1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?
-- Since the release of our album, we are currently looking forward to get some live gigs in India for now.
-- Since metal music in India is not very popular, but we do have metal heads here who love the music, we are focusing on reaching out to them in form of live shows.
-- We are also looking towards making of a few play troughs, more lyric videos and a couple official videos of a couple more songs from the album.
-- Other than that, we have also begun the process of writing new songs, which eventually, will lead us to the beginning of our next album.
2.In March you had also released your first full length, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style you went for on the recording?
-- Our music is basically of the Melodic Death Metal kind. However, we were more inclined towards the over all "viking" or "pagan" or "Celtic" melodies, that we incorporated in our compositions. This makes our "melodic" part of the death metal slightly different.
-- Not just this album, but in general, our way of looking at the next song that we will compose, includes heavy drums, northern melodies, sometimes clean guitars, powerful bass-lines and eventually, the growls and screams.
3.A lot of the lyrics cover Viking Mythology and Paganism, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this topic?
-- As mentioned, we were more inclined towards the northern melodies, we decided to stick to its roots. Honestly, being from India, we had a very little understanding about what Viking or Pagan culture was like. But since we were adapting the over all song style, we didn't want our lyrics to move away from the subject.
-- Hence, we studied the culture a bit online, read about their ideology and wrote them in our own words and imagination in the form of the song lyric.
4.The band is also from India which also has a mythology and history of its own, do you also have an interest in the culture of your home country?
-- Absolutely. India had great rulers in the past. Their adventures can easily make up a long list of songs. India being a multi-religious country, there are various mythologies as well.
-- We already have many bands in our country who are dedicated towards Indian song styles. What we wanted to do was something different. Something that is not here in our country.
-- Also, since this is our first album, we didn't really wanted to keep it close to its roots, due to which, we kept the songs as close as possible to the Viking culture.
-- We do believe that the stories about our kings and queens with the touch of our pagan / melodic death music, will indeed sound nice and yes, we will try it out sometime soon.
5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?
-- The artwork was a well thought idea by Shardul plays guitar for the band. He had the idea written down in points which included literally everything - the early morning light, crows flying, burning tavern, viking warrior bleeding, the snow fall, etc.
-- We have a amazing artist here - Mr. Aaron Pinto, who is also the drummer of quite popular death metal band - Gutslit from India.
-- After discussing with Aaron, he read all the lyrics for all the songs, even listened to our songs and referred to the points that we sent him.
-- We wanted the artwork to resemble to one of our songs from the album, preferably the title track itself - Tavern Tales.
-- According to the lyrics of the song 'Tavern Tales', there are Viking warriors that share their tale about a war they had faced, the brothers they lost and all those who survived.
-- Aaron nicely incorporated it to the artwork, which turned out exactly the way we wanted it to.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
-- We have had opportunities to play at various gigs and we loved them all.
-- One of the best shows would be the gigs organized by Stormbringer, Dawn of the legion and Blood Eagle Organizers in Pune.
-- There are a lot of things that matter when we come on the stage.
-- Firstly our music style is different than other bands in India. Secondly, people look at us with a "question" about "Viking? huh? Will they really impress us?"
-- There is always a tiny bit of pressure about being different, but we have learned to make our way pass that.
-- Now, we go up on the stage to enjoy and have fun just like others who have come to watch us play live. Helps us build a connection with our audience.
7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?
-- None as of now to announce. But soon we will have something coming up.
8.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
-- We did receive a few emails, that we cannot disclose here. For now, we still need to plan this out. We may stay unsigned for this album. But if we find a good deal with any record label, we will look into it as well.
9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of viking, pagan and melodic death metal?
-- We have received a few comments from metal-heads in European and North-american regions mainly. They have enjoyed our music a lot and we are thankful to them for the appreciation.
-- We also received a few comments from African regions as well. All nothing but good comments indeed.
-- We will soon start some ad campaigns on Facebook to try to reach out to more people by selective targeting in the northern countries.
-- For now, the most response that we have received is from Bandcamp where we have our full length album available.
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
-- We aim at sustaining - which means, we may make a few changes in our composition style, but the root and the backbone of the melodies will remain the same.
-- We might introduce some folk instruments if we find good artists for the same. Honestly, we really want someone to play bagpipes :)
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
-- We started with Amon Amarth, Ensiferum, Eluvitie and At the gates.
-- Over the years of browsing through YouTube channels, we also enjoy Alestorm, Kalmah, Korpiklaani, Wadruna, Tyr, Enslaved, Moonsorrow, and many others.
12.What are some of your non musical interests?
-- The band loves beer. All of us just love beer and we can't get enough of it.
-- So after our jam sessions, if time permits from our busy daily lives, we head up to a local bar where our vocals guy Mr. Rohit Jalgaonkar works as a DJ, and have some beer.
-- All the band members are employed and working in a corporate world to make living. So as a band, the most time we spend is in our jam sessions and a local tavern.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
-- Metal in India is rare. Only certain cities and in those cities, only certain places "may" have some metal music being played.
-- But the metal bands like us, here are striving for keeping metal alive in the country.
-- Seeing the names of Indian Metal Bands in greater charts of Metal bands across the world, will be a dream come true.
-- Us being one of those bands will be indeed, a part of that same dream.
-- I hope with this interview, people will learn more about Ragnhild as well as something that we call as "The Indian Metal Scene".
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