Band: Inastait

Interviewee’s name: Sheldon Dorasamy
Position in band: Vocals and Guitar

Interviewee’s name: Shane Williams
Position in band: Guitar

Interviewee’s name: Tiens van Zyl
Position in band: Bass

Find more music like this on Inastait

Published: 04-08-2009

Interview by: Scream

What do you get when you try to combine heavy with mellow? Mix it down with a bit of rock, alternative, add some metal, a touch of grunge and perhaps a hint of punk? …you get an altered Stait of Mind… you get Inastait!

HeadbangToday: Welcome to Headbang Today! You are our fourth featured and third South African interviewed band here on HeadbangToday.com! Does that leave a sickening taste in your mouths or does it make you feel superior for being exclusively featured on such an awesome South African metal site? (either answer will be perfectly acceptable!)

Inner State Of Mind

Inastait:

Sheldon:It feels awesome bro! We are one of those SA bands that have been bubbling under for quite a while, just waiting to go BOOM! … And with an album on the way, it’s a really exciting time to be a part of INASTAIT

Shane: Well it is certainly an honour to be featured on HeadbangToday.com, as for superior… Well no, there are a bunch of other awesome SA bands out there that also deserve some exposure.

Tiens: It’s an honour to be featured and interviewed on HeadBangToday. Superior , not at all we are a down to earth bunch of guys and appreciate it a lot to be here.

Headbang Today: A lot of awesome bands there is, yes. We vow to get hold of all of them in good time… A number of your songs are quite mellow… but when I gave No Longer There a listen I could feel your energy. A good song that is.
Tell us more about Inastait. Where does the name come from and how did you originate?

Inastait:

Shane: Well, originally we started out as a three piece, myself, Sheldon and our first drummer Aurel, later Tiens joined the band and automatically transformed the band with an edgier sound. We started playing lots of gigs at this point, but soon Aurel decided to leave the band to start a family which is when Steven joined us. He has also brought a young fresh energy to our band. As for the name… We lifted it from one of our earlier songs – ‘Inner State of Mind’, and changed the spelling to make our name unique.

Headbang Today: As mentioned before, your style is a mix of chilled out rock, grunge and metal. Was this your intention as a band from the start or was this what developed from jamming together?

Inastait:
Sheldon: it’s kinda weird – I always ask people at gigs what they think we sound like and the answers are always different .. which is a good thing I guess . .. I personally like to call our sound ‘Mongrel Rock’ because it’s a blend of a few different styles, without necessarily trying to be anything in particular … except LOUD! J

Shane: Essentially we are more of a Hard Rock band than anything else, but I think we are also open minded to other genres. Our intention is to have our music appear to a wide range of people, but also to still maintain a sound that is of a Inastait flavour. Most of our songs though did start out from us just jamming together where our core sound spawns from.

Tiens: I joined Inastait with a set setlist. I was involved with writing a basic bass line for our song “Unfinished”. We have however started production on 2 new songs and everyone is involved with the writing process. Keep an open mind, play some riffs that either of us wrote and jam them ’til we get something that is pure awesomeness.

Headbang Today: Where are you guys from and what is the response like from the crowds you’ve played for in clubs?

Inastait:

Sheldon: I’m originally from Durbs. We haven’t played there yet, but we’ve played pretty much all over Gauteng. Every gig is different – we’ve played for 4 people … we’ve played for 204 people , and pretty much every number in between… but one thing that never changes is the fact that every time we go out there, we leave it ALL out on stage — blood n guts every time! … that’s what INASTAIT is all about ..  … most people that have seen us can attest to that – especially those crazy mofo’s in the Vaal - LOVE those guys!

Shane: I’m from the East Rand, currently I stay in Benoni. Strangely enough though, we haven’t played that many gigs on the East Rand. However, the crowd response has been amazing, especially form the people in the Vaal, we love playing there!

Tiens: I am originally from Sasolburg in the Vaal Triangle and have to say the Vaal is my favourite place to gig as it’s my home ground. Crowd response has been very good, surprisingly good when playing with the heavier metal bands too. I think we have a sound that everyone can relate too. Steve, our drummer is from Nelspruit. Over all, all South African crowds ROCK!

Headbang Today: I couldn’t help but notice Slipknot’s tribal S tattooed on your lead singer, Sheldon’s arm… As we are huge fans of Slipknot here at Headbang Today we need to hear you say that you are as well! Who are your musical influences and could you name a couple of international bands that you would love to tour and gig with one day?

Sheldon:oh yeah Slipknot is one of my faves – it’s the first tattoo I ever got, and I wear it with pride! … For me, Black Sabbath , Metallica  and Nirvana are the holy trinity of music. There will never be ANYTHING like them ever again… .EVER… when I saw Metallica for the first time at Reading in 2003, I was totally in tears dude!…

Shane: For sure, yeah, I enjoy Slipknot, but when learning to play guitar, I must say that Metallica had a huge impact on me. I also enjoy the sound of Chevelle, System of a Down, Audioslave, Tool and A Perfect Circle just to name a few, but the list goes on and on. It would be an honour to share the stage with any of these bands

Tiens: Personally I lean more to the old school bands like Iron Maiden, Kiss, Judas Priest and any band who’s music hits you in the bollocks. (Can I say that here?) Steve Harris and Gene Simmons are probably my biggest influences. Not too big a fan of Slipknot but saw them live at Download Festival and have to say it was one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. With Inastait I’d like to share a stage with the likes of Stone Sour, Green Day, Billy Talent or Lordi.

Headbang Today: Slipknot, Chevelle, System, A perfect Circle, Stone Sour and Lordi…. I need to hang out with you guys! Those bands are keeping it metal! Now with a tough industry rocking every band’s ship, many bands sink to the depths of the metal ocean while a number of them stay afloat in pursuit of their dreams and goals. What are yours as a band?

Inastait:
Sheldon: Our album STAIT OF MIND is our pride and joy .. we put a lot of work into it and financed it ourselves… we can’t wait to take it on the road!

Shane: Rite now, we are all very focused on launching our upcoming album ‘Stait of Mind’ which will be our very first. Also, I’d love to just get our music out there, to as many people as possible, with the internet today, there are no borders and there are great opportunities to expose yourself internationally from an early stage.

Tiens: I agree with Shel and Shane, short term goal is to release Stait of Mind and gig the living crap out of it. You know, get it to as many people as we can. After that try and play bigger shows, more festivals and build a huge fan base nationally and internationally.

Headbang Today: You adopted quite an interesting logo. Who are the brains behind your lyrics and what are they about in general?


Sheldon: I write most of the lyrics.. I try to treat them like an ‘internal journey’ of sorts… I like writing cryptically – that’s just the way  I like to present my ideas lyrically. There are lots of hidden layers that I chose not to tell anyone about – its my own personal catharsis… private, yet in plain view.

Shane: Sheldon has written most of the lyrics and I have also done a few, but the whole song writing process happens as a band most of the time. Like the title says our upcoming album ‘Stait of Mind’ says, our songs are about that – love, lust, hate, sorrow, happiness, uncertainty, doubt, courage, anticipation, pride and ambition. These are things all of us can identify with.

Headbang Today: What is your outlook on the record industry today? Do you embrace or smite the idea of illegal downloading and why?

Shane:I have mixed feelings about the whole subject. If you download a song illegally, and this inspires you to go buy the bands album, its not such a bad deal for bands, but if people adopt the attitude that they can simply download music without ever having to buy another album, how can bands ever benefit?Sometimes you don’t mind if someone steals your music to listen to, they often pass this on to someone else, and then they pass it on and so on. This can be great exposure for your band and people who might never have heard of you get exposed to your music. But on the other hand, bands and record companies have poured money into the recording and marketing of that music, allot of investment has been made and if you steal that music, how can the industry ever sustain itself? After all, stealing is stealing at the end of the day.

Tiens: Who hasn’t downloaded music illegally? It’s a double edged sword you know. I usually hear of a band, download a track or two and if I like it I buy the album. If I don’t like it I delete the tracks to free space on my hard drive. (really I do J ) Bands make their money from shows, merch and stuff like that. The royalties they get is tiny compared to what the record companies take to pay for the marketing etc. etc. So yeah, is it that bad to download a song, taking a liking to a band, go buy their t-shirts and pay good money to watch them and all that for downloading a song? It’s debatable. Don’t steal, it’s a crime but what if bands put their songs out self produced and recorded as share ware. Let the fans pay x amount for an album depending on how much they feel it’s worth paying for. Naah it will only work in fairy fairy land.

Headbang Today: What had been the biggest obstacle for you as a band?

Sheldon: for me its balancing a full time corporate job with being my passion for music. There’s only so many hours in a day y’know … I just wish I could spend more of them on stage or writing songs with my kick-ass band …

Shane: Finding a place to practice has always been an obstacle for us. Good practice rooms are hard to come by.

Tiens: Money and time. To have a good sound live and in a recording you need proper gear. That’s expensive. If we had a few million in cash to spend then it would probably be so much easier to get the album out to people with little effort and gig all over the world. BUT, money does not solve all the problems. So yeah time is probably the biggest obstacle having a day job as well. Lots of bands made it pretty big with little money and just brilliant ideas and time management. (And no sleep )

Headbang Today: Day job, little time, little money… yet brilliant ideas! Yip, sounds familliar to us! Give us your thoughts on:

Your next shows:

Shane: We’ll be playing at the Evolution festival later in October, Inastait has never played at a festival before, so I am looking forward to that one!

Tiens: I’m currently busy planning the CD launch tour and we will probably play Rafterz in Vanderbijlpark soon. Then different venues in the Johannesburg and Pretoria area. Check out http://www.inastait.co.za for up and coming gigs.

Swine Flu:

Sheldon: I thought I had it once .. turns out it was just gas…
Shane: Well, if you’re not a swine, then you just have the flu
Tiens: Over rated and over reacted by the media. HIV/AIDS is a bigger issue.

The possibility of an existing universe before the existence of ours:

Sheldon: Time is not absolute …
Shane: I wasn’t around then, so who cares?
Tiens: We were all put here by marsmellow men to mine minerals for them. They will let us die as soon as all the mining is done. You know the game SIMS?

Your home town:

Sheldon: Holler to all me brown peepl down in Durbs!
Shane: In my hometown, the children bite the dogs!
Tiens: Originally from Sasolburg and the people there rock! My home town for almost 4 years is Kempton Park and I’m loving it. Hi to all the Kempies!

Headbang Today….:

Sheldon:Thanks for all the great work supporting local bands! It’s a tough game tho, so don’t take shit from nobody! The ‘Stait boys gotcha back!
Shane: Excellent, its great to have a website promoting South African bands and the metal scene!
Tiens: I love the idea. Brilliant idea, keep it going and don’t let it die a slow death.

Well Tiens… with the kind of bands that we have in que to get featured…. Headbang Today will be around for a long long time…

Dudes… best of luck with the band and your cd launch. You better send us a copy!

http://www.inastait.co.za

INTERVIEW BY:

scream@headbangtoday.com