An interview I did over the internet with Saquib Malik of Esto Perpetua Records. He needs no introduction but for those of you who have been living in a cave all this time, Saquib Malik is the man behind Sifr, a kick-ass solo black metal project and Corpsepyre, the sickest death metal act Pakistan has ever seen, among the plethora of Metal/Noise projects he has under his belt.
What drove you to start Esto Perpetua Records and who is the brains behind it?
I started esto perpetua records for a number of reasons. The first and most important was that every label I had worked with (through Black Albatross and T.O.M.B.) was simply inadequate. . . release dates were always getting pushed back, there were a shitload of empty words and promises, we were not actually being promoted or anything, it was a waste of time and effort. It is useless to ally yourself with someone who does not know how to help you. The one label that has not disappointed, Todestrieb Records in the UK (for T.O.M.B.) is an excellent label and in fact works as a distributor for Esto Perpetua in the UK and vice versa. Also, at war with false noise from Scotland is an awesome label who have stuck behind my other project Panther Modern and released a bunch of stuff from us.
So, because most labels I had worked with were pathetic, I said fuck it, I am going to start my own fucking label! Another reason I started Esto Perpetua Records was that I wanted to be able to control every single aspect of my work, especially the art and how it is produced… I also wanted to be in a position to help put out music from other bands and bands I like. I really wanted to put out Pakistani bands in the U.S… People in the U.S. think Pakistan has no metal… they have a strange reaction when you tell them Pakistan has extreme metal and some really talented bands. So that was another part of it… to spread (either as a distributor or as a full label) Pakistani extreme metal bands out here… I consider all my projects to be Pakistani and when people ask where it is from, that’s what I say. And it kills them! I like that feeling.
I was also driven to start this label by the prospect of it being a home for every medium of madness… I am also a film maker (I produced that TOMB-black crypt worship video for example) and I work with spray paint/stencils and do logo design… so, aside from music, Esto Perpetua puts out art in the form of prints, photographs, and posters , is in the process of putting together some fucking sick films, and also printed text i.e. books.
So in the end it was really a combination of all these different factors and the opportunity to spread my infection and shove it down people’s throats that made me start this label… The brains behind it are myself and my two band members from T.O.M.B. and Panther Modern, Brian Zimmerman and J. Gannon.
What problems did you face while you were working on the label? Was it difficult, being in the US, a foreign country and all?
Problems? Hundreds, thousands! Above, below, to the right, the left…Everything has been a problem… Starting and operating this label sucks your life away… the inexhaustible supply of problems that the world presents is too much… The decision to have complete artistic control over every aspect of this label has meant that everything has to be perfect. The first difficulties were teaching myself everything that was pre-requisite to the job. This involved learning and creating (every aspect of) web design as far as designing a website and maintaining it. It involved registering the company and going through the entire associated legal processes involved. It involved getting our CDs into actual stores here in the U.S., talking to distributors, promoting these releases, talking to magazines, being at shows, talking to bands, being an accountant, and fifty million other things… the list is endless… So the difficulties were learning how to run and maintain the label, and these were all very new to me, seeing as to that in school my education has focused on biochemistry and scientific research. So as you can imagine trying to figure out how to run a business like this has been a really big change from what I know about the world!
And problems that were BECAUSE I am in the U.S? Well, I am 5000 miles from home and so I am really homesick. I am in a foreign fucking country. It is obviously something that is very, very difficult. But at the same time, a lot of things are easier to get done here than they would be in Pakistan… in some ways there is more infrastructure at the disposal of the entrepreneur and that makes life easier!
Is your label strictly dedicated to metal?
No. We are actually working with a bunch of artists who at may seem like they have nothing to do with metal; mostly noise and ambient artists. In my personal opinion there are times when noise is more metal than metal itself. Also, there is a lot of metal we don’t want anything to do with, for example “folk” metal, “power” metal, and so on. Metal is still the most basic and fundamental philosophy I espouse here ( if you can call metal a philosophy/ I can). Black metal is the poison of choice at Esto Perpetua records.
Do you believe Esto Perpetua Records, among other such endeavors of yours, may serve as motivation for people in Pakistan?
Hahahahah. Not really. There is not much in it to be inspired by.
What is your relation with GMH Records?
Shaheryar Shaukat Popalzai is my good friend and GMH records is going to destroy Pakistan and young people’s minds. GMH is a very well thought out label that will rise to great heights… I am a huge supporter and as much as I can, I am lending my support to GMH records in their plan for world domination! This is something that I wanted to do when I was in Pakistan and even started to do it, but nothing ever officially saw the light of day (though there was a bunch of secret underground recordings I put out through my little label ‘grindwork productions’), So I am really happy that GMH is the first to really do this. A couple years ago Babar Shaikh was going to put out a CD full of Pakistani extreme metal, called “rise of the eastern blood,” which really excited me and which me and him spoke about around 100000000 million times… rise of the eastern blood ended up being dusk, an indian band, and a Bengali band (or so I heard)… I thought that was sort of sad, going from all Pakistani bands to that. So I am fucking excited and happy that GMH has begun and is going to put music out!!! I can not wait for the ‘underground chaos’ CD coming out! Its going to kick ass!
Esto Perpetua records will be a US distributor for GMH records and their releases will be available through us, and they will also be available in a number of metal specialty stores throughout the U.S.
Pakistani band, Reclamation, got featured on CNN and bands like Odyssey have finally put us on the world map. What is your take on the current scene in Pakistan?
I actually don’t really know Odyssey… or Reclamation… I just looked at the last.fm page of odyssey and see that I know half the members but I can not say I have heard their music…!
What do I think of the scene in Pakistan? I am not completely sure… I haven’t been there in a while or heard much out of it. What I have heard from friends in Lahore and Karachi is that there aren’t really a lot of shows going on and most bands are not especially active… Is this correct? I think the scene is good in that there are a lot of smart and talented musicians in it… yet it does not seem to really break out of Pakistan enough or in the right way… I think too many people are into progressive rock/metal and dream theatre and so its boring and the rest of the world doesn’t give a shit.
Bands in Pakistan tend to release singles instead of albums hence, things tend to be less cohesive compared to the scene in India. What would be your advise for the metal musicians in Pakistan?
Well writing an album is completely different from writing songs. Writing an album requires deep thought, time, patience, and it is very difficult. It is a much more engaging process than writing a new song for your next show. My advice to those who wish to write an album? Before you even pick up an instrument to make a sound, think, THINK, THINK, THINK… very deeply. About what you are trying to do or say… Don’t say, “we wanna write thrash metal like Sodom”, or “death metal like cannibal corpse”…. That’s dumb and I think half the underground metal bands in Pakistan are just blatantly ripping off other extreme metal bands they have heard… Stop being influenced by other music to a point where you are fucking unoriginal! And avoid reliance on technical complexity to make up for lack of compositional skill… take a deep toke… and step back and look at your work from a detached, absolutely objective point of view. And be fucking honest with yourself. If something is crap, its fucking crap. So throw it out and start over again.
Do you have any Pakistani bands in mind that you would like to see signed to your label?
Yes! Of course! Absolutely! FUCK YEAH! One of them is Utuk Xul (feat. Salman Mumtaz), another of them is DISEMBODIED (feat. Aneeq Zaman), BURZUKH (feat. Suleiman Akber), NOKTURNAL RUST (Karachi), SETH (from Lahore, remember them?! ) and then so many more… I would really like to somehow sign and release Babar Shaikh’s project Aufgang as well.
I really loved Autopsy Gothic, Nocturnal Rust, Dusk, etc. I am putting out Utuk Xul and Disembodied sometime later this year.
Any last words?
Yes: there is some awesome stuff coming out on Esto Perpetua in the coming weeks! On the next album out (FURY NOCTURNUS) , T.O.M.B. is actually doing a song using field recordings collected at the grave of the Mayhem guitarist Euronymous, and Hellhammer is playing drums on it. This will be released as a single aside from the album sometime in mid-late July. Also, T.O.M.B/black albatross vocalist J. Gannon is singing a couple of songs with Mayhem ( from De Mysteriis era) in New York city at the Fillmore on May 21st so if you have any readers in the U.S., come out and see it! And it will probably be uploaded on the EP website soon after that.
Other than that, thank you for asking me to do this interview and being interested in EP records! Our music will very soon be available in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad at least. If anyone knows how I could get this music somehow into Quetta as well, please feel free to contact me!
Check ‘em out!
http://www.estoperpetuarecords.com
www.myspace.com/estoperpetuarecords
www.myspace.com/tombsacrilegium
www.myspace.com/panthermodern666
www.myspace.com/blackalbatross
Epoch!
Some deep stuff here, I like the part about technical complexity being used by people to make up for actual compositional skills. So true.
Nice work. Nice read.
Food for thought
HELLHAMMER!!!???
Nice interview
Hassan, remember, you have to compose ‘technical’ stuff as well. Yes it shouldn’t be over indulgent and songwriting should always be the priority, but if you can fit something technical in there and it goes well with the flow, then that’s great. Every song has to have some melody, or rhythm or groove for it to be called good music in my books. The best songs in my opinion are always the ones which have fast parts and slow parts, heavier parts and more melodic parts. Which is exactly why I don’t like stuff like grindcore and a lot of death metal. Good death metal like Morbid Angel’s Domination or Cannibal Corpse’s The Bleeding always mixes things up.
People who usually complain about technicality in music wish they could play that well. Either that or they have an extremely short attention span.
And Dream Theater owns.
Were I to give an example of superior technical dexterity, I will find 70s prog-rock a better example – in a way that the compositions involved therin were complex and ‘technical’, but still they had this ‘spark’ that they somehow broke even to the mainstream audience and garnered critical acclaim from critics, as well as churned out a great number of album sales, and sold out arenas and stadiums (not that doing all this is important to be ‘good music’ at all).
Death Metal is normally pretty technical. I like Dream Theater, at least the earlier few albums but their later albums have gravely disappointed me. But Saquib sure is right about a lot of Pakistanis being into Progressive Music and they usually play stuff that has no relevance, whatsoever, to it. Odyssey and Orion are an exception.
*sigh* =P i know saquib from back in aitchison college, and have played with him in a couple of gigs too, well ofcourse from his not so “KVLT GR1M & BROOTAL” days lol ..
well i totally respect the kind of “metal” you guys are into and i myself am a fan of bands like DEATH, MORBID ANGEL, BEHEMOTH or even GRAVELAND for that matter but thats not the point. for us any song is a good song if its comprehendable as music … songs at 400 BPM and with no sense of music at all and just plain noise with some really absurd power chords sure make it non technical .. but not good music and as a matter of fact , i cant say it on anyone else’s behalf but Orion and Odyssey know the kind of metal they wanna do, or are doing. but quoting the person above me “a lot of Pakistanis being into Progressive Music and they usually play stuff that has no relevance, whatsoever, to it. Odyssey and Orion are an exception” well thank you that you think that odyssey and orion are an exception but just for my knowledge, can you please name any other underground band that “DOES” progressive music??? cause i havent seen any band playing progressive metal on gigs like us !!! except resurrection which has not come up with an original as yet so cant say much….
and one more thing .. just cause you dont understand the genius elements of progressive music .. or cant play such skillful music on your respective instruments doesnt mean that bands in pakistan shouldnt do progressive metal.
P.S dream theater pwns !!!
but anyway its good to hear from saquib after a long time.. and well if he wants someone to get “this kind of music” to quetta … i can help him !!!
“songs at 400 BPM and with no sense of music at all and just plain noise with some really absurd power chords sure make it non technical .. b”
Any person who knows what death metal is, knows that death metal is NOT what you described above. Autopsy, Obituary, Cenotaph and Incantation are sufficient to prove my point. What they lack in musical skills, they make up with for compositional skills and excellent slow and fast sections. Death Metal is not brrrr speed rawr, it is much more than that. Among modern bands, I’d take Obscura and The Faceless as two good examples. Those two are technical, like every modern dm act, but they also have compositional skills.
Hussam, I agree with most of your post, but I’d take the end product over the means any day. If the band is progressive and technical AND can write great music, it’s fine with me as long as the music itself kicks a lot of ass.
Btw, Black Albatross rocks. This coming from a guy who doesn’t even know anything about the noise/avantgarde/whateveryoucallit genre. Maybe I should explore some of that stuff…..