Category: Music

‘Space Cake Break’ is one of the newest bands to emerge on Kathmandu’s flourishing music scene with a relative bang. With no desire to be particularly commercial or to make an immense impact, these four rockers thrive in an environment where they can pacify their musical soul and produce innovative musical ideas.  Members are seasoned musicians in their own right, making the ‘Space Cake Break’ collaboration something of a natural progression. Sitting down with band members, Raajib Sayami (Baking Space Cake), Jarvis Khare (11th Avenue, India/ Elysium), Kiran Shahi (currently also in Jindabaad) and Sunny Manandhar (currently also in Albatross), Verse discusses the process of releasing Space Cake Break’s first EP, their next steps and the possibility of an upcoming album

So what is the story behind ‘Space Cake Break’ ‘the name and the formation of such a unique band?

Raajib: Having taken a few years break from playing music to concentrate on riding bikes, I felt that there was an element missing from my life. I knew that it was definitely music. So, I started to rather trip in music than on bike. In order to break the bars and get out of my comfort zone of being greasy, I decided to form another band. Struck by the very fact, I called up some people who played ‘Gaurab Pandey (Keyboardist), Binay Shrestha (Drummer), Bhavin Pradhan (Guitarist) and Pooja Shrestha (Vocalist) ‘to start out what I always wanted to do. But some had to pursue their careers and some had to go. As part of the transition, Jarvis and Kiran came in. Still, we were going through a tough phase and that is when Sunny came and changed everything. We got to know the tune of the band and we then started to enjoy ourselves.  I never officially asked Sunny into this band. He just played in and brought the soul.

As for the name, ‘Space Cake Break’, it was suggested by German journalist, Gadd (Ganesh). ‘Space Cake Break’ is the bake of celestial enthusiasm and material innuendos, inspired by the pop culture of sound-scapes and the theatrical decadence of a humanity driven to self-destruction.

Jarvis: ‘Space Cake Break’ is just a playful name depicting how we enjoy ourselves while playing.

Having known the tune of the band, what kind of genres do you play?

SCB: In this modern world of music, genre is a vague issue. We do not want to be a genre specific bend; we do not want to be biased in terms of genres. We play music for the love of music and we’re trying to create noise from the resources we have. We call this ‘Space Rock’.

Lyrically, what do you guys write about?

Jarvis:  Well, I write about homosexuality, degradation of humanity, the hot chick who lives next door and I’m absolutely obsessed with pornography and literature. But we are ‘non-anti’ people. We are not against or for anything. We are just reflecting what we see around.

Raajib:  There is no concrete label to define what I write about; I write the lyrics as they come to me. For example, ‘This box’ is a song about a guy who is trapped inside a box and how he sees his life inside it. It is reflective of every youth who is plagued by tunnel vision. ‘Do it in Mars’ is an illusion of meeting aliens; it is an escape from this world. ‘Facing west’ is a love-song based on how we are divided geographically in this world and how we perceive things in different time zones. So you see, I cannot say specifically what I write about.

For the band as a whole, are there any influences in the music you create?

SCB: Individually, each of us has his own musical afflatus. But, a band as a whole, we don’t think there are any other bands that influence our music. Rather, we are inspired by each other ‘the lives, the musical journey and especially the environment when we are playing together. That is what influences us the most.

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Let’s talk about your upcoming album. How’s the process going?

SCB: The new album is called ‘Space’ and it is basically an EP album. We’ve already done the recordings with King10 Record Labels and it will be out in November. Having been just 3 months into this band and to record 6 songs, I think is a great accomplishment. We’re even planning to record a video for the song ‘Donna’ by the end of November.

Are there any messages you are trying to send out with your songs or possibly with your new album?

Jarvis: Like I said, we are not for or against anything. With the songs and the new album, we are trying to break-up the monotony of self-imposed society and bring freshness for rock-music listeners.

With 3 months into the band, how have your gigs progressed?

Raajib: Basically, I don’t believe much in playing music for others. I play music as I smoke cigarettes or ride my motorcycle. So, it is more like my personal thing. But as a band, we have to do gigs so that people can listen to our music. If people love our music, we would love to play for them, but if not, we don’t care much about doing gigs.

However, we’ve done 3 gigs till date. Out first gig was at House of Music and had a balanced crowd ‘girls and boys chilling out to music. The videos of the songs we performed there have been uploaded on YouTube as well. Apart from that, we performed at Infoshop and Upper Crust.

Any upcoming gigs?

Raajib: Well, there are few gigs we’re planning to do. Sunny and I actually started out with a goal of playing a tribute to Incubus. But because of certain reasons, the heat just went cold. However, we are going to do it someday soon. Nevertheless, we already have 7 songs in mind. So, we are planning for 3 months of gigs and then recording another EP by the end of March.

Any message you want to send out to others?

SCB: We love everybody who loves us. We don’t give a f*@# about people who don’t give a f*@# about us.

Metal enthusiasts, especially the hardcore guitarists watched the very well known guitarist and vocalist Mattias IA Eklundh, in awe as he took over the stage at an event organized by Silence Entertainment. The Swedish talent has worked with the bands Freak Kitchen, Frozen Eyes, Fate, The Jonas Hellborg Trio, and Art Metal; as well as having released several noted solo albums.
The evening started with a clinic session with Eklundh, which lasted for an hour. During the 60 minutes, he entertained the audience with his impeccable guitar skills along with some songs. This was then followed by a 30 minute brainstorming interaction session where he was bombarded with queries from the inquisitive audience. The questions kept coming one after another regarding instruments, skills, tips and more, and Mattias was always happy to answer. With his very good sense of humour, he kept the crowd in place and left them craving for more useful ideas and tips.
While the man of the hour was Mattias and his beautiful work on his instrument, the main objective of the workshop was to promote LANEY AMPLIFIERS. Mattias IA Eklundh endorses and is a grand ambassador for LANEY. Since Silence Entertainment (P) ltd. is the sole distributor of LANEY systems for Nepal, it brought the outstanding musician, and composer here to share his professional knowledge about the system. He, himself has been a loyal, satisfied customer to this system for more than a decade now and he let others know the reason behind it. LANEY has been manufacturing a wide variety of products to tailor to it’s customer’s satisfaction and continues to do so. online casino slot games

‘Vader’ is one of the pioneers of death-metal who, over the last 28 years, have made a permanent mark on the international metal-scene. Headlining at this years’ Silence Festival II, Vader thrilled fans with a heart stopping performance of loud, head-banging real grungy metal.  Verse was similarly thrilled to secure an interview with the busy Polish band to find out about their experiences in Nepal, the rise of the metal scene and the life of being a truly global band. Many thanks to Mr. Bikrant Shrestha, founder director of Silence Entertainment, without whom this interview would not have been possible.

What was your initial reaction when you were offered to play in a country like Nepal?

Vader: A big surprise because nobody expected to play so high in the world. So we were pretty much excited and it was a dream came true. The fact that Vader could arrive even to Nepal was very spectacular and very exciting.

Silence Festival II, October 15! What were your expectations from the crowd there?

Peter: You know usually, from my experience, I find that if there are few metal shows in a country, then there is no scene and relatively no support. So, it was a big surprise for me that even though it was for the first time for Vader in Nepal and maybe one of the few concerts of metal music in the country, it was so professionally prepared and the crowd was so big. I’m sure that 50% of the crowd was not metal-hats from heart ‘“they came to see a show because there was something going on in the city. But, even if 50% of the audience were real metal-heads, it was very big because the crowd was around four thousand, which is pretty spectacular, really. So, it’s a big deal.

You might have seen some local bands performing during the Silence Festival. How do you think the local bands were?

Vader: You know, we couldn’t see too much because we were performing late and we needed to prepare the guitars and practice a bit before the show. We arrived just two hours before our time. So, we could only see two bands; they were pretty good. But, we never expected the bands from Nepal to be so modern in sound ‘” especially the band in which Bikrant played; the band was really awesome.

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How did you feel about the Silence Festival?

Vader: Spectacular. We were really excited because of the chance to be a part of Silence Festival given to us by Mr. Bikrant. We really hope we can come back again in future. This is the first touch of Vader here and we get a feeling that they like it. So, we will be waiting for the next trip.

Moving on to the past, how was the metal scene in Poland when you started?

Vader: Vader was actually among those bands that started extreme metal, sort of underground in Poland. Unfortunately, not too many bands survived at the time. So, there are only some names coming back now like Crusade, Pandemonium to name couple of bands. There was no media to support these kinds of music. There was metal but the bands that were called metal were closer to bands like AC/DC or Iron Maiden but nothing like extreme metal. Vader was among the ones who started that; not the only one, but one of those who started this sort of music.

How has the journey from ‘The Ultimate Incantation’ to ‘Welcome to the Morbid Reich’ been?

Peter: The journey was very long, but very interesting. The journey has not only taught me as a musician but also as a man, as a human being. I get to know people around the time and I get to know people around the world. We are travelling across the earth. So this is the best teacher. You can feel much respect from the fans around the world as well. What can I say? This is experience and if your experience is almost 30 years playing metal, then it’s a lot. I’m happy I’m still alive.

You guys tour quite a lot. Does that affect your personal lives?

Vader: This is actually the biggest problem while talking about Vader. We are busy guys. But, this is the meaning of metal: to play on stage and to play live. This is pretty much live music. That’s why we all sacrificed with music. Since we signed the deal ‘” the pack with the devil, we’ve been spending two-third of the year touring, practicing and playing far from friends and families and this is the price you have to pay for playing music.

We’ve been touring continuously since 1993 and we have around 100 shows in a year. So, you can see, we are really busy people.

Touring that much in a year, when do you get time to compose or play or just come up with new music?

Vader: Any time. Composition is always in your mind. You just need a time to sit in a studio, to focus in your work and to put it into a tape record.

In what direction do you see the metal scene in Nepal going? Any words of advice for local bands?

Vader: It’s hard to say but it depends on you. If you really want to do something, you will. If somebody comes to you and says he’s going to take you somewhere, then don’t believe in that. Believe in yourself. We were also in same situation in eighties in Poland. We were in deep shit back then. You are in a better situation than we were. You have studios, media and people like Bikrant. You have all the necessary equipment here. The world is all yours. Moreover, you have fans around. The time is going to come when the world is going to cry for you and wants to see you somewhere else in the world. That’s the only way.