Sceneazine.com
Slant
By Jeri Jones
Slant: to take a diagonal course, direction, or path.
Slant has been bringing forth pure, positive music
since they have formed. Call Slant hard rock, power
rock, progressive, or alternative music Slant is giving
us all a taste of their perspectives on the world through
“music.” SLANT recorded their debut album “A Thin
Line,” (signed to & released by Gotham Records) in
2005, featuring the emotionally powerful and original
singles “Broken Wings” & “Trust,” rounded out by an album-full of tracks conveying thoughts & emotions that
almost everyone can relate to, no matter where they’ve
been or what age they are.
Slants dedication and drive to make creative and
insightful music for their fans, has landed them recognition worldwide. They’ve traveled internationally
throughout the USA bringing positivity and inspiration
to listeners.
Let’s start off by introducing the band. Who are
the members and what instruments do they play?
Fahim Zaman - vocals/guitar
Munir Haque - guitar
Jimmy Lee - drums
Josh Chastain - bass
Let’s assume that the readers have never heard of
your band. What do you want them to get from this
interview?
Munir: I would like the readers to gain a personal feel for the band and its members. For instance, my
favorite movie is “Stand by me” and I love useless facts
along with rocking out on stage.
Fahim: I agree with Munir, I’d like people get to
know a lil bit about who we are, the type of music we
play, and what we are about. Some people may not
know that outside of music I have an interest in sharks.
So how long have you guys been playing in this
band? Is this everyone’s first band they’ve played in or
have they played others
we may of heard of?
Munir: Slant is the
only band I have been
a part of; this band was
started by Fahim and I
over 10 years ago. Jimmy
and Josh joined within
the last 4 years.
Fahim: This is my
first rock band, I was in
a hip hop group called
Joint Differences before
Munir and I started
Slant.
Who in the band
came up with your
name? What, if any, reason did you guys choose
it? Does it have a meaning behind it or does it
stand for something?
Munir: When we
first started jamming we
started throwing names
back and forth. Slant was
just one of the names that
stuck. The meaning of the
word basically is an alter-
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nate perception or another way of viewing something.
That’s basically what we do with our music. Slant is our
perception on music and the songs we create and play.
Is there one person who writes all the songs or do
you guys write as a band?
Fahim: On the first two records, I’d usually have the
lyrics done and the main guitar riff of how the songs
would go...and that’s how we’d write before. On this new
record I feel like it was a true collaborative effort, the
songs kind of became what they are with everyone’s input as the ideas became the songs they are. There were
some songs where I had written all of the lyrics, but I
know for alot of these songs I would ask the guys for
help with “how to say this” or “how to say that...” so I’d
get their perspectives as well. Majority of the music, the
structures, and even the lyrics were a true collaboration
of all four members.
Jimmy: Everyone brings their own inspiration to
the table, there are life events and emotions that fuel
our music. The “Hope Created” album was a joint effort that we are all excited to have the world hear when
it comes out April 17th.
Where do you guys usually gather songwriting
inspiration? What is you guy’s usual songwriting process?
Fahim: We like to write from our own experiences:
feelings, events, & things that we’ve gone through... We
do our best to articulate them into music. - Fahim
Munir: Our upcoming release “Hope Created” was
very much a collaborated project. We all took on portions of creating the whole album , everything was collective, from the guitar riffs, lyrics, drums, bass, down
to the s [\\ˈ