“The great thing about the Internet is that even though we haven’t released an album yet, the freedom of distribution and nature of file sharing, has allowed our music to spread regardless of labels and traditional PR routes,” says Amos Williams, bassist and vocalist for British progressive metal band TesseracT that is just over a week away from its first shows in India. He adds, “It seems there is enough of a following for us to become part of the Great Indian Rock festival this year.”
Sharing a stage with Meshuggah, Enslaved, Purified in Blood and a whole host of Indian metal acts, the quintet from Milton Keynes (whose other notable exports include erstwhile legends of the British underground music scene, Capdown and football club MK Dons) has already completed tours of the US, Canada and Russia and a number of other countries, on the strength of just one EP — the 27-minute-long Concealing Fate (the band’s debut album One is due for a 2011 release). “I’d like to think it’s just that the music is great but I’m aware too that we work very hard to keep our ‘presence’ high on the community scene,” explains Amos and adds, “Today, you not only have to be a musician, but you have to be an engineer, video producer, publicist, web designer and anything that you need for your band to progress, you need to learn to do yourself. Don’t ever wait or pay out loads of money for something, learn to do it yourself.” Doesn’t sound too different from the metal scene in our own backyard, does it?
Before 2007, Dan Tompkins (vocals), Acle Kahney (guitars), James Monteith (guitars), Jay Postones (drums) and Amos were members of a variety of different bands. It was at a show that featured all of them (in different bands, of course) on the same bill that led to the five of them meeting and deciding to work together. While each member obviously brought his own style and influences to the table, the band is inspired by the music of Pink Floyd, Tool, Meshuggah, Textures etc, says Amos. “But we don’t feel they influence our sound in the same way as Slayer influenced modern thrash or Metallica and Iron Maiden have spawned a million bands that sound like carbon copies of themselves,” he states.
Speaking of metal, if you were to ask a metal pedant or genre hair-splitter, you would be told that defining TesseracT as a progressive metal act would be inaccurate as the band’s exact genre is “djent”. What, you may well wonder, in the name of headbanging is “djent”? Luckily, Amos is on hand to provide an answer and he says, “Djent — perhaps pronounced Gent or maybe D-jent — is simply a term used by the online community to label bands that all belong to the new movement of progressive metal that has been gaining popularity over the last five or six years.” The etymology of this word, as he explains, is that it is an onomatopoeia that describes the sound of a particular guitar playing technique that is common within the genre that counts Textures, Sikth, Meshuggah and Fell Silent among its alumni.
While riding the cusp of the burgeoning wave of a relatively new music movement and enjoying the freedom and endless possibilities provided by technology, there are still irksome matters as Amos points out by detailing his pet peeve in terms of music today. “What really upsets me is the league table-style fans; those who like to compare the strengths and weaknesses of bands as if it were a game of ‘Top Trumps’ (trump cards),” Amos bristles and rages on, “Artistically, creativity is subjective and as such, isn’t measurable. There is enough space in this world for everything. Plus, diversity leads to new discoveries and regardless of where a band or someone is now, tomorrow, they could have a spark of genius. Take Meshuggah as an example of such a story.”
On the topic of the original djent-lemen from Sweden and the forthcoming India tour, Amos says he’s looking forward most to playing his music to a new audience and isn’t too worried about other things, not even the Delhi Belly that British visitors dread most. “On our recent Russia tour, we found that our preconceptions of a communist state were totally ruining the build-up to the tour and that led to nothing but anxiety. So, this tour is going to be approached with a far more relaxed attitude, where we’ll see things as they happen rather than waiting for things that we’ve been told about,” explains the bass player/vocalist.
An open mind is always a good touring companion but what are some of the creature comforts TesseracT will be demanding on the tour? “So long as we get food, water and a bed, we’ll be happy,” laughs Amos and adds, “We’re not quite at the stage where we demand a bowl of M&Ms with all the brown ones removed (like Van Halen allegedly did) or puppies in our dressing room (a la Lily Allen). Not quite!”
TesseracT plays the
Seagram’s Fuel Great Indian Rock shows Pune,
Delhi and Bengaluru
on December 17, 18 and 19 respectively