Artwork - Malinda Rathnayake
The metal scene the world over seems to be making the same claim all the time- that the genre can survive only in the absolute support of its many thousands of supporters, both in the sense of energy and finances. With record labels getting into the rut of forwarding the cause of only that which will fill their coffers, it’s not too difficult to see how independent artists have almost ditched efforts to impress such labels, and are looking towards guerrilla methods of getting their art across. Death metallers Nevi’im from Sri Lanka are have decided to get creative in their approach by starting a crowd-sourcing project to finance their upcoming EP, “Death Of An Avatar.”
The Colombo-based band are brothers Vije Dhas on bass and Arjun Dhas on guitars and vocals. Mark Alles joins the band on drums for heavier sets. Session instrumentalists join them for their live shows. A band that was formed in 2010, their debut single Walk On released in 2013, which nominated for Best Rock Song at the VIMA Music Awards. Frontman Vije spoke to Pop Splat about their new EP.
Vije Dhas.
Picture - Aki Peiris
After putting out your debut EP independently, why are you crowd-sourcing your second record?
We see a change in the way music is going to be distributed to fans in the future. The industry is currently dominated by mainstream artists who fit a particular format and theme with their act and artists who don’t follow the current trends have to explore alternative ways of making their work sustainable as opposed to being signed by some major label. We see crowd funding as a new way for fans to be more involved in deciding the direction in which the music industry heads instead of being fed what they are told is good music. This way people get to directly support the artists they like and by doing so they decide which ones make it and which ones don’t. We think this may very well be the music model of the future. We are trying out this new model with our second studio release, “Death Of An Avatar”.
How do you think your fans will contribute?
Well, it is a bit early to predict the outcome but we are pretty optimistic about this
Could the route from there on be to try crowd-sourcing everything, or eventually, if all works well, move on to a record label?
Right now crowd funding seems to be the way forward. We think fans should support musicians directly and retain the freedom to decide what music they like and also determine the value of it.
Does it also add to the feeling of still remaining an underground form of art, in the absence of a label? This
Arjun Dhas
definitely gives more leeway to do exactly what you guys want to do, right?
Yes, that is a very important aspect to it. We are always open to experimenting with and exploring new styles of music so we don’t see ourselves being caught up in trends or fitting to any particular genre.
So what is ‘“Death Of An Avatar”’ all about? The artwork suggests so much, but we’d love to get your point-of-view on it.
“Death Of An Avatar” is about a transition from one way of perceiving the world to another. It reflects the journey of an individual breaking away from fixed systems of belief and ideologies, and waking up to the awareness of a dynamic world that is interacting with us. The lyrics cover various aspects of this process but to a large extent are left open to the interpretation of the listener
How is this EP going to be different musically from the earlier produced “Walk On”?
“Death Of An Avatar” has a more eastern sound to it and features more clean vocals. Though the overall concept and lyrical themes are along the same lines as Walk On this EP will feature four tracks that are very diverse and bring together and fuse eastern elements with techniques and styled from Metal and its sub-genres To a large extent our inspiration comes from personal experiences and self exploration.
The name of the band is primarily a very religious-centric one. Is your music based around religion too?
The word ‘Nevi’im’ from Hebrew translates to prophets. We chose the name because our music tends to follow visionary trends that shape the way we perceive ourselves and our environment. We use music as a medium for communication to raise awareness of critical issues of our time like climate change, pollution, and over population and in general, the self destructive direction in which our species is currently heading.
Listen to the EP teaser
Finally, what does the gig scene look like for you guys?
We hope to spend more time playing gigs this year. We are looking at some foreign tours which are currently in the process of being finalized and we’re looking forward to getting our music and message out there to more people.
You can contribute towards “Death Of An Avatar” here.
