Rocket Feature : ALBATROSS

Albatross is the solo project of Riju Dasgupta, featuring some of the best musicians from around the scene. The music is thrash/horror/power/epic metal.

Indian Rocket: What’s the origin of the name "Albatross”?

Riju: Well, the project was started to fuse my two loves- storytelling and metal. Yes, I was a geeky little kid who looked forward to English class in school. The Albatross is actually a seabird, most notably present in the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge called 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. If you are an Iron Maiden fan, you probably also know that there's a song by the same name. Later on, when Biprorsee Das, who's the current vocalist of the band and I wanted to start a traditional power metal band, my brother suggested this name. That project never took off, but I loved the name so much I wanted to start my own project based on this name. This time it's not straightforward power metal though.

Indian Rocket: Who all are involved with this project?

Riju: It started out as a solo project with just me writing the songs, with different musicians playing on every song. But eventually I wanted to standardise the lineup as I wanted to take the project live.

Raj: Albatross is a brainchild of Riju Dasgupta who also plays the bass guitar. Me and Jimmy Alexander, who is a MTV Rock On finalist are on the guitars, Biprorshee Das (ex- Joy and the Ice Creams, Zohak) on vocals and Jay Thacker (Colossus) on the drums complete the current live lineup of the band.

Indian Rocket: What's the genre of this project ?

Riju: Haha...I'd like to borrow a page from my friend Sahil's book, and call it Albatross metal(like Demonic metal). It's got elements of power metal, thrash, heavy, death, doom and black metal. One easy term to describe it would be horror metal, since every song is metal and tells a horror story. Because every song is so mood oriented, every song can have a variety of genres. For example The Dining Table starts off as a thrash metal song, building into a power metal song, with a doom interlude and outro, with some inherent blues influences.

Indian Rocket: What are your influences ?

Riju: King Diamond, was and remains to this day my biggest inspiration. It's inspiring...the effort he puts into telling a story through a song. Other influences are of course Mercyful Fate, Wolf, Manowar, Helloween, Iced Earth, Pyramaze, Force of Evil, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Megadeth and Metallica.

For my songwriting influences, Stephen King, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Edgar Allan Poe, Michael Slade, Dean R. Koontz, old folktales, urban legends and spook stories.

Raj: Progressive rock and metal bands like Tool, Meshuggah, Sikth, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Textures, Hacride and the like. Other bands like Karnivool, A Perfect Circle, Alter Bridge, Creed, Blackfield, Incubus, Funeral for a friend, Clutch, Anathema, Isis, Pink Floyd, Death Cab For Cutie, Stonesour, NIN, Unearth, Death, Judas Priest, Post 1980's Black Sabbath, Dio, Van Halen, Skid Row and new Megadeth. I like listening to loads of stuff not included above like hip hop, black metal, Neo Jazz, Romantic Western composers such as Vivaldi, Paganini, Rossini, Wagner etc.

Biprorshee: Definitely Iron Maiden. Maiden is the sole reason why I love singing in a band. From a vocalist's perspective, it will have to be Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio, Sebastian Bach and Jon Bon Jovi (very necessarily in that order). These guys in every sense inspire me to sing myself hoarse. And whatever people may say, do not believe a word when they tell you I ape Dave Mustaine. :P

Jay: Dream Theater, Lamb of God, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Pink Floyd, also drummers like Portnoy, Adler, Martin Lopez, Chad Smith, Gino Banks, Jai Raokavi, Rahul Hariharan and Hamza Kazi.

Jimmy: My influences vary. I try to input all that I have heard in what I play. Some of my influences are Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Black Sabbath, Randy Rhoads, Dio, George Lynch, Van Halen, etc... My indian influences are Zero and MotherJane.

Indian Rocket: What inspired u to start this project?

Riju: I realised I'm never gonna write that book of horror stories I always dreamed of writing. It was then that I heard the King Diamond concept album 'Abigail' and I was blown away by how he fused storytelling and metal. Once while travelling to work, I suddenly imagined a doll looking at the moon and singing a sad tune in a chilling, haunting voice. And that's how Gigi was born. And the rest is geography :P

Biprorshee: Riju is a buddy turned rock idol to me. More often than not, we agree to agree on the kind of music the world should listen to. And when he asked to come aboard, I did not have to think twice. I knew all I had to do was sing. The rest of the headaches belonged to Riju. The kind of insane dope I'm getting to pen my autobiography someday from the 'Albatross experiences' is my remuneration.

Indian Rocket: Can u describe the song writing process?

Riju: It starts with me racking my brains for a decent horror story.

Raj: The song writing process begins with Riju who conceptualizes each track and writes the lyrics. Then Riju and I usually have a few guitar and bass jams at my home studio to flesh out the structure of the song and all the guitar and bass parts. Once this is done we write the drum track with the help of Jay and melodies and harmonies with Jimmy and finally the vocals with Bipro.

Riju: It ends with us sending the track to our manager Ashwin Sharma in Delhi. Post his go-ahead, we release the song.

Indian Rocket: What advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands?

Riju: As long as you're convinced about the music, don't listen to others who say its crap. Don't think like a guitarist or bassist or vocalist or drummer, think in the context of the whole band.

Raj: Believe in your creativity. Spend time to acquire originality in your sound, look, theme, genre etc. instead of playing covers or originals which sound like covers. Persevere and make sure that you are comfortable with your instrument atleast up to the level that your band requires.

Biprorshee: Does anybody need any advice these days? Making music has become so much easier than ever before. But yes, the biggest problem is not the music part of it but staying together. From my own experiences, all I can say is that ensure that your bandmates are on the same wavelength as you are even if they aren't really Petruccis, Menzas or Wootens on their instruments. STICK TOGETHER! Have more beers and laughs initially than jam sessions. :P

Indian Rocket: Where can we find your music?

Riju: You can check us out on www.soundclick.com/albatrossindia

There are 2 songs uploaded, the Dining Table which deals with a man who plans to have dinner and ends up becoming dinner himself and Gigi, a doll who in the quest for life enters into a deal with the devil.

Indian Rocket: Any last words ??

Riju: Thanks for everyone out there who's believed in Albatross from the start. We're gonna take the stage soon...so get ready for some bone crushing metal.

Biprorshee: Am I dying already? Anyway then, Dinner WAS you and you gave me an upset tummy!

To contact Albatross,

Riju Dasgupta: rdore2000@gmail.com

www.soundclick.com/albatrossindia