"Fucking know what the fuck you are and do what you fucking love doing!"

NOTE: This was released for Venom Vault, which Eleventh Hour became in 2008. However, Venom Vault was deleted from the archive, so the interview was moved under Eleventh Hour.

Hassan Umer interviews Zia Iftikhar, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of Pakistani Thrash Metal band Venom Vault (formerly known as Eleventh Hour). Originally published on The Iron Markhor.

Hassan Umer: First of all, Zia, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed. Now we all know about the name change of Eleventh Hour and all, but I don’t want to start with that. I wanna start with the most basic question I could think of. When did you get into metal, how did you get into metal, and why do you love metal?

Zia Iftikhar: Hmm... I got into metal at the age of 16.. which was like lets see... 15 years ago. THE band which got me drawn into this realm was Metallica... And then it was like i was hit with a blessed new dimension!

HU: So, when did you start playing guitar? How did you discover new bands without high speed internet?

ZI: Dude back then there WAS NO INTERNET!!! This was like back in the stone age man!! Haha, I bought my first acoustic guitar for 3k from a small shop in a small bazaar behind saddar in Rawalpindi... It was my 18th birthday when I bought it with my parent’s money. I was in highschool doing pre-med. I didn’t discover bands through the net... I used to read up magazines... found out about Black Sabbath and Priest through magazines, Metal Hammer etc... then looked for metal music which was extremely hard to find in Pakistan. I went to virgin air in Lahore to find albums which were unheard of here!! And I also asked pals in Karachi to find some shit for me there.

HU: So what was your first band? Before Eleventh Hour, that is.

ZI: Umm... Eleventh Hour was my first band ever. I have jammed with people before and have participated in live jam sessions.

HU: Alright, so, tell us about Venom Vault / Eleventh Hour. Its concept, its formation, the early history of the band etc, because no one really knows the WHOLE story about the band.

ZI: I guess I can only start best from the point where I joined the band... I saw this ad on Orkut one day on some community that a local "strictly heavy metal band" needs a vocalist... So yeah, I contacted the dude and gave him my cell number... The dude was Ali Ehsan aka Ali "Fedex"... Still dunno why the fuck he calls himself Fedex!! But anyways, I went to meet the band and found out they call themselves Eleventh Hour... Of course they admitted that it’s a corny-ish name and that it’s kinda tentative and will be changed. I was like couldn’t you have thought of a better name? Like I dunno metal... Something or if it had to be "Hour"... Something, it cud be like "Thirteenth Hour" or some shit like that!! You know? I was like make it sound metal man!! Anyways, at this time, which was in somewhere in Sep/Oct 2005, the band comprise of pioneer members including Danish Kayani (drums) and Hassan Ozman (bass), Usman on rhythm guitars and Ali "Fedex" on lead guitar.

HU: So how did you convince them to let you in the band?

ZI: I met them and I gave them my audition and like I had taken along my guitar and you know I showed em that I cud sing and play simultaneously. I blasted out a few songs like... 'Damage Inc.' and 'Puppets' from Metallica and I guess they then said ok lets try some other stuff.. so we did Megadeth’s 'Tornado of Souls' and yeah, Pantera’s 'Mouth for War'... And I guess that was it... I was supposedly hired there and then... You can ask the rest of the band why!! Ali asked me if I could be a fulltime dedicated member of the band and... I accepted!

HU: Wait, they hired you as a vocalist only, and now you’re the rhythm guitarist too. What happened?

ZI: Initially, I was just a vocalist and I guess I dint want anything more out of it at that time... I was like yeah lets see where this shit goes and so just did my job as the singer. Later on after like only a few jams, Usman (rhythm guitars) was kinda asked to either get his act together or leave... Usman, I was told, was never really there on time and he would miss most jams and like... was out of time and out of line and sorts... So I guess he eventually chose his way and exited the band.

HU: So you just filled in for him?

ZI: I kinda started doing the rhythm guitar... I dint feel much up to it, I guess I wasn’t planning to get in it to such an extent. But with our then list of covers, I started going along with it. I didn’t guess that another change in the band was to occur pretty soon afterwards... I started having timing issues and speed issues with Ali "Fedex"... At times I guess he couldn’t adjust with my feel of the songs and vice versa. Now the thing with Ali at that time was that he wasn’t basically a speed freak or maybe even a thrash nut like me! For that matter, at that time none of the band members were!! They were a bunch of good nice dudes, who I saw a lot of potential in, but man there was like NO focus!! It seemed that they would all start playing at their own speed! No one was playing then as a "band"... This started to bug me a hell of a lot! I mean for starters all members had different influences and styles... They would approach with a differing spectrum of aggression, so to speak... Hasan was a rock n roll sorta bassist... Ali was into weird progressive metal and off beat off-the-norm sort of metal…and Danny was into Pantera sorta stuff but, much slower than the speeds we see him play today man... And I was a hardcore 1980’s speed metal freak into Metallica / Slayer kinda speed...

HU: How did you guys get your act together? Haha, the Eleventh Hour you’re describing doesn’t even sound a bit like the Venom Vault of today!

ZI: Haha, yeah! So anyways, this led the band nowhere... I had problems playing with them, especially Ali. One day I came to the jam and I discovered that a guitarist by the name of Ammar Najeeb has been let in as the new lead guitarist... He walked in with a Dave Mustaine Signature Flying V ESP (Black) with a hardcase!! And we’re all like woah man now that’s a freaking cool guitar!! Ammar was a master lead guitarist who didn’t utter a single word on the first jam and then maybe several other jams... But he did work LOUD and accurately... He knew a million songs and their solos and also learned how to play our first song entitled 'Landfills' which was created by Ali and Ali alone. A few months later, we went to record 'Landfills' at Nadir’s... Ali did all the rhythms, Danny the drums and Ammar the leads... We used a synth bass in this song... I guess we dint have the right software or something for the bass... It sounded cool to us... The best, given that time and software... And then came my turn to do the vocals... So I laid ’em down exactly like we jammed ’em! And were all like cool... Nice... Wow... So we all went home. Later, Ali suddenly realized that I didn’t do ’em right! So he’s like "let’s redo them..." I’m like "dude, we’ve done this shit like 200 times!!! And then u were there when we recorded it... U saw... U heard!! How can u say I don’t sing it right man??" At that point, Ali told me that he wanted this to sound different and not like thrash vocals... Not early Metallica. Not Megadeth. He wanted it to sound like something "weirdly different". So basically after listening to it and jamming to it along with me singin’ it over and over and over... He decides on recording day to change the damn vocal style for the song! I guess, basically, I realized that I had been kidding myself in being in this band... And I told Ali that I didn’t want in anymore... And in response I got his totally 360 reply... Saying he didn’t want in and wanted to quit! I guess this was one turning point in the band’s history... It changed the course of what was to come.

HU: What happened after Ali left? Did the band change their whole direction and outlook?

ZI: I then formally took on rhythms. After the shockwaves died down and the band asserted in their own way, the reasons for the change... For a long time later on, Ammar Najeeb and I become totally involved in taking the band to new speeds and a thrash your ass off direction!!! Ammar was a HUGE Megadeth fan and so was Danny. We had loads and loads of fun with doing like a shitload of Megadeth songs! But we realized after like a year or so with Ammar that he basically wasn’t a good listener!! Haha! He liked to do cover upon cover and had no aim but to just have a good time... We recorded our REAL first song entitled 'Quarry' on 31.07.2006. We did the whole thing and then added on a 2 minute solo in it because Ammar wanted to play it for that long... So we did it. We found out that Ammar had copied bits of the solo and rhythm section of Iron Maiden’s song 'Paschendale' and Judas Priest’s song 'Painkiller' solos in it!! This totally pissed us off!! But we then laughed it away saying that ok well put it off for now and re-record an original solo and rhythm section in the song later. I guess we all didn’t mind this it too much because well, u know, Ammar said to us "ok i’ll redo it" each time we asked him to do it!

HU: So when did you guys finally show Ammar the door?

ZI: Haha, around at this point, Danish, looking at the "creative genius" of Ammar, asked me to pick up the guitar full time and fucking make songs for the band... So I’m like... OK... I guess this was in early 2007. So, I started searching my head for music and ideas and riffs, because I realized that I had been handed over a task of making something for the band and kinda shaping the band to be known for something. Around February 2007, I had made the first sketch of 'The Season Ends' and we had already started jamming it... Ammar and I agreed to its structure and were like all set to record it... When all of a sudden Ammar decides to put in another dumb rhythm section to suit another kinda solo which he "at that moment" thinks is too amazing! You see Ammar Najeeb was a huge dope... Literally, a huge dope! He used to do like 17 joints a day! Was really good at covers because I guess... They were all cool... But no good at creating music I guess... Because creating something requires a lot of patience and you gotta edit and re-edit and recreate... Which wasn’t his game I guess. It was mid 2007 and Ammar finally splits... It was simple, but a result which had become inevitable... He wanted EH to be a cover band and nothing more. We had to fucking get after his ass to play our one original song at that time! Tere was no way we could have been able to record anything while he was around! Didn’t stick to much but sleep and dope I guess! He left the dope... And then left us!

HU: Who did you guys hire to fill Ammar’s big shoes?

ZI: We got another Ammar, Ammar Tareen to join the band. This young sprite of energy had it all... The spark, the creativity, and most importantly the passion to be part of EH. I saw him a couple of times in the crowd cheering for us. And during some song I was playing he raised his hands in a double horns towards me, and I put it all together... I had already seen his powers... And I could see his interest... So I went ahead and messaged him through Orkut! And just two messages down, he was almost at my place to say "Yesss!!!! I wanna join Eleventh Hour!!!", it almost seemed like he was granted a huge wish to join us!

HU: Haha, must have been awesome to get someone sober and more importantly, passionate, to join the band, right?

ZI: Honestly, I couldn’t be happier to let him in. We began to record 'The Season Ends'. Ammars work is as fine as you can hear it on the demos, his fingers gliding on the frets was almost unbelievable... His passion was something I always upheld. And we all liked him a lot. Really good guy... Very creative and very energetic... In August 2007, rite after the release of our demo entitled 'Lunging Snakes', Ammar Tareen left for the US for higher studies. He left to study abroad, and to set his sights towards a purpose, don’t leave us because of a fight... So we’re cool with him and we are still in touch with him. He let us fucking record our entire material from April 2007 to August 2007, which had been otherwise clogged. This includes 'Quarry', 'The Season Ends' and 'Lunging Snakes'.

HU: If I remember correctly, you guys asked Jonathan Jones to join the band, who was with the band NAFS at the time. Weren’t NAFS a rather soft band? How did you guys know that Jonathan would fit right in?

ZI: To be honest, I would say at the time Johnny volunteered, I wasn’t too sure if he would be able to work too well in EH’s speedy thrash trials! But, I guess Johnny wanted to play some speed metal! We auditioned him at a jam... And voila! He was in!

HU: And now Johnny’s an integral part of the band, right? He even did most of the mixing in the 'Time for Murder' demo.

ZI: Yeah, he was able to pitch in immediately for the next demo where his input and solos were very profusely highlighted. 'The Rusted Chain' was recorded at Nadir Michael’s place, he was the guy who mixed all the songs on the 'Lunging Snakes' demo. Jonathan then mixed 'The Rusted Chain'. The other song, 'Time for Murder', was mixed and recorded by Johnny alone.

HU: Why did Eleventh Hour change their name to Venom Vault?

ZI: On November 4, 2008, the band decided to change its name from Eleventh Hour to Venom Vault, mainly because EH was always a temporary name and the band was to choose a name best suited to and in conformity with their music style and lyrics. Also, Eleventh Hour is an extremely overused name. There are probably hundreds of bands with that name, and there are film production companies etc. with that name too.

HU: Do you think metal is a restrictive genre?

ZI: On the contrary, metal I think is a complete universe in itself! It envelopes an entire array of musical styles and spheres... There is �ber diversity in it, so to speak!

HU: What is your opinion on the Paki scene at the moment? Things sort of peaked in 2007 with the success of Orion, but now things are looking bleak.

ZI: The Paki scene in metal is real fucked up... Metal is almost non-existent here and a lot of bands have just dissapeared... Only a handful of people show up on metal gigs...

HU: Do you think that the current political situation is a factor?

ZI: The current political situation is, yeah, a factor, as in how it affects metal in Pakistan... But even if there was no political turmoil, I’ve come to the conclusion that Pakistan really doesn’t get metal... It gets sufi rock... Glam rock perhaps... And gay rock like Jal... But that’s it. For me yeah there have been moments when I’ve hated the killings and the political bullshit that kept pouring in from all kinds of channels. Hence, some of our songs. And as far as outlets go, metal is the perfect outlet for anger, hate and misery.

HU: Metalheads in Pakistan are sometimes stereotyped as being un-religious, and in a country like Pakistan that’s like a very serious crime, at least that’s what our elders say. Have you ever had any trouble of the sort? Also, there are people who think that making music is something a Muslim should not do and the hardcore Islamists say that it is illegal and all that junk. What’s your opinion?

ZI: Faith is a personal thing, it’s what you believe. Personally I have not felt that kind of questioning or opposition from my parents or friends and I guess the thing is basically that music is something I do and I love to do... BUT it is not the only thing that I do. I mean it’s not a means of pure and total earning for me. It’s not my bread winning job so to speak... Therefore, there’s nothing wrong with it.

HU: Yes, but there are people, like my old Islamic Studies teacher, who have the narrow minded opinion that music is illegal, haram (* note to reader: haram is an arabic word which means illegal *) and even if you aren’t making money from it, it’s still wrong. He called it the devil’s creation, hahahah.

ZI: Well, you see, I believe that music is God’s creation. And one example which I would like to quote is that God made these notes which we use in music...

HU: But other Muslims can argue that God also created the pig.

ZI: But we don’t use that!! Haha!!

HU: Haha, alright go on.

ZI: God used notes in his azaan and and David and Bilal used it. Muslim poets used poetry.

HU: So, CAN music be used to earn a living if you are a devout Muslim?

ZI: Well, my opinion is that music is not comparable to selling liquor or drugs and cannot be termed as an addiction which drives you astray. Selling music is like selling any art or craft. If all arts and crafts are haram, then selling music should be haram. Music is only a part time thing in the lives of most Muslims. So even if I was making something to beautify someone’s fucking life why should it be haram?

HU: But art is a very broad term, isn’t it?

ZI: Yeah, but I meant to say that music is an artform definitely. What does my music do for you? It makes you happy for like what? 6 or 7 minutes? Does it ask you to go fuck someone? Or kill someone? NO it doesn’t. It is an audio art. A fucking ornament.

HU: Do you have support from your family?

ZI: I have support from my parents and wife, because they see how I make my art and they see me as a person in my professional life which makes them even prouder because I handle so many things altogether.

HU: How do you manage running a family, working a full time job and making music? Does the pressure get to you?

ZI: It’s tough to handle but compromises have to be made. And I have no intention of leaving Venom Vault because family time, office time and VV time are all assorted. But I must be honest. In the beginning I like so many people out there was not comfortable with the whole music and faith thing because I just didn’t get it. Then my wife was really helpful in making me realize what I was doing and why I shouldn’t think that I’m doing something wrong religiously. So since my wife and parents are OK with it, I don’t feel any guilt. It’s all GREAT! I’m happy feeling that I’m making people happy and myself happy.

HU: The 3 songs on the 'Lunging Snakes' demo were perhaps on the more melodic side of speed / thrash, especially with the Judas Priest /Iron Maiden influenced solos, with the exception of the title track, and the 2 songs on the 'Time for Murder' demo were more rough and harder. What’s the direction that you guys are gonna undertake on the upcoming album?

ZI: Well I guess we don’t mind adapting to some diversity in our stuff… I love the shifts in tempo and heavy styles... I suppose the most powerful driving force in my extent of composition is how I "feel"... If I’m mostly angry at stuff then I guess I wanna make crazy, fast, heavy shit like 'Murder' or 'Snakes'. And yeah, some of the stuff that were making right now, is pretty angry... But, yeah, one thing which is kinda happening for the first time is that other band members have started contributing more to the songs... Johnny has penned out some riffs for songs, and we are currently recording stuff initiated by and kinda put out there by Hassan’s riffs.

HU: I’m about to wrap the interview up, so tell me... What, in your honest opinion, sets Venom Vault apart from other Pakistani bands like Odyssey, Communal Grave or other international bands for that matter?

ZI: Well, I guess our genre is pretty much defined as thrash / heavy metal... Regular huge thrash metal bands have done things which we are doing cuz we are influenced by them. I guess you can say our main elements are Metallica, Megadeth and Testament... I don’t know how many bands out there sit down and make that decision very intently... The decision of identity, of "what the fuck are we?", "what do we do?", "what makes us what we are?" I guess for most people this is something they keep pending till they’re fucking 80 and about to die off!! Hahahaha!!

VV on the other hand, will not make something that sounds like R.E.M. one day and then cover slayer the same day the same stage and then play Bryan Adams! And dude, bands do that... And you know what?? It’s cool with them! And it’s cool with their audience too! But then, how do you define such a band??? I guess for me it is just something they don’t get it themselves. But for sure, it is something I’m not comfortable with... And I won’t ever do this.

HU: Thanks a fucking lot for the interview, Zia. I’m not a religious man but it pleases me to see that people in Pakistan can be loyal to their religion and be open-minded at the same time. It was a pleasure speaking with you, I remember the first time I heard the 'Lunging Snakes' song and I went “GOD! This was made in Pakistan?” Haha, got any last words?

ZI: Yeah, fucking know what the fuck you are and do what you fucking love doing!

01/09/2009 13:48