Artillerie is one of India’s top metal acts from the city of New Delhi, that was formed in 2003. The band has been active since 2006/07 with few lineup changes Artillerie released self produced debut ep  ’New Offensive’ in 2008. Since then the band has been reckoned as a tight live act for its sheer energy and aggressiveness.  Artillerie is currently in the studio recording their full length debut album which will be released via Grey&Saurian Records in early 2010. We caught up with Artillerie for an exclusive interview, 

IRMP3: ’Artillerie’… Sounds like a name inspired form a war movie. How did you guys come up with that name?
ARTILLERIE : Although we were originally called Artillery we had to change the name when some German politician went on a weeklong hunger strike and demanded that we changed the spelling to German “IE” rather than the English “Y”. We just had to give in! Honestly, this name was first suggested by our earlier guitarist, Rajdeep in 2004. At that time we spelled our band name normally, as in “Artillery”, since the only other band by this name was dormant and we thought that they would probably remain dormant. However they suddenly sprang back to life in about 2006-07 and we realized that we had to change the name. So instead of getting a new name, we changed the spelling to its German variant, and hence the ‘IE’ instead of the ‘Y’. To be honest, the name has really managed to stick to its gun with the band. No matter how much we tried to get rid of it.

IRMP3 : Please introduce the band members & their influences.

Luke – He is the vocalist and writes most of the lyrics. His influences include the ever brutal yet melodic sounds produced from Rajdoots, Enfields, autos, and other various noisy vehicles plying on the roads of New Delhi.

Alvin Jose – He plays Rhythm Guitars and some leads in the band. He helplessly tries to emulate some of his guitar heroes from Iron Maiden, Hammerfall, In Flames, Death, LoG, and Cheetos etc.

Raul Belgard- He plays lead Guitars and when he’s not, he mostly prefers to eat a hot dog while reflecting over his guitar playing techniques. He listens to a lot of guitar players in general and tries to follow all new kinds of new music apart from the regular thrash/heavy metal bands.

Raj Das – He plays the bass. He is influenced by As I lay dying, Job for a Cowboy, Zao and The Samurai Way.

Punti –  He plays the drums. His influences range from Raven Riley to Savita Bhabhi.

IRMP3: Briefly tell us how did you all meet up and when? Any line up changes thus far?
ARTILLERIE : If we dig deep into the attic of our history then we find that we had actually first come together as a college band in 2003.The line up had Luke(vox) and Rajdeep(guitars),& were later joined in by Raul (guitars) whom we found accidentally in some random jam room who was inclined to play our kind of music. We always had a problem in getting a drummer and bassist suitable for the band. This line-up also however soon disbanded after making one single in 2004 called “Bombs Away” as Rajdeep left the band to pursue higher studies abroad. However, Raul and Luke stuck around in the hopes of reviving the band.

It was in around 2006-07 that Raul asked his school friend Alvin  (guitars) to join the band who came back to Delhi after finishing his college from Bangalore. We got a drummer in Deepak  and finally got a bass player Raj Das   through orkut. With this line-up the band recorded an EP called New Offensive, and became active on the gig circuit again. Later in 2007, Deepak had to leave the band due to some commitments, and Ex-Hollowcaust/1833 A.D drummer Punti was added to the line-up as he was always interested to play our kind of music. And thus  forged the steady line-up as it exists today. Now, after all this boring history lesson, we should get some beers!

IRMP3 : The sound of Artillerie has changed considerably through the course of time. What made you guys change the way Artillerie sounds?
ARTILLERIE : I think that every band has a primal instinct to progress and evolve, Not that we didn’t like what we did earlier, but as a band we always wanted to try out something new , as in not to re-invent the wheel  but try something different while still sticking to our thrash/metalcore roots.

Raul and Alvin had already been trying a mix between thrash/mainstream metalcore and some low-tuning based playing. The inclusion of Punti just opened a door for them to experiment even more.

As a band we can now say that we have sort of found a foothold on the type of sound that the band wants. Although it might be a little too early to say that since the band really doesn’t know what would be on the table next, this is quite exciting in a way!

The catch plainly is that we really like this kind of sound and music and our focus has really always been on the “feel”. If we like it, we play it!

IRMP3: Prelude to Chaos was an eye opener. What can we expect from the upcoming album?
ARTILLERIE : Well thanks a lot for liking it. While writing our new songs we decided to sort of do away with a lot of what we had done in our EP New Offensive. To an extent that we even agreed on not including anything from the EP on the new album. We hope that our album is received well when it comes out. We are really happy that Prelude to Chaos (album sampler) has been received quite well. Personally, we are satisfied with the album and are hoping to try to push the envelope further as a band.

IRMP3 : Tell us about your live gig experiences every time you guys hit the stage. What makes Artillerie gigs so killer?
ARTILLERIE : Well we don’t know if our gigs are really that killer, but if they are, then we’d like to believe that it is because of our planetary positions. Jokes apart, I guess it is probably because we enjoy ourselves and trip on our own stuff to such an extent that it is expressed quite tangibly in our performance. We guess people just grab a hold of that and join us in our moments of insanity.

IRMP3: Could you share some of the difficulties you guys are facing as a band, and how do you plan to overcome them?
ARTILLERIE : First , all of the band members are working having different shifts…what this does is that a lot of times we are not able to spent time with the music we make as we would like too. A lot of other time is spent through Album related chores after work. We intend to have a better practice regime and preferably record ourselves and  mail the work to each other on a higher frequency (although some songs on this album have been done in this manner). Now the more serious issue we have is to try and get some groupies (though St. Luke may not agree!) We are an epic fail in that department – 4 years and zero groupies. The third biggest problem is to get the  NOIDA authorities reduce alcohol taxes  and power cuts.

IRMP3: How was the year 2009 for Artillerie? And How do you see 2010 for the Indian metal scene in general?
ARTILLERIE : This year has been quite fruitful for Artillerie. Besides Grey & Saurian being kind enough to give us a record deal, we have been able to increase our presence nationally by playing gigs outside New Delhi. One of our songs called New Offensive was played on Sirius Satellite Radio in America. As a matter of fact even we weren’t aware of this till we got a couple of emails from people in America after they heard us on their radios! We also had the opportunity to perform in front of some music promoters from Norway, who appreciated our music.

As for the year 2010, we are very excited for what is coming up for the Indian metal scene. 2009 was a witness to the paradigm of increasing global interest in Indian metal, with many foreign bands and delegations visiting India. The best part is that all of them went away utterly surprised by the standard Indian bands have been able to create for themselves with practically non-existent resources. We are sure that 2010 will see Indian metal take further steps into the international scene.

IRMP3: Any shout outs? Thank you notes?
ARTILLERIE : We want to thank all the people who have been encouraging us to make music. Right from our families and friends to the people in the scene and of course all of those who identify with our music and appreciate it. As a matter of fact, we really want to let out a massive roar of thanks to every Indian metal head out there, regardless of whether they support us or not, since they are the sole reason why there is a metal scene in this country. Every band, website, media, and management in India which is in anyway metal exists because of every one of these rabid revolutionaries who choose not to compromise and buy into the conventional.

IRMP3: Last words-
ARTILLERIE : Heavy Cheers to Indianrockmp3.com

P.S. Now please buy the album when it comes out …even if you have ripped it….