How did Raspatul formed? What is the band’s creation story?

First of all, we would like to say a very big thanxs to Mike from Adrenaline Zine for interviewing us!! It’s really an honor to be interviewed by Adrenaline Zine! Well, RASPATUL was formed in 1995, the original members of the band were : Ayim – vocals, Fadzlly – drums, Ermie – guitar and Hisham ‘Black’ – bass. We started out playing cover songs from old Metallica and old Sepultura. Then we started constructing originals seriously in1997 and we started to do our first recording in mid 2000 because we felt that we got the capabilities and confidence to step into a recording studio. Halfway throughout the recording process, due to some personal disputes, Ermie left the band. Despite all the difficulties we faced, we felt that the band still have to go on! This is when our good friend Calvin from Deviant ( R.I.P ) came in to take over the guitar duties permanently. And from there, the whole band decided to re-structure some of the songs that were written as we felt some of them were too long! So now the new line up, proven to be stronger than ever, is : Ayim – vocals, Fadzlly – drums, Calvin – guitar and Hisham ‘Black’ – bass.


What does Raspatul mean?

We have actually been asked a lot of times what the hell RASPATUL actually means and to tell you the truth, we don’t fucking know also!! Hahaha! Ok, we can roughly tell you what the hell it means in our own words though. Actually the moniker was given by recording engineer Leonard Soosay, who has been a long time friend of RASPATUL. It has no definite meaning in general, personally it stands for ‘Unity amongst Disorder, Devils in Renewed Birth’! It is also sacred to us as it has brought us to where we are now!


Who are the current members of your band?

The current members in Raspatul are Ayim – Vocals, Fadzlly – Drums, Hisham ‘Black’ – Bass and Calvin – Guitar. We think that this line-up will be permanent as the 4 of us are not just band members only, we are actually 4 very close friends who can also talk about our own personal problems to one another. The 4 of us are actually like clowns as we always crack sick and stupid jokes to entertain ourselves!! Hahaha!!


How would you describe Raspatul’s music?

Well, you can describe Raspatul’s music as old school Death Thrash. There are certainly not much bands in my country that are really doing this old school Death Thrash style. We are now in the process of writing new songs already, and this time the songs will have more tempo changes, it will be much more heavier, darker and definitely more brutal! These four songs really showcase our songwriting as a band effort. We got a few song titles already and even some ideas for the album title! You can tell that we are really looking forward to step into recording studio once more! But, at the same time, it will be very stressful for us as we will have very high expectations for each other as we strive to make this second recording even better than the ‘Menghitung Ajal’ MCD. Most probably we will be doing another MCD, as we don’t have the patience to write 8 to 10 songs before we go into recording studio. It would take a fucking damn long time and we think it’s not really that healthy for an unsigned band like RASPATUL. We would rather have 4 to 5 songs completed, go into recording studio, have the songs recorded, mixed and mastered, then we start doing our promotional work again. In this way, the band would be progressing continuously and we would be kept busy and also on our toes throughout this whole year! No lazing around for us!! We have always been very active in production work for RASPATUL also, we make sure all of us have to come down for every recording, mixing and even mastering session, and in this way everyone in the band will have a very clear idea of how we want our sound to be. We would be recording our second MCD at TNT studios again as we are very happy and comfortable working with the recording engineer, Ah Boy. He is a real funny guy and this takes a bit of the recording pressure away from us! Ah Boy also did a great job for RASPATUL, he spends extra effort to make sure we sound as good as we can! We are quite happy with our sound on the ‘Menghitung Ajal’ MCD but it’s not a 100% satisfaction for RASPATUL as it was RASPATUL’s first recording effort. This time, we will definitely capture the sounds that we want and we will make sure we are truly satisfied this time round!!


What or who are the influences of the band?

Our collective influences are : Carcass, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Terror Squad, Sil- Khannaz, Dimension Zero, Death, The Crown, Dissection, Kreator, old Sepultura, Pantera, Darkthrone, Immortal, Ulver, Testament, At the Gates, Arch Enemy, Loudness ( Japan ).... Our influences are growing everyday as there are so many types of awesome Metal music out there for us to explore. Yeah each of us definitely have got our own influences! But when it comes down to songwriting for RASPATUL, we will definitely come to a compromise as we do not want to lose that RASPATUL style and trademark. We are always striving to make every song as good each one, but one important thing about our songwriting is that we will not make the songs sound very similar to each other. That to us, is very important as well.


Is there anything that you would like to improve on or change in terms of music writing and performing?

Yeah there are a few things that we would like to change in regards to our style of song writing, but we will still maintain the style that is still Raspatul of course. Now our songs are more heavier, darker and also more brutal! We are taking our time to write even better songs, and that’s the reason why we are quite slow in our song structuring. We will even take note of a slightest part that doesn’t seem to work, and we will nail it down till it works. We have definitely matured now as a band, but we still feel that we are very much a young band and there’s still a lot for us to learn. Having Metal gigs in Singapore are few and far in between, so performance-wise, we don’t really have much chance to really learn from a live set. We definitely want to gain more experience when play live as we think that it’s really important for a band to play a tight live set. We will not change much about the way we perform and that is to enjoy ourselves as much as possible!! We don’t have a standard way to dress while we perform on stage and so it’s pretty much how we dressed when we are off stage. We would definitely love to have an insane maniac crowd when we are performing and we will be able to give an even better performance!!


If you could open up for the band of your choice, whom would you open up for?

Hell man, no doubt about it, it would be Morbid Fucking Angel!! It would be a dream fulfilled for Raspatul as all of us are very much influenced by Morbid Fucking Angel!!!


Where do you think Raspatul will be in 5 years time? What will change?

Frankly speaking, we don’t really know what will happen to Raspatul in 5 years time as the country we live in is Singapore and there’s nothing much you can do when you play in a Metal band here. There are only a few lucky ones here who can make a living out of playing music, let alone Death Metal music. But we really hope that we can still continue as a band and still enjoy Death Metal like now!! We think it all also depends on the reaction towards our music, if in the future our music still receives positive comments like what we have for ‘Menghitung Ajal’, then definitely we will carry on as long as there are people who appreciates our music!! We live for Death Metal and also for the people who enjoys Raspatul’s music!!!


Any merchandise or CD’s available to those who are interested?

We do not have any merchandise yet as you know, Raspatul is actually a very poor Metal band!! Hahaha! But to anyone out there who wishes to purchase our 5 song MCD, you can just send US$6 (postage included) well hidden in envelope or preferably on registered mail. Just email us for more details! To Zines, Labels, Distros and Bands, just email us at : raspatul@hotmail.com or Calvin at : war_lord21@hotmail.com and we will surely send you a promo CD for reviews and interviews. Don’t worry, we do not rip people off!! We just want Raspatul’s music to be exposed as far and to as many people as possible.


If somebody wants to get hold of Raspatul, how can they do that?

Get hold of us in what sense? Physically? Well, any girls interested to get hold of us, just email us at the email address above!! Hahaha!! I think what you are talking about is getting us for live gigs?? If anyone wants us to play gigs, all they can do is just to ask us only, it’s only that simple! But if talking about playing overseas, hopefully they would be able to give us accommodation and maybe a little amount of money for food and drinks and we will be very happy!


What is the viewpoint on the music scene in your area?

The Black Metal and Brutal Death seems to be a dominating genre here and recently, there has been an uprising of new Metal people in our Metal scene which seem to do nothing but destroy the scene with their destructive comments and they just do nothing to help our scene here. The best of it is that we do not know where these people come from and all they do is to hide themselves in the forum section and criticize one another. It was definitely a better scene last time, with all the Punk, Metal, Grindcore, Hardcore people being able to hang out with one another.


Is there anything else that you would like to mention? (Comments, weird story, jokes, advise, etc…)

Oh yeah, we have had comments from a guy in our country saying that Raspatul is just terrible and plays noise music! All of us thought that it was a very funny comment, especially on the ‘noise’ part! Hahahaha! Can I be considered as a weird story or a joke?? I don’t know!
But most importantly, thanxs very much to Mike and Adrenalin Zine for giving us this awesome interview and thanxs also to anyone who read our interview!! Once again, just email us at : raspatul@hotmail.com or to Calvin at : war_lord21@hotmail.com, Hailz to the worldwide underground scene!!
 

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