Every time we’ve seen Bengaluru-based electronic music producer Rishabh Iyer perform under his moniker Worms’ Cottage at a club, there is always an air of awkward nervousness around him, whereas his quiet, dark and downtempo music is completely next-level. When we ask him about his experiences performing live, it is no surprise to hear Iyer say he is still working on it. “Live performances have been strange to me for multiple reasons. But I think if I approach it differently, I might enjoy it. I think some clubs are open to a lot of different stuff, I just need to be more comfortable myself.”
Worms’ Cottage’s debut album Tour Guide Impostor and first EP ‘Happy Dancing Spirits’ both showcased a sort of laid back layered style of electronic music that also included elements of hip hop.
While Iyer calls Tour Guide Impostor a record suited best for the evening, his new album Standing Feathers is for when the sky goes pitch dark. Lyrically, he says he is singing about “different thoughts and feelings that tend to creep up at night.” Iyer says the album was inspired more by staying inside rather than wandering out. He says, “It is not really (inspired) by being outdoors, but by being indoors in a nice place, like Himachal. The previous album was more of outdoor stuff. I usually make music at home, but I was lucky to have made some of these tracks in McLeodganj.”
The 12-track album is the first release by Bengaluru label Consolidate, founded by producer Rahul Giri (from downtempo electronic music duo Sulk Station). The debut solo release by any artist, Consolidate previously featured Worms’ Cottage track ‘Borokhun’ on their sampler compilation earlier this year. He says of being part of the label, “It is encouraging. And you get to learn a lot of stuff for free. As a label, they helped polish the album.”
Earlier in August, a trippy new video premiered for the song ‘Instransient Love’. He says about the video, “I had thought of the video a long time ago, and just accidentally made the track which I thought would suit the video. The name ‘Intransient Love’ came with the idea for the video.”
Who would have thought a producer could think of a video first and then the song? Turns out there is no fixed process for composing that Iyer follows. “It is different for every song. Sometimes I am trying to convey a certain feeling, or I might be playing around with a guitar track I recorded till I land on something. The only common factor is that I write the lyrics after I have a track, and I let the music dictate the lyrics,” he says.
When asked if he is ready to hit the stage again and get behind his synthesizers, mic and a laptop now that Standing Feathers has released, Iyer says he won’t look into a launch gig right now. The Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology student, who is currently studying film, says college is hectic right now. Until then, we’ll have a mellow, dark trip of an album that is Standing Feathers .
Standing Feathers is available on consolidate. bandcamp.com
