This is NECK DEEP IN FILTH – a basically new formed Hardcore/Punk act from the Valley of Dust, Kathmandu, Nepal. Consisting of Vishal (vocals), Sandesh (guitars), Sushil (bass) and Sanjay (drums), the members have already played in other bands such as Squirt Guns, Jugaa, Asphyxiate, etc. Neck Deep In Filth has released their debut selftitled EP in September 2017 which gained lot of great responses and positive feedbacks. This is a band we should keep our eyes on them from time to time, especially if we look something from the South Asian punk scene. Here we have their guitarist Sandesh answered all the questions.
Hello. How’s life in Kathmandu going on?
Life in Kathmandu is pretty good right now although it’s getting colder everyday. As for the music, it’s a great time to be in a band in Kathmandu. You probably heard this many times. Nepal has the best underground scene in South Asia. Our band is getting tons of shows, the EP is getting good reviews. So, yeah. Things are great.
Please share in brief about history of the band and the line-up?
The band was formed in mid 2016. But we didn’t start playing shows until mid 2017. It took us a whole year to finally go live. Our primary goal was to record an EP right away. So we worked on the songs. I (Sandesh) used to play in a punk rock band called “Squirt Guns” (which is in an indefinite hiatus). Vishal hit me up; asked me if I wanted to form a new hardcore/punk band. He has played in a number of bands over the years. He played guitar for punk band “Inside 2 Stoopid Triangles”, very popular metallic hardcore band “Jugaa” and sludge band “Childwife”. And he wanted to do vocals this time. So, yeah.. I agreed right away. Asked Sushil, the bass player for Jugaa and Inside 2 Stoopid Triangles to join. He was in. Then we asked Sanjay to play drums. He plays in a technical death metal band called “Asphyxiate”. We have known him for years, plus he has got punk rock roots too. So, we got him on board.
What encourage you to form Neck Deep In Filth, and what the name means for?
Well, Vishal asked me to join the band. He’s the real mastermind. Haha. I grew up listening to Inside 2 Stoopid Triangles as a young angsty punk kid. So, I was stoked just to be able to play in a band with them. As for the name of the band goes.. Vishal came up with it. I wasn’t really sure about the name at first. But it grew on me. Now, I really like it. To directly quote him, “We’re living in a society filled with racists, misogynists, and hate filled ultranationalists. We’re surrounded by scum. Hence, Neck Deep In Filth.”
Please talk further about your debut s/t EP; the music writings, recordings and contents?
This how the writing process went.. I’d come up with riffs, show them to the guys. Then, we’d add drums and bass. Once we had a basic framework, Vishal would add the vocals. And, maybe tweak things a little later in the process. When we felt like we had enough songs, and they sounded good, we hit the studio. We didn’t go to a proper studio. Drums and vocals were recorded at a place called Advent, which is a practice space. We tracked guitar in another regular practice space called, Mr. Music. Our bass player, Sushi, took the recording and mixing in his hands. He had helped us record my other band, Squirt Guns’ two albums. We tracked bass in his home. And that was about it. He mixed and mastered the songs. We’re happy with the output considering the resources we had at our disposal. The artwork for the EP was made by our friend, Dib Gurung. There’s a guy from a minority group covered in bullet shells, which has the sun and moon from the national flag engraved on them.
How do your define your music style? What sort of bands really inspired Neck Deep In Filth?
A lot of people have said our music sounds like a mixture of hardcore and crust punk. Some say they can hear a bit of influence of metallic hardcore in some of the songs. There is definitely a nod to crust punk in this record. You can hear a bit of crust bands like Alpinist and Downfall of Gaia in it, which are my major crust influences. The initial idea was to form a straight forward, aggressive hardcore band like Haymaker, Left For Dead, The Swarm, etc. But I did my best to incorporate a few melodic riffs to our songs. And everyone in the band liked it. There’s a hint of blackout grind of the band called Skaarp in here too. The way we transition from the quintessential hardcore galloping beat to blast beats. We got that from Skaarp. You can also hear a bit of old school hardcore, melodic hardcore and New York hardcore here and there.
What were written in your lyrics?
Our lyrics are politically-driven. All of it is available on our bandcamp (neckdeepinfilth.bandcamp.com) with a short blurb to help contextualize the meaning for people outside of Nepal.
How’s the hardcore/punk scene in Nepal look like? Are there many bands, labels and gigs?
The underground scene in Kathmandu is dominated by metal. We a small, closely-knit network of people who listen to punk rock and hardcore. There are tons of people who like punk music. But, not too many punk and hardcore bands here. Punk bands come and go. But on the bright side, the metal community has become more accepting of punk and hardcore music in recent years. It’s a crossover scene now. A lot of kids are into grindcore these days. As for the gigs, we have one almost every week. As of now, we have played 3 shows in Kathmandu; one every month. The goal is to play more shows. And maybe, tour other cities in the future. About labels.. there are none here. Big labels won’t even dare to promote our music. Haha. We have to do everything by ourselves. And that’s how we like it too.
What do you expect from the s/t EP? Any labels interested?
Our expectation from the S/T is that it reaches as many people as possible; not just from Nepal, but around the globe. We’re doing our best to push the record outside of Nepal too, and it has been fairly well received. As of now, we haven’t got any label on our side. It would be neat if we could a record deal with a label like Epitaph records. Haha. So, yes.. if any label is interested, please hit us up.
What’s next from Neck Deep In Filth?
For now, we want to play tons of shows, and push our EP. We’re releasing a split with a fellow South Asian punk band early 2018. Really looking forward to it. And maybe, we’ll start working on new material in 2018.
Say something to end up this interview?
Do check our S/T out. It’s on bandcamp (neckdeepinfilth.bandcamp.com). You can buy it if you want to support to us. It would mean a lot to us. Also, don’t just listen to the music. Pay attention to the lyrical content too. And if you like what you hear and read, do share it around.
*Replied on October 30, 2017
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