When Hammer video-calls Bloodywood guitarist/founder Karan Katiyar, the Indian nu metal sensations are two days away from jetting to the US for some shows with Babymetal. It will mark the first time this trio have ever supported another artist on the road, which says everything about how quickly they’ve ascended the heavy metal ranks.
After rocketing to online fame with their souped-up Bollywood covers, Bloodywood have released two vibrant albums, packed countless venues and appeared on the soundtrack for Hollywood blockbuster Monkey Man.
But, as well as being below someone else on a tour package, one thing they’ve never done is face our readers’ questions before. You lot took full advantage of the opportunity, quizzing Karan on travel, going viral and whatever the hell ‘metal tikka masala’ is.
What’s been your most memorable tour moment in recent years?
James_wakelin95, Instagram
“It was a show from our tour of the US in 2023. This one person walked up to me afterwards and showed me the wallpaper on their phone. They said, ‘Because of your music, I decided not to kill myself, and then I had this beautiful child. It’s not just one life you’ve saved, it’s two.’ I think that’s going to be my favourite moment forever.”
What are your tips for going viral as a metal band?
Jack Qureshi, email
“That’s a tough question because it keeps changing. I’m not up to date on what’s happening with social media right now, but start with the basics. As a metal band, your songs need to be really fucking good. Bad songs do not go viral in metal – that may happen in other genres, but not in metal.”
Naan or paratha?
Stevie Tjhoong, Facebook
“Paratha. You can have paratha even when it’s cold. Naan gets kind of stretchy. I don’t like chewing my food too much. Ha ha!”
Jayant [Bhadula, vocals] says your band’s music is like ‘metal tikka masala’. What does that mean
Ellie Fontaine, email
“Ha ha ha! What that basically means is it’s going to be an explosion of flavours. It’s going to be overwhelming, it might make you slightly uncomfortable, but the aftertaste is always really fucking good.”
What inspired you to play metal?
Eric_paolucci, Instagram
“When I got in my first moshpit, that’s when I decided I wanted to play metal. Everyone was smiling and everyone was helpful, but everyone was also physically active, throwing people around. I thought, ‘Yeah, I love this!’ I just wanted to make heavy music and make people push each other. This was at a battle of the bands – I was the only guy in a white shirt, so I must have been the biggest target in that moshpit. Ha ha! It was my first exposure to live metal.”
What other Indian bands should we check out?Earthcapturesbyjoseph, Instagram
“Definitely check out a band called Pineapple Express. They’re my favourite band from India. Then there’s a band called Skyharbor, but they’re on hiatus. Gutslit are really good. We just toured Europe with Demonic Resurrection.”
Who’s the best nu metal band in the world?
George Clarkson, email
“My answer is going to be slightly controversial, because this band isn’t nu metal, but they use nu metal elements really well: I Prevail. One of my favourite tracks from them is called Gasoline. I’d 100 percent tour with them, but I don’t know whether it would work out for them. We have very different audiences. Might not be a good move business-wise.”
What do you think the future of rock and metal is in India?
Shivang.wav, Instagram
“It’s very bright. Things are finally opening up here. We’ve got so many new festivals coming up. I’m seeing very young kids cover our songs and tag me in their reels. When I go to shows, there are kids telling me that, because of what’s happening in the scene, they finally decided to make a band and try to pursue a career in music.”
How is the big rubber duck doing? [The crowd threw a giant duck onstage during avrecent show in Germany]
pascal_gd, Instagram
“We don’t have it. Unfortunately, we gave it back to the person who threw it. It would have been too big for us to take back to India. Ha ha!”
HAMMER: What’s the deal with the duck?
“It’s from our [2020] documentary, Raj Against The Machine. I used a quack sound effect to censor all of our foul language. It kind of became a meme. People show up with rubber ducks, drawings of ducks, way too many duck memes. At one show, someone threw a very large duck plushie onstage. Jayant got hold of it first and, when I tried to take it, his face was like if you stole candy from a kid. Ha ha ha!”
How do you write lyrics, especially the blending between English and Hindi?
ash64_, Instagram
“It’s actually not hard, because we’re not talking about two different things. Raoul [Kerr, vocals] has got a great hold of the English language, so he knows how to express himself in the same way that Jayant does [in Hindi]. We come from a country where everyone knows English – it’s mandatory. There’s never any debate over which language gets used for each verse, either, but there is debate over which riff each guy gets [to sing over]. Ha ha! I can’t say who wins those arguments more often. It’s a draw!”
What’s the best bit of sightseeing you did when you played Japan?
Lailah Beech, email
“It was a place called Fushimi Inari in Kyoto. There are a lot of shrines on this mountain, and everyone’s trying to get to the top of the mountain, because there’s a very important shrine on top. There are multiple paths you can take: you can take the touristy path or a path that goes through the forest. We took the path through the forest and came across so many shrines where it seemed like no one had seen them for years, but they weren’t dusty or old. They were very well maintained, but there was no one there.”
Will you collaborate with more bands from around the world?
Jonathan Aaron Bridgemohan, Facebook
“We’d love to. We each have our own favourites, and we hope to get to a point where it won’t be a shot in the dark. The experience with Babymetal [collaborating on the songs Bekhauf and Kon! Kon!] was great. Even though it probably didn’t expose them to as many new people as it exposed us to, the songs that we wrote were great.”
HAMMER: What bands do you personally hope to collaborate with?
“I’ve already mentioned I Prevail, right? Bring Me The Horizon is another big one up there. I’m really into an artist called Spiro, he’s an insane guitar player. If we do collaborate with him on a song, it’s going to be such a contrast between excellent guitar playing and the world’s okay-est guitar playing. Ha ha!”
What’s the biggest misconception people have about India?
Robbie Perez, email
“The worst misconception that people have about Indians is that we’re terrorists. We have no terror groups or extreme religious sects in India. There are some in our neighbouring countries, and they look like us, so I guess that’s where that comes from. The biggest misconception is that people believe Indians are unhygienic. That’s not true. There are parts of India where the streets are unhygienic, but the people are not. People in India generally bathe twice a day, and we’re very particular about how clean our kitchen is and how clean our homes are.”
How nervous were you before proposing onstage [during a Japanese tour in May]? What are the plans for the wedding?
Nick Giberti, email
“I was nervous about the fact she may have passed out, but I knew she was gonna say yes. As for plans, it depends how traditional we want to go. We haven’t really thought about it much, but we don’t want it to be a very elaborate thing: just the people closest to the both of us, maybe somewhere in Goa, which is where I was born. We haven’t discussed it much because we want to enjoy the engagement phase.”
How did your parents react to you being in a metal band?
Nina Schriver, email
“My parents were never in favour of me pursuing music. Once, I was in college and my mum tried to pressure me into not playing a show with my band at the time. I told her, ‘Maybe you should come to one of our shows and see how it goes down.’ The moment she agreed, I regretted asking her. Ha ha! I remember my mum entering the venue, walking the periphery of the venue, and then stepping outside again. When I got back home, she sat me down and said, ‘Who are these people that you’re playing these shows for?’ But with Bloodywood, now, they’re happy. Ha ha! I don’t have anything to worry about.”
Bloodywood’s latest album, Nu Delhi, is out now via Fearless. The band tour Europe with Halestorm in October and November