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Badasses and Big Guns: Skrat Out with Their Second Album

With their second album reaching for very ambitious skies, Chennai rocksters Skrat have been in the scene for quite a few years. Playing shows across the country and collaborating with several local musicians on a regular level, they have been pushing up the value of the indie music scene and how! The dynamics of their three-piece music is brilliant- catchy, easy on the ear yet energetic. It has its fair share of intricacy and style too. soundplunge_test caught up with frontman Sriram and found out his take on several things from crowd-funding of gigs to Manga comics!

soundplunge_test: Bring out the Big Guns is your second album. How has the experience been cutting the record in comparison to your first one?

Sriram: It couldn’t be more of a different experience really. We wrote all the songs of BOTBG in a matter of months with the intention of them being in an album whereas “Design” was literally a compilation of all originals we had made from 2008 to 2010. We literally recorded and designed it all ourselves including mixing and mastering, where as we took the help of Toby Joseph (our producer, if you will) to help us in putting them down on record. Also the new album has a lot more direction to it because it was meant to be an album from the get-go with plans to fuse into our third album we are working on!

ST: Your setlist and video for In the Shed got really popular on social media platforms when you first released it. Any plans to put up similar self-funded video footage?

Sriram: The key word there is self-funded. And we think how ever big the band gets, unless we reach Coldplay levels (who knows), Self-funded it shall remain. Yes we have a few plans in the pipeline. We always try to do something different from what’s done before, so when the funds, ideas and drive all align, we won’t wait to bring something out.

ST: Samurai Badass reflects a motif that is present through the whole album. That of the Manga influence on the themes of the song. What is the muse behind this?

Sriram: Ah, Manga/Anime is a common misconception. Whereas, I am a big Japanese fan, from their cars and bikes, to their folklore and history. Since I also grew up in the 90s, Streetfighter, Mortalkombat and Tekken as far as gaming was a huge part of my life. From the original Transformer series to otherworld takes on Japanese like Samurai Jack from the real cartoon network days certainly played a big role…They aren’t just Anime and Manga you know.

ST: After some extensive national gigging, do you have any plans of doing shows abroad?

Sriram: Shows abroad are on the bucket list for sure and we are working on a few leads. Funding is the main variable that needs attention. It’s a delicate situation of being an English rock n roll band from India. It’s not stopping us, but the ascent is hard and slow!

ST: What is your perspective on the rising live music scene in context to album sales? ie. Do you think gigging is more important than the reach of an original record?

Sriram: I think nowadays, gigs are the most important ways to sell albums. Skrat is predominantly a live act. The album is only for those times one would want to listen to Skrat and we aren’t playing a gig close by.  Gigs are where we have made most album sales, and gigs are the only reason we sell albums. It’s a decent cycle.

Bring out the Guns is a phenomenal album, especially in terms of the clarity of recording and mastering. The compositions are varied and keep up with the flow of the album too, and in context with their dedication to self-funding as a crucial element, they have contributed immensely to the local music scene. With a keen sense of purpose in the direction they are headed, the third album promises to be a killer record!

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