Nepalese metallers Underside are preparing to launch their long-awaited EP Satan In Your Stereo, and have just unleashed the new video for Right To Hate, which you can watch below.
We last spoke to Underside in 2015 following a devastating earthquake in their hometown of Kathmandu, where they revealed the true cost of life, and spoke candidly about not trusting the Nepalese government.
Underside are known for their outspoken attitude toward authority and their views on society, so with recent world/political events and an upcoming EP in mind, we caught up with vocalist Avishek KC.
What are you fighting against?
“This is a fight against ourselves; our new-found values that are driving our society into this madness we live in today. Just look around, humans are fucking up this planet, fighting endlessly with each other. And for what? I could never get my head around it! We lack empathy and we don’t stand for anything anymore, apart from ourselves.
“It’s a very shameful era for humanity. We are in times where you can watch war live on TV. It’s just another fucking thing on TV. Isn’t that fucking insane? People are suffering. Politicians are exploiting their own people. Do you see the chaos? This is where my anger goes into and I express it through my music.
“In the context of Nepal, my fight is against this ruling class of political elites who have fucked my country left, right and centre for god knows how many years. That’s all our music is about, this rage and frustration.
“I believe our society is changing very slowly, but surely. We are no longer portrayed as a bunch of kids influenced by western music. Society may disagree with me on this, but every time I’m on that stage I can see hundreds of kids screaming along side me, sharing the same anger and frustration. To me that is beginning of something. We are musicians and we fight the system with our music. How much we have succeeded? Only time will tell. But our fight continues.”
The lyrics to Right To Hate read, “We’re all downright intolerant”. What are you referring to?
“Right To Hate is basically about my immense anger towards the system, and towards fucking people and their new norms of this utter selfishness. Look at the way we live, purely guided by self agenda. We don’t have time for anybody’s problems. Why would I care when all my needs are met?
“Oh, you don’t have the same idea of god as I have. You don’t belong to the same class as I do. You don’t speak the same language, and you don’t share the same fucking skin colour. Isn’t this crazy, how intolerant we have become? People are no longer interested in what unites us, but rather in what divide us.
“This is a disease our society is infected with and it’s slowly killing everyone around us. I have no fucking idea where are we heading with this kind of attitude. I have been writing about this for almost a decade now.”
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What is your new EP Satan In Your Stereo sounding like?
“It is sounding pretty good – this EP means a lot to me and my band. It represents the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. We have a new line-up and we are hungrier than ever before. This EP is sort of a tribute to my old band members who I had great time writing music with. We may have drifted apart in our own ways, but this EP will always bind us and remind us who we really are.”
We last spoke to you after devastating earthquake in Kathmandu, how’s Kathmandu now?
“Kathmandu is moving on, so are the people. In a way, that earthquake brought unity. Everybody tried whatever they can do to help others during the earthquake. We have better functioning people than the government, sadly. Obviously, the lives that were lost, the destruction of our temples and heritages sites will have the scars in us for decades to come, but the resilience of Nepali people was something out of this world. Honestly, if you come down to Nepal now, you may see the remnants of the earthquake, but people have moved on. Life is back to normal. There’s no another city like Kathmandu. It is absolutely safe here and I want to appeal to everyone to come and visit Nepal.
“But saying that, there are still thousands of families in other parts of Nepal who were displaced by the 2015 earthquake and still don’t have a home to live in. That’s fucked up. It makes you angry and I want to know what the fuck this government is doing about it? I could go on forever here on how political instability has fucked my country. I have every fucking right to hate these motherfuckers!”
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