Interview with IRT Magazine
Prophecy of the Pheroze: Former Death Metal Singer Finds New Voice as a Solo Artist
Interview by Ron Hart, Interboro Rock Tribune
In spite of New York City’s unflattering corporate makeover of its Lower East Side district, there are still a few holdouts off the Bowery who refuse to go the way of CBGB and Tonic and continue to book talented local acts who fly below the radar of the neighborhood hipster cognoscenti. One such artist is the mighty Pheroze, the one-time frontman for mid-card death metal band Scar Culture whose great solo debut, Driftwood, finds him taking a left-hand turn into singer-songwriter territory with a sound reminiscent of System of a Down’s Serj Tankian covering Jeff Buckley’s Grace. Born in England to Indo-Persian roots, descended from Zoroastrian faith and raised in Saudi Arabia before making a move to New York in 1997, Pheroze is as well spoken as he is well-traveled, and the IRT is pleased to present you with this exclusive interview with the most rockin’ Zoroastrian to take on America since Freddie Mercury.
IRT: You moved to NYC in 1997. Where were you previously?
Pheroze: I was born in London, spent most of my youth in India and Saudi Arabia, went to high school in Connecticut and then came to New York right after that.
IRT: What are your thoughts on how NYC has changed since you first arrived here?
Pheroze: New York, more than any other city I’ve ever seen, is really damn good at holding a big shiny mirror up to your face and asking you to look at who you really are. The more honest you are here, the more you’ll truly thrive and enjoy yourself here. I think the intention of the newcomers to New York has changed over my time here. Everyone used to seem much more interconnected. You know the most distressing thing I’ve noticed since I’ve moved here? It’s that more and more people seem to regard their time in living in New York as a transition time in their life. People seem to pass through and take what they want without giving anything back. When I moved here I moved with intention to live here, to make a home here and to become part of the energy that comprises this city. This isn’t a place where one can float along without focus and be happy. If you try and deny who you are, then you’ll attract more of a sham lifestyle around you. Think people are rude here? I find you get treated here as you truly treat other people. Think this isn’t a good place to raise a family? Then your environmental idea of family values probably errs on the side of a homogenized community rather than large-scale diverse immersion. Which is fine, but be honest about it! Finding it tough to meet people here? Then get online and look for people you think you’ll gel with. They’re out there, and thinking the same damn thing. The people who pass through here tend to blame the city for so much, but all this place asks you to do is be honest with yourself and take some initiative in your life. Oh, and I was pissed when they closed down Coney Island High. I saw so many great shows there. Now I will dismount this soapbox.
IRT: When did you first start listening to heavy metal?
Pheroze: Back in the early 90’s a friend of mine and I shoplifted a few cassette tapes from a bootleg music store in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I think he took Metallica’s Ride the Lightning and I know I took Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger. That’s when I started listening to rock and metal. Soundgarden, Metallica, Queen, Faith No More and Pro-Pain were all favorites back then.
IRT: Growing up in Saudi Arabia, how hard was it to listen to Western music like metal? Was there any sort of underground following for metal over there?
Pheroze: Public performances of any kind were illegal there. So there wasn’t any live music scene whatsoever. There weren’t many radio stations at the time either and whatever was there was very heavily censored. We had two TV stations, one in English and one in Arabic that would be on from the hours of 4pm to 11pm. I would discover new music when my family would go on vacation to the U.S. or elsewhere, and bring it back with me and share it with other kids at my school that did the same. It was super easy to get bootleg cassettes of pretty much any album, so sometimes I would just pick up something because I liked the album cover and see if I liked the music too. In my last two years of living there, satellite TV was available although it was illegal to have a satellite dish. But the government couldn’t really block the signal, only the actual physical possession of a dish, so as long as you hid the dish well you were ok. That opened up a few music channels like Asian MTV and I got exposed to a few bands that way.
IRT: You paid for your first guitar selling old issues of Penthouse for $70 a pop. Was there ever a moment where you felt you almost got caught, and more importantly, what kind of guitar did you end up purchasing with the money and from where?
Pheroze: I got a black strat style Epiphone with a floating Floyd Rose bridge from this small music shop inside a mall on Olaya Street in Riyadh. They only had about 6 guitars to choose from, mostly Samick’s and Epiphone’s. The only time I was worried about getting caught was when I brought the magazines into the country. I had rolled them up and inserted them into the liner of my jacket knowing that customs at the airport would only search the bags. It wasn’t like I had a porn smuggling racket going on, just a few magazines to sell to the local kids. I was only twelve, but in retrospect it was a stupid thing to do, as Saudi Arabia really doesn’t take that kind of stuff very lightly, no matter what your age.
IRT: What prompted you to leave your metal band, Scar Culture, behind and go the singer-songwriter route?
Pheroze: With Scar Culture, I didn’t really write much music as we were a death metal band and I don’t write death metal. The music I write would have made as much sense for that band as Dolph Lundgren in a fist-fight with Ms. Piggy in a Muppets movie, which actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. I would get home from tour and realize that I hadn’t picked up my guitar in 3 months and that I hadn’t written anything in just as long. My time with Scar Culture was so focused on the business side of things and trying to corral the people around me to strive for bigger and better and keep our spirits up. I just didn’t have it in me any more to do that without also feeding my creative side. Things just kept spiraling until I couldn’t really deal with it anymore.
IRT: How do you feel about the state of heavy metal today?
Pheroze: Well, the last few albums I got were by Dax Riggs, Sia, Muse and Bebel Gilberto. So that tells you how much metal I’m listening to these days! It’s funny though, from the outside it almost seems like there’s resurgence in the glam style of the 80’s era of metal, just with a fresh coat of paint. I mean that’s the only damn era apart from now that a band named Dragonforce could see any kind of commercial success! I’m super happy that old friends like Killswitch Engage who we had toured with and old label mates like Shadow’s Fall are getting recognition though. They’re great bands that really worked hard for their success. And I am interested in seeing how the Carcass reunion will turn out and whether At the Gates will record a new album or if they’re just doing a reunion tour. The last metal record I bought was the third Down album, which is pretty great. But that’s about it as far as current metal goes for me. If I feel like listening to something heavy, I’ll put on something old and familiar rather than scout out new metal bands – I’m lame like that. Even back in my Scar Culture days when we were touring I was listening to a lot more of Marvin Gaye than Dying Fetus.
IRT: I hear a lot of Jeff Buckley in your music. How did you discover his music?
Pheroze: Thanks. Jeff Buckley is definitely an influence of mine. It always seemed that his voice was on the edge of breaking, like at any minute he could totally lose control over it. I love that in a musician. The summer, before I moved to New York, I took a few classes at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. One day when I went into class, my teacher told us that Jeff Buckley’s body had just been found in the Mississippi river. I had never heard his music before then, but I saw
the album Grace in a used CD store a few days later and picked it up. Because I’m lazy it took me four years to get around to listening to it, but as soon as I put it on I was mesmerized! Unfortunately I never had a chance to see him play. At least not physically. In spirit, I think I see him play all the time.
IRT: Being of the same denomination as Freddie Mercury, I am sure you are a fan of Queen. Do you have a favorite album of theirs? Which one is it and why?
Pheroze: Oh man. Would it be truly awful to say that I like their Greatest Hits CD’s the best? Yeah it would. So I won’t say that! On merits of musicality and performance, I’ll go with Live at Wembley ‘86. It really strips them down to their core and their amazing musicianship really shines through on that live performance. The balance of making their songs tick live and their improvisation skills are captured pretty phenomenally on there. On merits of mustache, I’d have to go with Freddie Mercury’s solo album, Mr. Bad Guy. He’s got one hell of a mean looking ‘stache on that album cover.
IRT: What was the reason behind calling your album Driftwood?
Pheroze: Because the title Led Zeppelin IV was already taken. And naming it Led Zeppelin Reunion Album would have probably gotten me sued. When I left Scar Culture and my other band Namanista, I agonized for a year on how to do my solo project before I actually started recording anything. Up until that point I had always had a band that I could rely on to help make music come to life – all of a sudden I was on my own and had to figure out the best and most honest way to create the album and music I wanted to make. Except I didn’t have the resources I used to have in order to do so like label support, other musicians etc. In the end I decided to just leave it alone because I developed enough confidence to know that the best path to creating this album and getting it out there would come to me, instead of me chasing it. And sure enough it did. When I set out to think of an album title, I wanted to choose something that embodied the experience I had been through of not holding too tightly to the past in order to define what I was doing now. The word driftwood embodies the image of breaking off, floating in a foreign element and letting the will of the world take you to your destination. To keep with the theme, my next album will be called Rubber Duck.
IRT: On your album, you incorporate a few instruments native to your Indo/Persian heritage. How did you choose which instruments to use and the way in which you use them on Driftwood?
Pheroze: Growing up, I spent a lot of time in India and was surrounded by all sorts of Eastern styles of music. My ears are used to hearing the quartertones used in the Indian tonal system and it affected my natural voicing early on. So it’s ingrained in me. I had a lot of different Indian percussion lying around so if it made sense to use a certain instrument within a song then I put it to use, not always in the most traditional of ways. The song “Killer Whales” is actually completely percussion based – I didn’t use a drum kit at all for that song. On “Daydreams” I play an Esraj at one part, which is kind of like a small Indian cello. My favorite instrument that I used was the Gopichand, which is this hybrid string and percussion instrument that I used in “Never Lie to the Pavement” and “Daydreams”.
IRT: Having roots in both Saudi Arabia and India, what are your thoughts on how American foreign policy is affected by both regions and how these countries view the United States?
Pheroze: Well, I don’t really consider my self as having any roots in Saudi Arabia. I spent a good amount of my childhood there, but it’s not the kind of place that lets you plant any roots if you’re not native to the country. India is a different story as my parents are from there and I spent a good amount of my childhood there with family, but I still kind of think of my self as being rootless when it comes to country. I like it that way; it forces me to appreciate wherever I am at any given time. Saudi Arabia kind of has the U.S. by the balls don’t they? I mean here’s a country that completely pisses all over the very foundation of beliefs that America is built upon – from human rights to freedom of speech – yet the U.S. still treats them with kid gloves. Oil seems to be more important than supporting ones moral ground in that relationship. Saudi Arabia embraces the U.S. from a business perspective yet touts the U.S. way of life as being sinful. When I was growing up there, the education system only went up to the 9th grade if you were foreign because the government didn’t want foreign born kids corrupting their locality. With India you’re talking about the largest democracy in the world – a country that used to be 26 different kingdoms that got united into one – and a country with thousands of years of rich history. Back in the Cold War, the U.S. wanted to use India as a strategic port against Russia. I believe Nehru said no, that they wouldn’t take sides in the war. So the U.S. adopted a ‘if you’re not with us you’re against us’ policy on India. It’s funny because the democracy and capitalism alone puts it in a similar mindset to the U.S. in the way that India has been relatively self sufficient when it comes to their infrastructure and economy. They have their own film industry, music industry, food industry all of which are self-sufficient and cater directly to the Indian market. It’s only very recently that U.S. franchises like McDonalds and Coca Cola have been allowed to take root in India, so it’ll be interesting to see how things change as it progresses.
IRT: Being of Persian descent, what is your opinion of the relationship between Iran and the U.S.? Do you think America is just looking for an excuse for a fight or are they justified in their paranoia?
Pheroze: I should probably explain my Persian roots. I’ve never actually lived in Iran, but my religious and cultural heritage is Zoroastrianism, which is the first monotheistic religion and originated in ancient Persia around 700BC. Back to the question though: Is paranoia ever really justified? If the U.S. government could justify their paranoia then it would be knowledge. And if they have knowledge they why the hell don’t they pass along concrete knowledge to the U.S. people so that the people don’t have to experience paranoia? Probably because paranoia is the government’s way of keeping people in fear, and when you’re in fear you don’t trust yourself to make choices. It’s easy to give the government all your power and say ‘I don’t trust myself because I’m in fear, so choose for me’. Yes, I think the U.S. needs to keep the American people in fear while this whole Iraq mess is going on so that the attention is diverted away from what a fuck up it’s truly been. And Iran is a convenient way to divert some of that attention and imbue some of that fear into people.
IRT: Have you experienced any instances of racism since moving to NYC?
Pheroze: Yes. But not so much in NYC, but while touring around the rest of the country with Scar Culture after 9/11. Even then it wasn’t so bad, just a few stupid instances; which always amuses me because I’m not Middle Eastern and probably look more like a random dude from New Jersey than from the Middle East.
IRT: Who do you plan on voting for this year in the elections and why? How do you feel this candidate can help bring a sense of peace and stability between America and the Middle East? Can there ever be a sense of peace and stability between the two?
Pheroze: I’m not a U.S. citizen, so I’m not allowed to vote. I get the honor of paying taxes but I can’t vote. It seems Obama possesses a more global viewpoint combined with a good mixture of decision-making and compassion. I don’t really see what McCain has to offer. The republicans seems to tout his Vietnam veteran and P.O.W. past as boons to his candidacy– but if that was all it took to be a great president then Rambo should be considered a prime candidate. Actually,
Rambo is my prime candidate. Stallone for president! Did you see the new Rambo? That man is out of his mind, it’s awesome. As far as peace and stability between America and the Middle East – it already exists. I mean as long as there is economic benefit to both sides like the oil trade with Saudi Arabia and business opportunities in places like Dubai and Bahrain, there’s some degree of stability present between governments. The U.S. isn’t at war with a region; they’re fighting a fundamentalist sub-section of a religion, which is much trickier. I don’t know that people have wrapped their heads around the fact that there isn’t a definitive ‘bad guy’ in this war – you can’t point a finger at a country for this like you could in the Cold War or World War I or II. This is much more scattered than that and requires a globally unifying viewpoint to be fought effectively. And maybe Rambo could help out, too.
Reprinted from Interboro Rock Tribune – Fall 2008 edition
