All good things start from a Bar
The year was 1998. It was a time when high speed internet was unheard of, Mark Zuckerberg was still in high school, music was heard on cassette players and the world was moving to the tune of a new artist named Britney Spears. Amidst all the chaos (or the lack of it), somewhere in the corner of a bar , two college kids from India were having a drunk conversation. And thus began the journey of Kryptos.
Kryptos has long been considered to be one of the true spearheads of the Indian metal revolution. The band draws its influences from giants like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and has made its way up the chain to becoming one of the most well known Metal bands in India and abroad. It was the first Indian band ever to play at Wacken Open Air, first Indian metal band to complete a cross-country tour of Europe and the first Indian metal band to be signed by an international music label. This week on When Artists Talk to Trbble we got a chance to speak to the frontman of Kryptos, Nolan Lewis, who recounted the journey of the band across time, the experience of opening for Iron Maiden and hanging out with them after the show and much more. Here’s what he had to say:
The Beginning of the Band and the name Kryptos
“Ganesh and I were classmates back in college days. He was already a part of another band that I later joined. The band didn’t work out. As always, all good things start in a bar [haha!], and one fine day when we were at a bar and were pretty drunk, we thought of starting a band ourselves. We both were into the same kind of music and wanted to play heavy metal. So we started looking up names and somehow Kryptos stood out. It means hidden in Greek and it fits with us as a whole. When you’re a metalhead, you’re not really a part of society — you’re in the cracks of society actually! Also, you can’t really point out who we sound like, you can of course make out our influences , but you can’t put your finger on one band that we particularly sound like. I guess that way, the name makes sense”
On achieving so much with a Day Time job
“Well it’s sort of necessary since there’s not much money in metal music. There used to a lot of money in it back in the 80’s when people used to buy records and stuff. But ever since the internet came in, the money to be made by playing metal has dropped drastically. Even in Europe, unless you’re a really huge band, most other fairly big bands have day jobs. So this is something that we had to do”
Hanging out with Iron Maiden after opening for them
“We got lucky with this. Basically, no one was allowed into the private rooms of Iron Maiden backstage during the show. We were hanging around backstage after our gig and their manager, Rod Smallwood, was also hanging around there. We happened to run into him and struck a conversation with him — I don’t even remember what it was about, must’ve probably been about football and stuff. So we got to talking and he asked us if we’d like to hang out with the band at the hotel after the show and I was like F*** Yeah! Are you serious?!! . So after the show, we hung back and waited for them to get into their vans and get equipment loaded and Rod asked us to tag along. It was a weird feeling being behind the band with a boat load of security all around us. We took a six pack of beers for them that we gave them and they were really happy for it — Dave Murray gave me a big hug and I was like Holy Shit, Dave Murray is hugging me!! They were really cool and perfect gentlemen, no air of haughtiness whatsoever.”
The Difference between Playing in India and abroad
“You see, in places like Europe, metal music has existed for generations together. So when you play to a crowd that has metal in it’s DNA, you can feel the difference in intensity and the vibes of the crowd. Also, the way that the festivals in such places are organised is pretty amazing. Even a festival like Wacken ,which has over a 100,000 people attending, is organised right to the millisecond[typical German efficiency of course]. The level of professionalism that they have is commendable. In India, we are okay with letting things go at their own pace but out there, you can’t be lazy, you have to be on time right to the last second.”
On the experience of playing in Wacken among other big fests
“The music that we play doesn’t really get people to mosh, it’s more of the headbanging music. But we have seen some really crazy stuff . There was this one time at Wacken when I went crowdsurfing and I was dropped right in the middle of a mosh-pit! My shoes went flying everywhere and it was really a crazy experience. I’ve vowed that this time I’ll stand silently in corner and drink my beer”
On making it big in a time when there were distribution sources
“In today’s age, I know that it seems really incomprehensible to get anything done without the internet. But back then, we had to find a way. If you had to get your music out there, you’d do anything you can. We learnt all that we could from metal magazines . There were quite a few labels that were constantly on a lookout for new music. We called these guys up to get in touch with them — heck, we even wrote letters. That’s how we got in touch with our label, through a hand written letter with a CD attached. It probably came to them as a surprise. But the bottom line is that we found ways to do things back then, sure they took a longer time but they worked”
The road ahead…
“Our new album should be out this September and we will do all we can to promote it. We’re also heading to Europe this July for a few festivals and also a few gigs in clubs out there. So it’s a pretty busy time for us!”
Discover the amazing music of Kryptos with these trbbles:
Get an intro into Kryptos’ music before their European gig with Team trbble’s playlist of Kryptos Essentials
