Several weeks ago, the metal blogosphere was charmed by The Snake Charmer, who posted a medley of Lamb of God songs on bagpipe accompanied by a guitarist. It was impressive enough for Lamb of Gods Chris Adler to take notice. We were even more impressed when we found out that Archy Jay was from New Delhi, India, where the bagpipe is an incredibly rare instrument. Inspired by digging through her YouTube page and seeing more covers (Eluveitie, the Game of Thrones theme, etc.), we decided to reach out to her to ask about her influences and what made her a metal bagpiper.
How did you come to learn to play bagpipes in India?
I had [been] the vocalist for an alt-metal band a few years ago. About when that band disbanded i discovered Eluveitie and was absolutely amazed by the music, especially the bagpipes! I had only heard bagpipes in army parades, that too rarely, but this I was completely inspired by. I went on a little crazy obsession on how to learn this since no one here teaches bagpipes. Its a pretty rare instrument. So I researched a lot on the internet for a lot of months and then with a the help of an E-book i learned bagpipes for close to two years! It was crazy and i could do it only cause i never wanted to learn or do anything as bad as i wanted this! When i had no more material to learn I went to Scotland to take a quick 5 day course, and all of that plus a lot of practice is what my playing is about.
What goes into your covers?
I like to experiment differently with my bagpipes. I pick my songs carefully and have a wonderfully talented producer called Karan Katiyar who arranges the music and mixes them in the most badass ways he is also the one playing guitar on the LOG medley. We go over every part of the music critically before we ourselves approve to put it out.
