What have been your musical epiphany moments?
When I was 6, my sister (who was 17) had a job and would
regularly spend her paycheck on CDs. Mostly on what was popular at the time,
like the “Now” series, but sometimes she would try something different. So one
day she brought home Guns N Roses’ Appetite For Destruction. Luckily for me she
didn’t care much for it and it just sat by her bed. So I took it and put it on.
The minute I heard Slash’s opening riff to Welcome To The Jungle and Axl’s
raspy growl I was hooked. I remember thinking “what is this?” and I immediately
fell in love with rock and roll. That was one of my first musical epiphany
moments.
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What
comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?
Since we work long distance, with a 12-hour time difference
between us, our writing process works within those constraints. For this album,
we collected a bunch of ideas onto a google drive. It could be a small riff or
sometimes the whole song roughly structured out. Then we’d start picking the
ones we liked best and worked on them. We did this using Splice. An amazing
tool that lets musicians collaborate from anywhere in the world. Splice really
made this whole process manageable. So for example, I would record something in
Logic and save it on Splice. Ruz would then be able to download it, see what I
did and add to it. And layer by layer we kept developing the songs. This
process worked very well for us because we got to work in our own space and use
our strengths. Ruz and I compliment each other well. We have different
strengths and a tremendous amount of trust in each others musical instinct. The
12 hour time difference worked to our advantage too. I would work when he was
asleep and vice versa. The lyrics and vocals were written last, once the whole
song was in place. We did that because we wanted it to be about the music
first.
Who has influenced you the most?
I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of music played around my
house all through my childhood. My parents are music fans, from 50’s music to Indian
Classical, Bollywood, and of course all the rock that my sister would
accidentally buy. It’s almost impossible to pinpoint one band. 90’s grunge and
all the Seattle
bands have been a big influence. And Dave Matthews Band was a huge influence.
The way Dave plays his guitar and his choice of chords definitely helped
improve my guitar playing.
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new
motivation?
Without trying to sound too cheesy, we’re artists at heart
and we like to translate our deepest thoughts, fears and fantasies into our
songs. As for a lot of musicians, our songs are an outlet. So inspiration comes
in from all aspects of our lives whether it’s celebrating love, apologizing to
a friend, feeling inadequate or insecure, getting through rough patches in a
relationship or simply wanting to share a story. Also, just listening to a lot
of music inspires us.
We're all a product of our environment. Tell us about the
band's hometown and how that reflects in the music?
The band’s hometown is split between New
York, USA and Perth, Australia.
But we grew up together in India,
listening to the same bands and having many similar influences, and that
background helps with our shared understanding of music and how we think a song
should flow. Currently, I’m based out of New York
and Ruz is based out of Perth.
The two different time zones and seasons provides for some interesting dynamics
in our songwriting. Perhaps that’s why a cold dark verse is sometimes met with
a warm welcoming chorus like in our song Soak.
Where'd the band name come from?
We were on the hunt for a name for a long time. We had over
100 names written down but nothing
really stood out. It’s true when bands say
finding a name is one of the hardest things to do. We knew we wanted something
short, a one word name but almost all of those were taken. Then one day my wife
and I were out having dinner, we were sitting at our table when all of a sudden
she yelled out Scratch. Even though there was no context I knew what she meant.
I liked it immediately. So I did a quick search to see if there was any other
bands with that name. Nothing major showed up. That was good enough for me. So
I told Ruz and he immediately liked it too. It was short, strong and mostly not
already taken.
You have one chance, what movie are you going to write the
soundtrack for?
Almost Famous 2.
You now write for a music publication (The Ripple
Effect?). You're going to write a 1,000
word essay on one song. Which would it be and why?
Sia’s Chandelier. Because of her story: She’s been playing
music all her life, was in a couple of bands, then put out 5 albums under her
solo name prior to getting any sort of international success or recognition.
She moved from her home town in Adelaide,
Australia to
make it in music. She’s a female pop star in her 40’s and doesn’t base her
music off her appealing image but instead hides her face. And most importantly,
she never gave up. In fact I don’t think giving up was a choice. Music is just
what she did.
Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap,
rock and roll moments?
During our set at Rockwood
Music Hall, we had this
great plan to change the mood for a few songs to a more intimate, acoustic
setting. I borrowed my friends acoustic guitar, except, I didn’t realize that
the volume knob on it was set to full, so there was this horrible feedback.
Turning down the volume on the amp didn’t fix it either. With all the nerves of
playing and the horrible ongoing feedback, we couldn’t work out what was wrong.
We even had our friend shout out “turn the volume on the guitar down” but I
ignored that of course. So I decided to kill the acoustic set and switch back
to my electric. So much for a quiet, intimate moment. It was the exact
opposite.
Tell us about playing live and the live experience for you
and for your fans?
It’s been a bit of a learning curve. We love playing live
but it took a little bit of work of work. And we’re constantly improving. We
wrote this album in our bedrooms so bringing it to the stage posed many
challenges. How do we play three guitar parts with only two guitar players? How
do we end songs that fadeout? And how do we get the right tones using pedals
instead of software instruments? But we’ve managed to figure it all out and
we’re happy with our set. We played the whole album at Rockwood
Music Hall in New York last month, a one hour set but also
our best. The crowd seemed to love it. We had people come up to us after and
compliment the music. And we had a blast playing too.
What makes a great song?
I think it’s all about the melody. No matter what genre,
speed or instrumentation. The melody has to be interesting.
Tell us about the first song you ever wrote?
I Don’t Mind was the first song we ever wrote and recorded
as Scratch. We made this decision to start a band across continents but didn’t
really think of the ‘how we going to do this?’ part.
I Don’t Mind answered a lot of questions for us and it
confirmed that we could do this.
What piece of your music are particularly proud of?
There’s a bridge in our song ‘Soak’ that goes on a bit of a
journey. We spent a couple of months working out that bridge. There were many
variations and mental roadblocks But we didn’t give in. We didn’t scrap the
idea and go with a shortened watered down bridge instead. And we love what we
have now.
Who today, writes great songs? Who just kicks your ass? Why?
Jack White. His solo’s are screaming! He can put a song
together with such simple parts, yet it doesn’t feel recycled or boring. And
his guitar tones are amazing!
Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?
Vinyl is really my format of choice. I’ve heard songs on
vinyl that I grew up listening to on CD and just love the warmth and fullness
from the vinyl versions. The only downside is having to get up to change sides
after 4-5 songs.
Whiskey or beer? And
defend your choice
Ruz - Beer. No fear.
Avi - Whiskey. Feelin’ frisky.
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