prince : Why the
hell does it take this much time to make a song, seriously, sometimes I feel
they know the answer but they are acting this way to passively motivate me.
Debarun and Baron
agrees to the above.
Devjit : What
exactly my instrument ( the bass ) does to the songs, they know it is important
but don't really seem to understand how exactly.
•
In the age of rampant piracy and unaffordable music due to low
financial strata, where do you feel the line should be drawn?
Prince : We do
agree that music is and should be for everyone, but pirating music or anything
for that matter is a slap in the face to those who are making the music for you
It is exactly like not paying your bills or for the food at a restaurant etc.
Thus, we think streaming companies need to be more strict in this matter. It's
not like they don't know about the piracy, in fact they kind of let it slip
under the table just to get people addicted towards their services as we do
love free stuff even if it’s illegal. It is like a paradox of commercialisation
which is kind of passively created by those very authorities who should stop
these things.
•
How would you propose music is made more accessible, seeing as we have
access to the internet?
Prince : As of today, music is already very much accessible to anyone in this world due to internet and technology, so no issues there, but we as listeners have to make a moral decision that art should not be free.
You can connect with Oracle's Eye on these platforms
Oracle's Eye can be found on these streaming platforms
Contact Prince Samael @ +91 8240533061 for queries and bookings!
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