Like any other upcoming band, the aim is to make it as big as possible. So our focus is to toil hard and keep making music that's better than yesterday. Lot's of negatives for bands in the Indian music scene as we know but things are changing now. Stressing on the positives, we're hoping that the fortunes favor our hard work and let our music be heard to everyone.-Rick Singha (Guitarist for Arseniic)
Arseniic, is a Progressive Groove metal band from Guwahati, which was formed around in
the year 2013, by Karnanjoy and Rishav. Afterwards it was joined by Amlan (Bass) the following year. Later Parthiv (Drums) was recruited as a drummer of the band. But, soon, as things weren't working and for some conflict of interests, we parted ways with Karnanjoy (Vocals). Later by 2015 the band was redesigned by Mintu (guitars) who worked for ambient fills and kushal (drums). But, they went inactive for few years until they made a comeback in 2018, Debuting at Blades Of Gray, and Alcheringa. We at Inked Streets had a session with the band to know about their musical Journey.
Inked Streets:- Greetings and Welcome to Inked Streets.
Arseniic:- Thank you for having us in Inked Streets. We are overwhelmed.
Inked Streets:- What is the story behind the band's origin? and how it all got started?
Arseniic:- If we are talking about the origin , Arseniic goes way back to those days in school when Karnanjoy, Amlan and Rick used to play together on some Porcupine Tree numbers. The line up changed after school when we had Kushal, Mintu and Jeshu in for our debut live at Sunfire 2015, which was held in Cheers Crossroads, Guwahati. Man that venue was the hub of indoor metal gigs back then. We played most of the gigs there like the Metal Hangover by Indian Music Mug in the same year with Sam on board with us. Things went north and south for us since 2016, when most of us had our college, especially Rick stuck in Kokrajhar for his bachelor degree and also Mintu and Amlan heading out for theirs. The band had its line up changes until 2019, when we finally decided to go on four piece having Debanuj Rajkhowa as our bassist and here we are right now. So ARSENIIC is Sam Konjham (vocals), Debanuj Rajkhowa (bass), Kushal Singh (drums), and Rick Singha (Guitars).
Inked Streets:- What genre do you consider your music to be?
Arseniic:- We like to consider ourselves as simply a metal band so that we can keep experimenting with the various sub-genres with our own style.
Inked Streets:- Who are your major influences as a band?
Arseniic:- There is a lot of influence on the band if we talk about it. We talk about them with each other, listen and vibe to the kind of music shared by the members every moment they hear something new and old. Starting with bands like Meshuggah, Monuments and Tesseract for the varying poly-rhythms and bands like After the Burial, Volumes, Veil of Maya, Born of Osiris for the exquisite kind of groove in the rhythms and dynamics, we consider ourselves to be thankful for their existence for which we are able to develop our own kind of skills and grooves.
Inked Streets:- The fans knows that Sam Konjham, have been a part of other band, Tyrrhenian, and also has his own brand of events called Core Inc.? So how did Core Inc. happened?
Arseniic:- Core inc is all about doing it yourself and to create a platform for promoting local talents from across north east. Sam was on tour along with Retromist in the month of December , 2019 in Nepal. He was fortunate enough to make it to a DIY gig which they were a part of. The DIY culture back there is really inspiring. The way they supported their local acts in different ways possible, be it fund raising for their future shows or buying and exchanging of their merchs is really amazing.Basically that is how the idea of Core Inc. was born.To promote the talents across the NE region. "How to make it happen?" An idea for a DIY gig in Guwahati struck him. So he decided to gather a team of people who were allotted different work in order to put the train of thoughts into action. Everything was looked after in the most skillful way and We couldn't be more happy by the way it turned out . Our sincere gratitude goes to all the local acts who had supported the event and taken things up a notch. Also thankful to the sponsors from Strings n Strokes and Groove In for their contributions in making this a successful event.
Inked Streets:- What kind of themes do you depicts into your lyricism?
Arseniic:- Well when it comes to the lyrics, we try to depict those little things called "want" and "greed" in the human beings which are mostly overlooked in the reality. The human has his own desires which effects the surroundings. And sometimes he or she takes a leap towards those desires and ends up effecting others when not being careful about it. And sometimes there are those humans who realize themselves about their actions in the past and make their own judgements and amends. At the end of the day this is what makes us all very human. So basically we'll be describing these facts in our upcoming EP which we'll be working on real soon.
Inked Streets:- Fact or Fiction:-Karnanjoy Kaushik was originally the vocalist of the band before Jeshu Deka? How true is that statement?
Arseniic:- Fact! Karnanjoy was in the line up during earlier days. He has sick vocal and percussion skills. He parted ways before Jeshu came in.
Inked Streets:- Your most memorable gig?
Arseniic:- We had our share of fun with the crowd over gigs like, Arindam Sikder's Rhapsody 2.0, Rocka Rolla's Fireball pre party 2020, Sam Konjham's 1st edition of Core Inc. We are thankful to the crowd to have understood our music and vibing along with us whenever we all were together.
Inked Streets:- The band have recently had a line up change from going five piece to four piece and Amlan Borah was replaced by Debanuj Rajkhowa on bass? So how have the experience of working with the new line up been?
Arseniic:- Debanuj has been the most blissful addition to the band since the beginning. We're more than lucky to have him play with us on our journey. He has been like family and we hope he is having the most fun playing with us here.
Inked Streets:- The ultimate direction of the band would be?
Arseniic:- Like any other upcoming band, the aim is to make it as big as possible. So our focus is to toil hard and keep making music that's better than yesterday. Lot's of negatives for bands in the Indian music scene as we know but things are changing now. Stressing on the positives, we're hoping that the fortunes favor our hard work and let our music be heard to everyone.
Inked Streets:- Any message for the fans?
Arseniic:- Thank you is the first thing to start with. We are so humbled and grateful to have you guys that we are touched beyond words. You guys are our motivation and the reason we grind each day cause we don't want to let any of you down. We can't stretch this enough. Thank you for being the best fans possible.
Inked Streets:- Where can people buy or stream your music from? Any plans for an EP or an Album?
Arseniic:- As we mentioned earlier we are working on our upcoming EP. We will soon be releasing a single called "Maraud" and the platforms for the stream shall also be announced soon.
Inked Streets:- Thank you for your time.
Arseniic:- Thanks a lot once again for having us over. We are honored. Peace !
Comments