INTERVIEW: KARTIKEYA ~ Metalhead Spotted

Hailing from Moscow, Kartikeya is a post-ethnic extreme metal band, which is heavily influenced by Indian culture, mythology and classical/folk music. Our team member Navneet Singh Sandhu caught up with Arsafes, Guitarist/vocalist of the Band for a little chit-chat.

Metalhead Spotted: Hello Arsafes , greetings from Metalhead Spotted. How have you been lately?

Arsafes: Hey! We've been doing pretty good, thanks! We recently played on Euroblast in Germany and really liked it!

Metalhead Spotted: what’s the story behind your band name?

Arsafes: Well, the story is pretty simple - I just wanted a name that will showcase all aspects of the band and that will be unique! So i came up with Kartikeya.

Metalhead Spotted: What led you guys to establish yourself as a metal band? How did you guys start your musical journey?

Arsafes: As many other bands we started playing very awful amateur black metal in school Then I started changing the line-up step by step and with time we formed up a team that was willing to work in the band more seriously. And then we recorded our debut album. And after that the line-up totally changed again... and again... and again (Between those changes we managed to record our 2-nd album - "Mahayuga")! But now finally we have a strong line-up, that i can call our best one to date and I'm really stoked to record our next album with these people!

Metalhead Spotted: You guys are inspired/influenced by?

Arsafes: By different things - starting from an enormous amount of music (metal, rock, fusion, jazz, traditional, folk music, etc.) and ending with different aspects of life and mythology.

Metalhead Spotted: How would you usually arrive at a certain theme for a song ?

Arsafes: Sometimes the theme comes only after the music for a song is already composed. But sometimes I make a plan - for example if i have an idea of a conceptual part for an album, then i first make up a theme, kind of a rough scenario for the songs and then i start composing music based on my vision of the musical form of those ideas.

Metalhead Spotted: Any plans of touring different parts of the world in the near future?

Arsafes: We would like to tour a lot and are willing to start as soon as possible! So currently we are thinking about some options.

Metalhead Spotted: And how about touring India?

Arsafes: With pleasure! But, sadly, we didn't get any real offers yet.

Metalhead Spotted: What are your plans for 2014?

Arsafes: To finish our 3-rd album - "Samudra", to make another music video (and maybe even a couple) and to tour as much as possible!

Metalhead Spotted: Will you guys, release a new album? And if yes then when?

Arsafes: Yup, as i already said, our 3-rd album "Samudra" will be finished in 2014 and we will start searching for a good label to sign us and release it. So at the moment there is no date, it depends on several things.

Metalhead Spotted: Which is your favorite part in the Mahabharata ?

Arsafes: I really love the Kurukshetra battle part - we even made a song about it on "Mahayuga"!

Metalhead Spotted : Finally, the most common question asked in an interview. What are your future plans?

Arsafes: To do our thing, be original, tour and gain maximum recognition!

Metalhead spotted: Thank you Arsafes. Was nice talking to you.

Arsafes: Thank you too for a wonderful interview!