'Our Main Goal Is To Be the Biggest Metal Band Out There' - Bloodywood's Jyant Bhadula Representing New Delhi, But Ready to Take on the World

For now, Bloodywood are doing a fine job of melding the music and inspiration of their home with metal on their Nu Delhi album, but singer Jayant Bhadula tells Full Metal Jackie their ambitions are bit more lofty that the buzz they've generated so far.

"Honestly, And it can sometimes sound childish but this is our main goal is to be the biggest metal band out there," says the singer. "That's what we all want at the end of the day. We're boys who are playing metal, so for us we want to be on the absolute top and we'll keep working for that. So if we are even an inch closer to that [with Nu Delhi], that would be the best place to be."

The band's third studio album is turning heads and Jackie speaks with Jayant about the response to the band from the Indian community, making sure to share a bit of their culture within the music while finding ways to relate to audiences of the world as well and the singer also name checks some other bands that metal loving fans should investigate from their homeland.

Jayant also shares some advice from the perspective of an independent artist who had to navigate the music industry from scratch and he offers some insight into how their multiple collaborations with Babymetal came about.

Check out more of the chat below.

It's Full Metal Jackie and this week we're super excited to welcome to the show for the very first time, Jayant Bhadula from the band Bloodywood. The group issued their new and that is with an "Nu" Dehli album earlier this year. The title is very fitting as much of this record not only rocks but also pays homage to the community and music that's surrounded you.

It's been a steady rise in recent years in different parts around the world, but how has the Indian community responded to Bloodywood's success and now shining even more of a light on the culture and music?

So before I go to the proper answer for that, you need to understand that the metal community or the metal scene in India is very small. Especially if you look at our population and you look how many of people are genuinely into the sound of metal itself, the numbers are very small.

So in those terms, we and this album got the best reception we could have thought of. Every person that we've met from the community or the scene itself has just appreciated what we have done with this record and it's very nice to see.

But apart from that, what we have noticed with our music now is there are a lot of people who are just entering this sound, telling us that, "Oh, we do not listen to metal, but we've started listening to you because it just connects with us somehow." I think it's a good place to be, honestly. So the reception in India as well has been very, very warm.

Bloodywood Featuring Babymetal, "Bekhauf"

Jayant, in the Expect a Riot documentary, you detail some of the band's independent beginnings. It feels like it's harder than ever for bands to break through these days. And I realize that every case is different, but what were some of the biggest challenges you faced along the way? And do you have any advice for bands trying to take that next step to recognition?

Oh yes, absolutely. So the good thing with us is that we're very eager to learn. So even if it was like there were a lot of challenges, we were having a lot of fun with those because we were getting to learn a lot of you. We want to know new things about how the industry works, how you distribute music, how you basically do everything because the first album was absolutely independent.

From the videos, even this album we did the same process but we obviously are signed with PLF now. But the initial phases of just understanding how the distribution channels work, how the publishing works and how you have to organize everything, the release and everything so that you can have everything out on the day of the release itself, all of that we got to learn. It was fun basically facing those challenges because we had to learn everything from scratch and how the international market works.

And the advice I'll actually give to any band out there who wants to pursue metal is just that YouTube is your best friend in terms of understanding and learning the business.

Whatever questions you have, just go ahead and research the ever living [shit] out of it. That's the only way I can tell that. That and there are no dumb questions no matter whom you are speaking to. Even if you feel that the question you have in your mind is dumb, go ahead, ask it and get clarity. That is the way you can safeguard yourself and not sign bad deeds, basically.

Jayant, one brilliant piece of strategy finds you pairing up not once but, but twice with Babymetal on songs. "Bekhauf" features on your album while you also did a feature for a song on their latest record and now you're also touring together as well. What was your introduction to Babymetal and why do you feel this musical collaboration has worked out so well for both sides?

In terms of introduction to the sound of Babymetal, generally all of us kind of have the same sort of experience because we were seeing a lot of hate towards Babymetal on the internet and that made me curious that why is this specific band getting so much hate right now?

And then I went ahead and heard the music and I was like yeah, this is absolutely one of the best pieces of music I'm hearing because it's two words that shouldn't meet but they've just created something so nice, the world of J pop and metal just coming together.

To me, it was very interesting and I was like, the hate is unjustified because it's very good. The music is very good, the vocals are very good. All of it coming together is very good. And that was my first interaction with their music.

Then, we were doing a tour in Japan in 2023, and for our Tokyo show, we were informed that Koba Metal, who is the producer for Babymetal, was there at the show.

He brought us a lot of gifts, a lot of merchandise, which we were very thankful about. And basically that's how our introductions happened in person. Then eventually you have "Bekhauf" and "Kon! Kon!" on their album. So that's how it all happened.

Jayant from Bloodywood on the show with us. Touring will always present you with challenges, but now you have a great story to tell. I understand while on tour in Frankfurt, some of your band almost weren't allowed back in the venue due to a laundry incident.

Yes.

How do members of the group need a rescue to get into their own show?

See, this is a little mismanagement from our end as well, because we kind of sort of knew that people have started queuing up outside. But laundry is very important because we do not carry that many clothes, so we really need like laundry every three days or four days.

So Karan, Vishesh and Raoul went ahead and they were like, "We can figure this out. We're gonna go and do get our laundry done," because a couple of show clothes we required weren't washed. So these guys went ahead and by that time I was like, "It's already 6pm the gates should be open by now."

So basically they ended up doing was they had to to make their way through the crowd. And I don't think they had their passes with them. So these are the Indian guys, so they must be the band, they didn't want to do that. But [security] were like, "Hey, if you don't have your cards, you need to figure out other way."

We basically had to call our tour manager and get them in. It was very funny. It doesn't sound funny when I narrate it like this, but when it happened, it was very funny because these guys are just had their hoods on and were just walking between the crowd. Some people recognized them and then they were like, "Shh. don't tell anyone we're here" and all those shenanigans. They had fun with it.

As I mentioned before, Bloodywood's latest makes a concerted effort to embrace and incorporate your life and culture into the music. As a songwriter and a storyteller, how much fun was it to create the song "Tadka"? It's not every day we get a metal tribute to Indian food. And for all the references thrown in, was there anything left out because it just didn't work lyrically within the song that you would have liked to have mentioned?

The song "Tadka" essentially comes from us missing our food when we are touring and we tour quite a lot. So the first few days are always like, "Oh, we'll eat things from the country we're at." But eventually we're like, "Hey, I would do anything to just get like a good home cooked meal."

That's where the whole concept about "Tadka" came from. We were like, "Hey, I might as well just write a song about it." And we did not leave anything out or any stone unturned. Whatever our utmost honest feelings were, we just put it on the paper and it made the song.

But it's not just about Indian cuisine. The reason the song is about Indian cuisine is because it's from our perspective, but it's kind of applicable to anyone around the world who misses that comfort food when they are in a situation. Sometimes caring for that comfort food really helps you when you're having a bad day.

So it's kind of like that in our head that the song is not just a tribute from our side, but also for people who miss their comfort food or the caregiver. Because eventually if you listen to the song, you'll see it's about actually the cooking of a mother figure. That's how we put this out there. And I believe that it's for everyone to just enjoy and celebrate whatever food they like.

Bloodywood, "Tadka"

With Bloodywood, you speak in the documentary about the importance of having something to say. There are some songs that are light hearted but with other songs, there's more seriousness and weight to them. Over the course of making this record, what were some of your favorite discussions about what you wanted to represent through the music?

Discussions have been had through and through. It's very hard to pinpoint one favorite or two favorites because it's kind of like you're choosing between your kids, if that makes sense. Each and every song that we do, we put out our hearts and soul into it. And every conversation that is around the song, it gets deep. For example, whatever I want to say in the song, I make sure that it's completely on the table in front of everyone. Then we break down each and every part of it. And that's when we decide that this is how we're gonna write. This is how we're gonna approach the song. This is how we're gonna convey the message so that everyone can eventually associate with it.

So discussions have been very heavy. But I'd say the discussions about "Nu Delhi," for example, because the song itself is a tribute to the city that has given us everything. So when we were discussing that, we were talking about all the fond memories we have. My friends, the job I do, the education I got, everything is because of the city, if that makes sense. And we wanted to make sure that we pour that heart out and pour that love on the city properly on the song.

It does.

And also, we really did want to make a statement with the song and the album. It says that New Delhi had entered the global metal chat and we are here to stay. So we made sure that all of this goes into the song. I'd say we did a good job, at least in my opinion.

Bloodywood, "Nu Dehli"

I do have to say I love how the rap and metal work together. Between yourself and Raoul [Kerr], it's obvious he's got some great flow. While the music is very much rooted in metal and heavy riffs, was the rap or hip hop influence always part of the grand idea? And who are some of the acts that influenced that blending of vocal styles?

We have always been a fan of the hip hop genre on its own and when you're already into the sound, it's very easy to just fuse that with whatever you're doing. That's how it happened with us introducing Indian elements as well, because we're so familiar with the sounds, because we hear it every day on the streets or whatever, that it was very seamless for us to do.

Like, hey, if you put this instrument there, it just comes together really well. And it was the same with Raoul as well. We never like, "How do I formulate an approach?" It's more driven by emotions and what we feel.

That's why, because we already like the genre itself, it was easy for us to just see rap there with our music. And some of the acts that inspired us to do it would be Linkin Park or Rage Against the Machine. We're big fans of those bands.

When we did a track with Raoul, the first track we did with him was actually him featuring on the track. As soon as we heard that and what the output was, we were like, "This has to be a thing, at least for us."

Speaking about breaking down stereotypes, you mentioned earlier, "This is New Delhi entering the metal chat." You are knocking down walls and breaking barriers while bringing something fresh to the table. Just as people continue to discover you, who are some of the acts in metal that you feel people should be paying attention to?

Oh, wow, that's a good question. I don't know. India has a lot of great bands that people should pay attention to in my absolute honest opinion. I've listened and heard music from some of the bands that are my absolute favorites to this day. And these are the bands that I heard when I was a child.

Kai, however, from India is great. People should really pay attention to them, specifically the ones who like that progressive metal sound. They should really check this band out called Skyharbor.

Then you've got Demonic Resurrection that is the band is headed by this guy called Sahil Makhija. They just toured with us in Europe and U.K. They've completed 25 years. They play death metal. But again, a great band, a great, great, great band headed by like a great personality who's been one of the flag bearers of Indian metal.

Then you've got Cry. This one is one of my absolute favorites as well. There's a band from Mumbai called Scribe. Those guys make really great music. I would recommend to anyone, if they want to search for the band, to search for the song called "1234 Dracula." It's a great track. I name these three bands that people should pay attention to.

Scribe, "1234 Dracula"

Jayant, this feels like an important record for the band in your growth as artists. At the end of the album and tour cycle, where would you ideally like to see the band viewed within the music industry?

Honestly, And it can sometimes sound childish but this is our main goal is to be the biggest metal band out there. That's what we all want at the end of the day.

We're boys who are playing metal, so for us we want to be on the absolute top and we'll keep working for that. So if we are even an inch closer to that, that would be the best place to be.

Thanks to Jayant Bhadula of Bloodywood for the interview. The Nu Delhi album is available now. Be sure to stay up to date with the band through their website, Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube channels and you can sign up for their Patreon. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio show here.