When you hear Chennai duo Duality strum together on the opening track ‘Vertigo’, you would really think they took a blazing metal song and played it over two acoustic guitars. It’s from their second album Keep the Change.
One would think that by now, Manoj Sreekumar and Mihir Ranganathan wanted to swap their acoustics for a sleek electric guitar. But it turns out Duality doesn’t really think of it as trading up. Sreekumar says, “I suppose the idea has always been to keep it as simple as possible, without it being a solo project. We have flirted with the idea of having percussion, bass and even having someone back up on an electric guitar on occasion. If our music takes us there, let’s see.”
The follow-up to their 2013 album The First Born , it’s a feat in itself that Duality have trudged on in a city parched of regular performing venues to work up a second album. The duo explains, “It hasn’t been easy for sure. Competing with full-time bands for space on the stage has been a challenge. At the same time, the advantage that comes with being a duo is that we are ideal for more intimate venues. Our audience is often pleasantly surprised because the music we make is not typical or expected of an acoustic duo and that gets their attention. We’ve had many shows where folks have sung along, danced and even head-banged to our music.”
Sreekumar and Ranganathan came together in 2011. They’ve been working on songs for the seven-track album even before The First Born was out. The duo says the years they’ve spent working on this album have resulted in a different, matured sound. “On Keep the Change , we’ve kept songs short and punchy. We also think people will begin to hear a signature sound on this album,” the duo says.
In addition to talking about one-upmanship in the corporate world on their opening track ‘Vertigo’, Sreekumar and Ranganathan share solos, riffs and vocals on songs about haunted houses (‘Accomplice’), unhealthy obsessions (‘Toxic’) and the rather lightheaded ‘Out There’. Not to forget, there’s the rage-reliever track called ‘Shut Up!’, where the band (and their friends adding spoken word samples) let off steam. They also crowd-sourced images and videos from fans and friends for a video which will release later this month. “‘Shut Up!’ will feature a cameo by a popular Indian Indie comic character as well,” the duo reveals.
While it’s acoustic guitar duelling for the most part, Duality called upon Chennai producer Marti Bharath (from fusion/electronica act Sapta) to collaborate on ‘Achilles’, the closing track on Keep the Change . The duo says they worked with Bharath over seven different sessions on the track: “Many ideas from the initial composition were incorporated into ‘Achilles’, quite a few were dropped and several new parts were written together. The final arrangement was entirely put together by Marti.”
With the album available on OK Listen! and other online platforms and the video ready to grab eyeballs, the next logical step for a band that’s been around for five years is to make a mark on a national scale. That’s something they’re working towards, now that the album release is done. The duo says, “Quite a few gigs are being planned across different cities and these should get finalised pretty soon. We’re looking to take our music to new cities, new crowds, and new venues.”
