One underlying theme at Tech Fest was the sense of inter nationality through music, none more so personified than by the Heavy Metal Ninjas. Our Maori mates came all the way over from New Zealand to deliver their own brand of instrumental Metal, that truly astonished the crowd at the performance on Saturday’s main stage. Though before hitting the stage we were able to speak with the band about how it feels to be in the UK for the first time, what some of their influences can be put down to and what we might be seeing later this year from the ninjas!

Was it daunting to play to a different crowd? 

Exciting man! People that wanna hear our stuff, you know that you’re just in a different country that you’ve never played before. It just gives you that extra, you know!

Do you find that it’s harder to be an instrumental band in this day and age, or is it easier?

Never thought about that dude! We just are what we are, that’s where the roots are. It’s not like we had expectations you know when we started the whole thing, it just is what it is. We do what we do because we love it. Yeah never thought about it!

So what kind of influences  do you take from? Are there various guitarists, anyone that you look up to?

Steve Vai, Jason Becker, Paul Gilbert, Yngwe Malmsteen, I’m older than I look! I started listening to all the guitar players late eighties early nineties and kind of late nineties Meshuggah. Really big influence

Ok, like Chaosphere and all that sort of stuff? Catch Thirty Three? Or is that a little on the cusp? 

Yeah getting there! 

What can we expect later on this year from your guys? 

New material! 

Can you tell us anything about that? 

There’s guitars on it! I guess in a sense it’s just like being a little bit more mature. Not like how Metallica see it but the last album was a whole period of my life that I just kind of let go. With this one , it’s just all new now. It’s kind of like being reborn like a Christian haha! 

As with all of our interviews this is simply a small section of our chat, listen to the rest of the interview with Heavy Metal Ninjas below!