"A Word" With Lee Erik Joseph From Soul Vomit and Co-Founder Of Stampedes.Inc !

Lee Erick Joseph fronts one of Pakistan's most popular bands Soul Vomit and who recently along with Kamran Ata launched the first Rock/Metal Magazine and Ezine in Pakistan "Stampedes.Inc"

Soul Vomit went on a hiatus for a while, but recently the band came back with a new song "New World Holocaust" which will be part of their upcoming album, currently in the works.

Stampede.Inc specializes in promoting rock/metal music in Pakistan and internationally, it will also be organizing shows, releasing albums and alot more plans are in the works for the Magazine which is currently online at Stampedesinc.com


I got the chance to ask Lee about Soul Vomit, launching Stampede.Inc, the scene in Pakistan, booking gigs and alot more.

Here's how it went:

TMR: I'd like to start this off, by congratulating you on the launch of Stampedes.Inc, how was the dinner launch?

Lee: We had a great time at the launch, got to meet up with other guys from the team, sharing the same ideology and perspective on music altogether. Actually here there is a select clique who even knows about the underground or the heavy metal scene here and from those there are even few who would step out to support it.

But hopefully with this first phase of the Stampedes.Inc launch people are forced to think that there is a movement that actually are coming forward to support the cause. So it was a great moment to be around people who actually are stepping forward to support the Underground Music scene here in Pakistan …



TMR: Can you tell us about the concept behind Stampedes.Inc?


Lee: Initially being a community for Rock and Metal underground bands. I have been organizing Underground concerts for the past few years. One day a very old friend “Kamran Ata (Founder/publisher of Stampedes.inc)” who have been supporting the scene through radio shows and television since many years, came to me with this idea of a magazine for underground bands and artists, I really liked the idea as to what I have faced all these years, I wanted to bring a change and do something for our music scene here in Pakistan. And here we are www.stampedesinc.com.

The purpose for the Stampedes.Inc is to support and flourish the underground bands and musicians who have been shadowed by the ever changing trends.

Providing a platform where the music and musicians can be heard by everyone.



TMR: Did you face any problems, while setting up the site?

Lee: Not much apart from the finance problem, but we are working somehow, and of course we are looking for support.



TMR: What’s next for the Magazine?

Lee: The first phase is the e-zine, through which we can support the bands here, to arrange concerts and workshops and then finally getting it on print by the end of this year.

Further more we even plan Stampedes.Inc to be a Label, to record/release bands and artist of the underground scene here, as well as on the international level.



TMR: How’s the scene in Pakistan?

Lee: The scene here in Pakistan is pretty much dead.

People here don’t even support the general rock scene, heavy metal being far way.

And even for many metal heads here has become a status symbol which really sucks.

Basically here people don’t really have much knowledge about rock/metal music . They mostly prefer up-beat and cheesy love songs, bollywood movie songs in other words people here appreciate entertainment rather than music.

There are only a few metal bands that actually play live, mostly they record and release rather than going for live gigs due to lack of metal musicians.

The old bands like Northern Alliance, Autopsy Gothic, Messiah, Corpsepyre, etc have disbanded and don’t play anymore.

The only new live band that I have seen coming up is the past years is Communal Grave, they play Melodic Death Metal, they are recording a self produced album and are pretty kick ass live.

Apart from that in 2008 bands like Reckoning Storm, Cardinal Sin, Berserker, Odyssey, Venom Vault and a few more have released their tracks, would be a good scene if they work on to play live gig, then maybe we can have a change .



TMR: Is it easy to book gigs, or do you guys face problems getting it licensed?

Lee: There is no such thing as a license here, you just need to get permission from the district office, where you pay a certain amount of money and you are good to go. It’s not that hard to book/arrange gigs, the problem is to get the crowd to some for the gigs, only the band’s fans attend these gigs.



TMR: Apart from Co-founding Stapedes.Inc you also front thrash metal band Soul Vomit, what can you tell us about the band's music ?

Lee: Soul Vomit is a Progressive Thrash Metal Act Hailing from the City Of Karachi.

The alliance was formed in 2002,

In the start I had no idea what we were doing, everybody was coming from different musical background, I was the vocalist of the band, but I preferred guitars as I started playing guitars only a few months before we formed the band, so I quit the vocalist job and became the guitarist.

Later in the years the other guys moved because of musical differences and I was left with just my vocalist. We disbanded in 2006 because of musical difference and I had a hard time getting all the guys together for jams and stuff.

Fueled by the current situation of my country I was forced to give life to Soul Vomit once again. I mean most of the world watches bomb blast, killing, terrorist attacks etc on TV, We live it here in this hell, here it seems as if we are at a fukin war, and to me it’s the perfect recipe for Metal Music …

Soul Vomit is my ventilation to the Anger, hate and frustration that burns inside of me.

In 2008 I got back with Aneeq Zaman “Dethroner” who used to play bass for Autopsy Gothic; they were one of the starting bands of the underground scene here.

Right now Aneeq and I are working on the CD “New World Holocaust” which will contain some old tracks of SV with the new sound.

I am handling Guitars, Lyrics and Vocals

And Aneeq handling the bass and drum programming part.

I am also having a lot of problems with Soul Vomit’s line-up, because it’s hard to find people who actually want to play metal here.

We are searching for a drummer, so once we are finished with the recordings we can start playing live once again.



TMR: Do you plan on releasing a full length in the near future ?

Lee: SV is working on the CD “New world Holocaust” at the moment, which will be out by the mid of this year.

For music/tracks log on to

http://www.myspace.com/soulfukinvomit



TMR: What about shooting a video?

Lee: Soul Vomit is the first band in Pakistan to shoot a metal video; the Track was name "One", this video was released among the listeners in late 2002.

Due to the Corporate Media Policies of the Music channels here the Video was not aired.

A Link to the Video

Apart from that we are planning for a shoot for the new track “New World Holocaust”, most probably by the end of April, so watch out for that.



TMR: I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and congratulate you once again on the launch of Stampede.Inc, would you like to add anything ?

Lee: No man thank you for inviting me and helping in spreading the word,

I want to thank The Metal Reporter, Jorzine and the Iron Markhor and every individual for their support towards Soul Vomit and Stampedes.Inc

Join the group on facebook for news and updates on the band.



And also make sure to check out the newly launched Stampedes.Inc


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Coming up:

Reviews for
Lamb Of God - Wrath
Iris Divine - 4 Song Demo

and alot more to follow....