When and how did Trojan Horse start?
Trojan Horse was formed by me and Hasnian with a couple of scratch recordings that we did. We started using some software to get our drum sound. Once we had a couple of songs ready, we got Vishnu and Siva who also play with Crypted to join us. It was a quick start for us because we had songs ready before our first performance which was at Unseen Underground Saturday Night Live at Geoffrey’s pub in December 2010. I play with Eschers Knot too while Hasnian is on his way to becoming a full-blown jazz artist!
Describe your genre of music.
We play “technical-progressive-deathcore-ambient-psychedelic-thrash-groove-funk” and then some more… (Laughs) Kidding aside, we don’t really think of it as genres but rather just colours. Asking a musician what genre he plays is like asking an artist what colour he paints with. But then I like to think that we are a metal band but also since we’ve all learnt different styles of music, we’re trying to incorporate them into Trojan Horse every day.
Tell me about the influences of different kind of music and bands.
I really wouldn’t know where to begin. When we started, we were all about Meshuggah and Textures and other similar artists. Surprisingly, I think our biggest influence is a Swedish folk jazz band called Mats/ Morgan Band. I really think they were influential for this whole new “Djent” and “Math Metal” thing that everyone’s talking about these days. None of us really listen to much metal these days. We listen to lot of different types of music individually and you can somewhere find some influences of them in our songs.
Some of your important performances…
We were never really lucky with competitions. Apart from the NXg Rockstar in 2012 and a couple of college competitions, we haven’t really won anything big. Setting up the stage and playing for under 15 minutes is something we are not comfortable with. We are very particular about our sound and do not compromise on that. I think our biggest achievement is that after every show we have people telling us how good our sound was. We have played in Mumbai, Goa, Hyderabad and Pondicherry besides Chennai. Headlining at JIPMER was one of our best shows. Playing to a classical audience at Music Academy and watching their heads go up and down was pretty exhilarating as well. We played a show in Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music and had all the students on stage jumping and head-banging!
What’s the latest on your front?
We have been out of the scene for a while because we were all in music school for a year. We are in process of recording our first EP and it’s shaping up well. Trojan Horse is coming back and with a bang!
Listen to >Trojan Horse
GENRE: Metal
FOUNDED: 2010
CURRENT LINE UP: Vishnu (Drums); Siva (Vocals); Viraj (Bass); Hasnian (Guitars); Siddhartha (Guitars)
BIGGEST MOMENT: Headlining the college festival at JIPMER, Puducherry
