You guys have been playing in Exeter for a little while now! How did Sanskara first get together? What are you all studying?
Yeah for over a year now! I (Viv) had come back from my exchange year in 2011, and asked our old singer (who’s on our Soundcloud demos) and Jeff if they were interested in starting a new project, before we brought in our old bassist and Maroo on drums. All of us were long-time friends and it felt natural working together after years of being in different bands. Viv and Jeff are studying masters in International Management now after having both done their bachelors here and Maroo's finishing in his final year studying Management, so we had a great opportunity to continue the band despite our old singer and bassist having graduated last year. We auditioned a load of bassists and singers until we found Chris, another ex-exchange student and finalist studying Modern Languages and Will, a fresher studying drama, who are have both slotted right in. We changed our name slightly and here we are now!
How do you find playing gigs in Exeter? How does the music scene here compare to where you are all from originally?
Exeter has an amazing scene if you look carefully enough, especially around The Cavern and all the underground bands that gig in town, but it's obviously nothing in comparison to London or places like that. It's totally different to where we are all from seeing as Jeff and I both grew up in Hong Kong, Maroo in Bombay, India, Will in Swansea, Wales and our only Englishman is Chris who's grew up just outside London. We're all from different cultural/musical backgrounds but work great together and that's what's great about this band.
What’s the best gig you have been to or played since you started uni here?
It might have to be late last term when we played at the Cavern because the sound was unbelievable. It was just one of those special nights because we all love the Cavern more than any other venue in Exeter! However, we had great nights like at Timepiece end of last year or last semester when we got to the finals of four competitions.
How do you think your influences can be heard in the music you are making now? Do you work hard to combine all your different influences?
Our music is sort-of heavier Post-Rock crossed with Alt-Rock and Post-Hardcore with influences from Prog and a bit of everything else – check our Soundcloud so you can see what we’re on about because it’s hard to describe! Our sound starts with mine and Jeff’s guitars and how we play off each other and the others play off that and try and get the dynamics right. Despite our different influences, they’ve combined well up ‘til now.
How are you feeling about playing Vote Fest?
We can't wait to play! Being the headliner on the bill is pretty amazing but pretty bad for our egos so we just hope we can live up to it! The other bands are a great pool of talent from the uni and it’s always important to support the uni scene. It’s a good scene, but not many people realise that.
What can people expect from your set?
We tend to stick to our own original songs these days and we’ll be playing a selection of older stuff we wrote last year as well as stuff we’ve written as a new band this year. Playing live is the entire point of this band and we love playing for crowds no matter who they are. The stuff is fairly complex to play but we try to be as energetic as possible on stage. We’re probably a touch heavier than other bands on the bill but you’d still get away with playing it on daytime radio.
If you could choose anyone past or present to become a new member of Sanskara especially for Vote Fest who would you pick and why?
Matt Bellamy from Muse because he does everything! He sings, plays guitars, keyboards, piano and keytar. His voice is insane and the amount of things you could do with it musically is pretty amazing. Plus, he’s a local boy and he’d bring his crowd with him.
Will you be voting in this year’s Sabb elections? Why?
Of course! It's always important to support stuff like this no matter how small or invalid you might feel about your single votes – each one adds up and can make the smallest of differences! With anything in life, it's always important to have a voice in something and using this voice is important to the university life of future students and we're all quite passionate about the uni.
www.facebook.com/sanskaramusic
www.soundcloud.com/sanskara
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