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Interviews
:
Band :
Raspatul
Interviewed :Calvin
Chiang
Interviewer :
Alorchi Samir
Date:
25/06/2007
Website:
www.raspatul.tk
Samir : Hey Calvin ! How are you doing? Everything is going as you planned?
Calvin Raspatul - Hi Samir, it's a great honour to be interviewed by Zero Tolerance Webzine and yes I am doing pretty fine right now. I was down with a bad viral flu infection some 3 weeks ago, and I just recovered. Feels good to be doing an interview right after being sick for so long! Everything is going quite as planned so far, and with the fresh release of the Raspatul CD just this month, I am really curious to see what the response for this album is. I am really looking forward to the reviews for this CD, So far, there have been some good label distributors for the Raspatul CD. Some of which are old friends of mine which I have made for the past few years, and it was really great to see that they still have the same support for Raspatul till today. Trinity Records from Hong Kong will be the exclusive distributor for Asia, and Plastic Head Distribution will be the exclusive distributor for UK. I am still looking for even more distributors, magazines and labels to spread the word of Raspatul to even more territories. This is never ending promotional work if you ask me, but I really enjoy it immensely.
Samir: Could you please present you and the band for those who don't know you?
Calvin Raspatul - Raspatul has been around since 1996, but like most of the bands, nothing much was done in the early years until in 2000 when the band started to focus seriously on writing original composition. I am not part of the original line-up and I stepped in as a permanent member only in 2001, when their guitar player decided to quit due to his family commitments. I have been good friends with the band for quite a while, so I guess it was a natural progression for me to take the role as their guitar player. Raspatul has always been a band that is all about the music since the beginning, but in the recent years, I have been really working my ass off on the promotional side of things. I believe that without constant promotion and the sheer determination, a band is not going to go anywhere else but just within your own circle of the scene. There is just really too much to talk about in terms of what Raspatul is all about. Check out our websites at: www.myspace.com/raspatul and www.raspatul.tk for much more details. Both website are updated very regularly by me, so there is no old news.
Samir: How come you named the band "Raspatul", what's the story behind that name?
Calvin Raspatul - Well the name Raspatul was given to us by a local recording engineer Leonard Soosay more than 10 years ago. He felt that we sounds like a cross between Sepultura and Pantera, hence the name Raspatul was given. Leonard was very surprised to know that we still stick to the same name until this day, and one of the reason was because we thought it was a really unique name and I guess people knew us for the fact we had such a special name. But of course, we sound nothing like Sepultura or Pantera now, but indeed those two bands mentioned were a part of our influences and will always deserve our utmost respect. So in short, the name Raspatul is actually just a meaningless term!
Samir : What are the various band members into when not touring, rehearsing, and recording music?
Calvin Raspatul - For one thing, Raspatul was never a touring band. Everyone in the band just have too much commitment in our everyday lives, and it would be impossible to drop everything here and go on tour. We would definitely love to go on tour, and I know how much impact it would give for the band, in terms of exposure. My bass player Hisham 'Black' owns a small studio here with a bunch of his friends, so his life is pretty much all about music as well. My drummer Fadzlly is more of a family person when he is not doing music, he pretty much stays at home. But other than that, all of us have a day job, so as to survive. I am married to my wonderful wife, have two beautiful black cats, and I am a very laidback person. I don't have any useless hobbies to cramp up my life, I live my life totally 100% pure Metal.
Samir : In your mind, what's been the progress in the metal scene?
Calvin Raspatul - In my honest opinion, the Metal scene in general has taken a bullet train ride. Nowadays, there are so many releases coming out in just a month, but sometimes I ask myself how many of all these releases are really good? But of course, this change has definitely done a lot of bands more pros than cons. There are also a lot of labels sprouting out from everywhere, and I think with the abundance of labels around, there would be enough to cater for different genres of Metal. With the recent craze about Myspace, bands from all over the world are getting recognition with just a click of the mouse, but of course the bands themselves have to work hard at it, there is so much to do in a band, other than just playing music alone. I also do notice on the rise of Asian Metal in the recent years, but we still have a lot of groundwork to work on.
Samir : What can you tell us about 'Devils In Renewed Birth '. How did you develop the songs, what inspired you?
Calvin Raspatul - 'Devils In Renewed Birth' is actually a collection of all our recorded songs from 2001 until 2004, so this is not a new album. This is probably the last album from Raspatul as our singer Ayim was killed in a tragic motorcycle accident 2 years ago. This was a very brutal shock for the band, and we can never imagine continuing Raspatul without Ayim. He has been with the band since the first day, and the three of us felt that the best solution was to dissolve the band, and leave the legacy of Raspatul as it is. Most of the songs on 'Devils In Renewed Birth' were written in 2000 – 2001 era, except for the first song 'The Perfect Realm Of Jharkyannarkh' which was written and recorded in 2004. The normal scenario of how Raspatul write songs is that I would come up with some riffs and bring it out on the table during rehearsals and we will try to see what makes sense out of all the riffs. For Raspatul, there was never a definite inspiration on how we write songs, and especially for me when I write the riffs, I will write what sounds good and that it fits the style of Raspatul.
Samir : The best song on "Devils In Renewed Birth" and why?
Calvin Raspatul - The best song on 'Devils In Renewed Birth' definitely has to be 'The Perfect Realm Of Jharkyannarkh' and it's also probably the most intense song on the album. This song is so special to me, and also the rest of the guys in the band in so many ways. For me, I personally wrote, recorded and mixed the song back in 2004, when I was studying as a recording engineer in a school. It took me countless sleepless nights just to get a right mix on this song, and for the fact that the school does not have good recording equipment, which made the song really hard to mix. I can't say that I am 100% satisfied with the outcome of the mix, but it was the best that I could do. No triggers or drum replacements were done on this track, so everything you hear is all natural drums. The guitars were recorded using a small Marshall practice amp and I didn't even use my own personal guitar on this song! I was engineering for a local Metal band Suicide Solution ( www.myspace.com/suicidesolution) in the same studio as well, and so I used Joe Suicide's guitar for the recording of this song. This song is also the last song that our singer Ayim recorded on, before he passed away a year later, so this song is definitely a track that holds very fond memories to us as a band.
Samir: I know you've worked with James Murphy for mastering your album. Can you tell us something about that?
Calvin Raspatul - Yes indeed, 'Devils In Renewed Birth' was mastered by James Murphy at his new studio called The Safehouse. I got in touch with James a while back, and initially I asked him whether he would be interested to master the new Raspatul album that we were working on before Ayim passed away. James said sure and that he would be happy to do it. It took quite a while before James had the time to do it, as he was really busy and of course I could understand that. When the mastered tracks were finished, I was really very happy with what James did. All our songs were recorded in 2001, and the sound quality wasn't good, but James did an excellent job on the mastering; he managed to clear all that mud and dust and made the songs sound much louder and clearer. He also did some really cool stuff on a hidden bonus at the end of the album. It is definitely a big honour for me to be able to work with James Murphy on the mastering and any Metal guitar player who isn't influenced by James's playing in some ways has to be lying! When the tragedy struck with Ayim's death, I decided to find a label that would be interested to release all the Raspatul songs into one album, and Charles from Obskure Sombre Records felt that it was a good idea to sign us and we are definitely very proud to be working with a label that believes in us.
Samir: How would you define your style of music?
Calvin Raspatul - In some ways, it's really hard to say what our style of music is like, each of us in the band have different influences. But when we get together to write and arrange music, we made sure it has to sound like Raspatul. When I took over the guitar duties in 2001, I already knew very well that Raspatul was all about old school Thrash Metal, and because my roots was more on the Death Metal side, there was definitely a good dose of Death Metal riffs injected in Raspatul, which I guess made Raspatul a tad more unique. Our singer Ayim, was more into Black Metal, and you can hear in the songs that his vocals are more in the range of the high register screams. But somehow, all of these influences work well within our capabilities. If you really want me to put a term to coin Raspatul, you can say it's Blackened Death Thrash Metal.
Samir: How do you think the band has evolved musically and personally?
Calvin Raspatul - When the Raspatul first started in 1996, the band was only playing cover songs, and nothing really serious was going on. It was just mainly a bunch of good friends getting together and playing music. When the band progressed and improved on their instruments a few years later, Raspatul started getting serious and composed our own originals. Most of the songs that you hear on 'Devils In Renewed Birth' were composed in the late nineties, and when we recorded the songs, a good amount of the songs were re-arranged and some new riffs were put in, to make the songs sound more aggressive. In early 2002, I started doing a lot of promotion worldwide, and it was really unbelievable that we got nothing but good and positive reviews everywhere. It was probably also because of the fact that we are from Singapore, and quite a few people do not realised that there were Metal bands and also a scene here. At the same time, we were also writing brand new songs for a new full length album, which took us almost 2 years to write, but eventually we didn't get to record because of our singer's death. The new songs that we were writing are definitely so much faster, aggressive and in some aspects, more technical as well. But of course, Raspatul was never about technicality, we just has some song arrangements that sounds more unexpected, but it still has the flow and the style of Raspatul. Personally, I have had a great experience writing the new songs with the band, and all of us were pushing our own limitations. But unfortunately, it would be impossible to record those new songs now; we just felt it was pointless to continue Raspatul without Ayim.
Samir : When you're not playing or writing music, what is it that you like to do?
Calvin
Raspatul - Like I have mentioned earlier on, I do not have a hobby or anything,
my life is basically Metal all the way. You can say Metal is my only hobby, and
also a way of life for me. I have dedicated my life to Metal for more than 15
years, and there is not a single day that I regretted having to spend half of my
life to Metal. A lot of my friends do not understand and they think that I am
just wasting my time, but I know that I only life my life once, and I do not
want to lie down in my coffin some day and knowing I have lived an unfulfilled
life. Maybe the only thing that I do when I am not playing and writing music is
that I am also working for a label called Pulverised Records (
www.myspace.com/pulverisedrecor
Samir: Do the members of the band play in other projects?
Calvin Raspatul - Yes all of us are playing and have played with other bands. My drummer Fadzlly is currently playing in a hardcore band called Bound By Honour, and my bass player Hisham 'Black' had played in a Grindcore band called Demisor and crusty punk band called Distrust. I used to play guitar for a modern Metal band called Deviant, playing bass with an eighties Heavy Metal band called Steelglory, also played bass with a technical Old School Death Metal band called Predatory and also playing guitar for Suicide Solution. It's always fun to be playing something a little different outside Raspatul, and in some ways, we could learn more from playing with other people and bands.
Samir: Who are your main influences and what albums made the biggest impact on your life?
Calvin Raspatul - I have been influenced by so many guitar players and bands throughout the years, but there are some that will remain as the biggest influence in my life. I was a huge Testament freak back in the nineties, and I was heavily influenced by Alex Skolnick and James Murphy. One of the bands that totally changed by life was Morbid Angel with 'Altars Of Madness'. It was an album that changed my perception of how music can be played, and of course with their Satanic imagery and blasphemous lyrics. There is not one bad song that I can think of on 'Altars Of Madness', and from then, it was a Metal frenzy for me. Around that same time, I got Napalm Death's 'Utopia Banished' album, and it was really unbelievable that music could be played to that extent. Soon after, bands like Sepultura (pre-Chaos AD era), Carcass, Pantera, etc were a daily diet for me. But the weird thing was that there was no one who got me into Metal. I found out about Metal my own way, and back then with my circle of friends, there was absolutely no one listening to Metal. So in short, some of my main influences for guitar playing are Alex Skolnick, James Murphy, Akira Takasaki (Loudness), Dimebag Darrell, Bill Steer. For bands: Testament, Carcass, Loudness, Morbid Angel, Pantera, Kreator, Destruction, Malevolent Creation, Death, Defleshed, Vital Remains, At The Gates, Meshuggah.
Samir: Do you believe in "good" and "evil"?
Calvin Raspatul – Well I think this is really a very subjective issue. How many of the 'good' around are actually what you think it is? A really good example would be once again Metal music. I believe that until this day, a good majority still associate Metal with being evil and Satanic, and that it will drive you to suicide in some extreme cases. Just because some of these cases are brought up in newspaper reports, and they think that Metal is such a negative form of music. If they had looked deep enough, they will realise that Metal music is not all about killing, murder, Satan or suicide. We really put in a lot of effort in our craft, and in the process of it, we are putting out a lot of creativity into our music, be it composing music or doing promotion. Perhaps playing music could be one of the reasons why some people stay out of the streets to create trouble, if you know what I mean? Speaking of a more worldly issue, look at all the wars going on today, many innocent lives are lost but are all these wars necessary to make things 'good' again? Is this what they call necessary evil? This is a really tough question to answer, and as for me in my own opinion, I believe in doing what is right for yourself, and that you do not have to answer to anyone else.
Samir: Give me your opinion about those guys.
Alex Skolnick : Everyone knows that Alex is an incredible guitar player for sure. I have not talked to him personally, so I really don't know much. Like I said in the above question, he was a big part of my influence when I was growing up, totally loved his guitar solos.
James Murphy : A really cool and professional guy, and I had a great experience working with him for the Raspatul mastering. Not only is he an amazing guitar player, but also an excellent audio engineer. James is a natural talent for all things musical.
Paul Dianno : Not really sure what he is up to these days, but he was a very important part of the early years of Iron Maiden.
Chris Barnes : I love Cannibal Corpse during their early years up to their 'Bleeding' album, and one of the main reasons was because of Chris Barnes. In a genre of Death Metal, where singers was sounding like a cookie monster, Chris had a voice that was really unique and his lyrics were really cheesy but it worked wonderfully well for Cannibal Corpse.
ME : What can I say about Samir? I got to know him through Zero Tolerance Myspace site and he sounds like a person who has a real dedication to Metal, and I know he is really proud of what he has achieved with Zero Tolerance webzine. I am sure he has put in a lot of effort, as everyone can see that he has interviewed some really great bands and musicians like The Haunted, Alex Skolnick, Paul Dianno, Cryptopsy, Paradise Lost, Unleashed, Tankard, etc. if this isn't hard work, I don't know what is.
Yourself : Someone who is really laidback and doesn't talk much. You might not even notice me and I could just be sitting at a corner in my own world. But sometimes people misunderstood me for being proud and arrogant just because I don't talk a lot. I express myself through my music, and music also acts as a medium for me to release my frustrations.
Samir : Tell us something about your gigs. What was the best live experience ?
Calvin Raspatul – We are very energetic whenever we play live shows, we do not think it will be enjoyable for anyone to see a band standing still on stage and trying to play every note as perfectly as possible. Live shows are all about the intensity and the adrenaline, so we try to entertain the crowd and also enjoy ourselves when playing live. Our best live show was actually not what we had expected, and the gig was just at a small studio. We got invited to play a slot, and for Raspatul, we would never reject playing a gig unless it was really unavoidable. So we just went ahead with the gig without any expectations. When we started playing, the crowd was just fucking rabid, and we barely had enough space to move around, so we kind of just stood there while the crowd just took charge of everything else. It came to a point when someone actually tore down a piece of the ceiling and we had to stop the song halfway and get the crowd to calm down a little. With this show in mind, I can totally understand why bands prefer to play in small venues, the feeling is just awesome to see a sea of people really enjoying your music and at the same time, have direct interaction with them.
Samir : Anything I left out that you want to say?
Calvin Raspatul – Ok here is a latest update on Raspatul.
If everything goes according to plan, there will be a limited edition vinyl of
'Devils In Renewed Birth' probably released early next year by Infernal Kaos
Productions (
www.myspace.com/infernalkaospro
Samir: Thanks a lot for your time in answering these questions.
Calvin Raspatul – Huge thanks also to Samir for conducting this Raspatul interview, it was definitely fun to do this interview, and I wish Zero Tolerance webzine all the very best in future endeavors! Any labels for distribution or magazines interested to get a copy of 'Devils In Renewed Birth' can either get in touch with me at raspatul@hotmail.com or Obskure Sombre Records at obskuresombre22@hotmail.com
