Scribe: Analyze This

Scribe bassist Srinivas Sunderrajan at Bacardi NH7 Weekender in Bengaluru last year. Photo: Karan Patil

Vaas and Prashant met while still trying to find their calling ”“ Vaas had signed up for a distance education course in information technology while Prashant picked management. The two bonded over their love for bands like Metallica. Having just returned from the US after completing his higher education and playing with a hardcore band named Severus, which had opened for American metalcore band Hatebreed, Prashant set up death metal band Exhumation in Mumbai. Says Vaas, “Metallica was the only connect I could impress Niraj with, so we called Prashant in to jam and see how it goes.” Then it was time to find a vocalist. “I called up Vishwesh and told him that we were forming a serious full-on, all-out hardcore band and asked him if he wanted to do vocals. Vishwesh said, ”˜Chillum chillie hai kya? (Will there be screaming?) That sounds good, I want to try it.’” The four of them met at nu-metal band Skincold drummer Anand Bhagat’s tiny one-room jam pad in Chembur for their first jam. “We’d just plugged in and decided to play Hatebreed’s ”˜I Will Be Heard’ and from the moment Niraj gave the count, it was as if we’d played together for 10 years.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by every member of the band, that from the first time they played together, their musical universe clicked into place. “We’ve been in bands since we were 16 ”“ all of us. And all of us stopped at this band, stopped forming more bands, stopped looking for the right people, because we’d found the right people,” says Vishwesh. Scribe found Akshay, then part of Skincold, in Bhagat’s jam pad again. “Prashant, even then, was one of the best guitarists in the country and we were worried we wouldn’t be able to add second guitars to the band because there was no one to match up to him, till we found Akshay.” Rather than competing on guitar abilities, Akshay and Prashant found that their styles complemented each other perfectly and added another dimension to the band’s music. “But that first time I met them was pretty weird,” says Akshay, chuckling. “We were all obviously different people and Scribe back then was a hard-core hardcore band that took themselves very seriously. The first time I met Prashant, he was wearing a cap and looking at the floor with his hair in front of his face and all he would say was ”˜Hi’.” “Prashant was an angry, angry person back then,” laughs Vaas, and it’s hard to believe, knowing the mellow person that Prashant is now. “I was a total dick back then, to everyone,” agrees Prashant. “I was angry and channeled all of that into my music. Thankfully, the anger’s gone now but the music’s stayed with me.”

Drummer Trivedi quit the band in 2010 citing musical differences, and to pursue his career in television production, and after a really short hunt, the band settled on Demonic Resurrection drummer Viru as their newest inclusion. Vaas says Viru changed the landscape of what was possible in Scribe, because he brought with him a huge drum vocabulary, given his experience in bands like Pin Drop Violence and DR. “When Prashant discovered how much more he could play, he’d jump up and down in excitement shouting, ”˜Can you play this?! Can you play this?!’ and Viru would shrug and play it and there’d be much excitement and I’d go, ”˜Um, that’s great, but I can’t play this’,” says Vaas, grinning. The taciturn Viru, though, says it was a perfect opportunity for him as he’d wanted to play with the band for a while. “I didn’t think anyone was doing what Scribe was, so I was interested to try out that new sound. It was a little different initially, when I first joined, because I was used to playing in all these dark metal bands. I only realized how different things were when I began composing parts for the band actively. ”

Scribe’s journey was also made a bit easier by the fact that it wasn’t the first metal band all the members had played in. Growing up, not everyone’s parents were opposed to what the band was doing, when they started out. Both Prashant and Vaas say their parents may not always have understood what metal was, and what they were trying to express, but they were supportive regardless. Says Vaas, “My father’s side of the family was full of musicians, so they thought I’d get into music somehow. They just had a problem with the fact that I played bass; they wanted me to play something with a bit more melody in it.” He says his family also found metal vocals hugely funny. “My family would watch a metal video and go ”˜Oh yeh ulti kar raha’ (He is throwing up) and they were very intrigued by moshpits. But I didn’t smoke or drink, so I wasn’t a ”˜bad’ boy, which is why they were okay with it.”

Prashant’s parents went one step further and actively supported what he wanted to do in music. “Of course, in the beginning they were a bit worried but they let me do what I wanted and bought me things ”“ CDs, instruments ”“ without ever asking what I wanted it for. I would play Metallica in the car when the family went out together and my dad was totally cool with it.” But he says they’ve never come for a show because he wants to keep his life at home and his music, which is his private space, separate.

Viru’s family likewise was hugely amused by metal but open to him playing music because his uncle played drums for a Hindi band. “I’d play videos of metal shows to my family and they’d say stuff like, ”˜Yeh bhaunkh kyun raha hai? Kispe gussa nikaal raha hai?’” (Why is he barking? Who is he directing all this anger at?). But Viru played his mother a video from his first-ever show in 2000 with early death metal band Abhor and she was so taken by it, she’d play it to every relative who came by the house. “Neither parent understood it but they thought it was very entertaining, people yelling and screaming and pushing each other.”

Akshay and Vishwesh though had a tougher time. “I come from an orthodox, conservative Marwari family and when they first realized that guitar wasn’t something that I was going to pick up and just play for half an hour a day, they really weren’t happy,” says Akshay. Vishwesh, similarly, came from a traditional Tam- Brahm family which couldn’t be more removed from the context of metal. “The first instrument I ever picked up was the flute, which my mother loved and would practice in the house. But when I moved to metal, there wasn’t a lot of support there at all. They didn’t understand it and that worried them,” adds Vishwesh. But for both Vishwesh and Akshay, things became just a little easier when they started doing better for themselves professionally. “Once my profession kicked in and money came in and I was able to support the family, they saw that I had it figured out and things got much easier. So then they began collecting clippings of Scribe articles and telling my relatives about all the albums we’ve released,” says Vishwesh. Akshay says his brother’s been to almost all his shows and he’s even taken his dad to one, where he quite enjoyed himself. But there’s still a lingering feeling that he’s going to get a “real” job and settle down and move on from music.