Interview with Kieran Dhanjal, guitarist of Ishtar Terra
WORDS & Interview by Meerat Kaur
Kieran Dhanjal, guitarist of Ishtar Terra // Photo by Luke Batchelor
Extreme metal band Ishtar Terra will release their debut EP on 28 August 2024. The Reading-London based band features two brothers of South Asian heritage, Arun and Kieran Dhanjal on drums and guitar respectively, alongside Charlie Webb (vocals) and Adam Kingsley (bass). I caught up with Kieran to learn more about life, music and his love for the heaviest of metal.
Meerat: Tell me about yourself
Kieran: I grew up in Slough for almost half my life and then I moved to Bracknell. So there were two very distinct times. I was a child in Slough and where I grew up changed a lot over the years. Then we moved to Bracknell and that kind of felt like home to me. I started to grow up there as I got into my teen years.
I very much enjoyed being a kid. There was a lot of fun, especially in the little cul-de-sac that we lived in. There was a very good community and we would all have street parties in summer. We’d have gazebos and have Diwali parties, and it was great. Then that kind of got taken away when my parents separated.
I saw music stuff as just something I did in my teens. And then something happened where I just decided to pick up my guitar one day and play
M: How does this influence your music and your relationship with metal?
K: So I felt as if from that moment and as I've been growing up, I’ve been trying to reclaim that joy in music. It's about having fun with it and just being as childlike as I can. Even though the music isn't very childlike in itself [laughs].
It comes from a deep place. It comes from a place where I can let go and it just comes out of me. And I like that a lot about metal itself, and especially the kind of metal I play. It's a very bodily experience and I don't have to think about it too much. I can just pick up my guitar and something comes out. It's akin to just being outside with your friends and just playing games. Not thinking about it too much, just like you connect to someone on a level and you make up a game and it happens.
I've been playing guitars since I was 11 and I started playing drums when I was 15. I took a long break between the ages of 17 and 21 when I didn't pick up any instruments. I was in a pretty bad place mentally. I saw music stuff as just something I did in my teens. And then something happened where I just decided to pick up my guitar one day and play and it was like a spark. I was 21. And from that moment I got deep into it again.
I came up with the idea of the band in May 2021 because I felt like I had lost a lot of fun in my life
M: How did Ishtar Terra form?
K: Ishtar Terra is the first band I've been in. I was furloughed during COVID-19 and I took the time I had off work as an opportunity to try and write some songs. I wrote about 25 songs which were awful. But I got into the habit of thinking about music differently and thinking about playing my instrument differently, structuring.
During Lockdown I wrote the last track off the EP. And it was the first song I'd written that I was happy with. I didn't think it would go anywhere at the time. I came up with the idea of the band in May 2021 because I felt like I had lost a lot of fun in my life. I didn't even know what the band was going to be and didn't have any songs yet. But I knew I wanted my brother Arun (drums) and bassist Adam Kinglsey to be in the band.
I spent the next 3 months just writing the songs on my guitar. I didn't write for any of the other instruments. I wrote 4 songs and then tacked on the song from Lockdown. I showed them to the guys who liked them, and helped me realise there was something in this.
We had our first rehearsal in November 2021 and rehearsed a lot the year after, just the 3 of us getting the songs down. I then asked Charlie from Muscle Vest to do vocals, and he came on board in May 2022.
The EP aims to take you on a journey and down into an abyss
M: How can people listen to Ishtar Terra?
K: The first EP will be released on 28th August 2024, the single is coming out on 14th, and we’re currently putting together the second EP.
It's a 90s sound. The inspiration is that old-school death metal stuff that is incredible, heavy and so intricate at the same time. Other influences are Metallica, Slayer, The Dillinger Escape Plan. Meshuggah is another one and no other band’s going to sound like that. They do their thing and keep doing that, and are bands that have changed the genre.
M: What can people expect from the EP and what were you thinking when you put it together?
K: The tone I wanted was a Metallica tone. I wanted the riffs and the chaos of the songs to be kind of like Dillinger Escape Plan.
The EP aims to kinda take you on a journey and just take you down into an abyss. To be like, oh you've had enough light, you've had enough like seeing what's on your other side and we’ll take you back to where I want you to come. I haven’t quite cracked the code yet, but in my mind that's kind of what I want. I got there on the last track [Ouroboros]. The track is like 3 distinct parts where it's quite heavy, chaotic in the beginning, which then it goes into an ambient section. The riff completely changes. Then it comes back and gets really fast and tends to be a bit chaotic towards the end which I like.
With Arun being such a great drummer, he's put a groove on it. Him and Adam in tandem are such a great rhythm section. They're not metal musicians. Like, Arun doesn't use a double bass, it's just single. Only me and Charlie are really really into metal and Charlie more so than me. So he understands the assignment of the vocals in that sense and I leave Charlie to do the lyrics.
Adam and Arun dip their toes in [to metal] and we have some crossover listening to death, or black metal. So I love that they take their own influences and have been able to take what I've written and make it move. Arun locks in with the rift that I'm playing. He locks in with whatever Adam is doing and he plays around in that. And his playing is very intricate and has a lot of feeling behind it. And even though the riffs are metal I don't think the drumming is, which adds a really cool dimension.
And I like that when I showed them the songs, what they come out with, I could not have imagined myself. If I was to play them as one person, they'd sound completely different. And I like that it's completely unexpected. And hearing it come to life in a way I never thought we would. And each song has its own life in that sense.
M: Any last words from you?
I just hope people enjoy the EP and book us for gigs, cause I really wanna play.
About Meerat
Meerat Kaur has been a reluctant Londoner for 22 years, but grew up on the amazing Bradford metal scene. Having been a band photographer in her youth, she is now making the most of her love for people, stories and words.