Just as a bottle of wine tastes better with time, so does music, which rings true with popular rock-and-roll band Parikrama, who’ve been in the indie-music scene close to 25 years now and have only grown from strength to strength.
The Delhi-based band, in town to perform at the NH7 Weekender, Shamshabad caught up with MetroPlus for a brief chat.
Did you have time to reflect on the music you’ve made in the past?
When we create something, we subconsciously try to be better than what we did before. The quality of our previous number sticks to our mind and we only try to better ourselves each time.
What do you do when a particular track doesn’t pan out the way you expect?
We shelve that particular track for the time being and move on. In mind, we almost work on 20 songs at a time. We switch to another one and come back when we’re in the right zone.
Has ageing been a factor at all?
Fifteen years back, we were these maniacs who jumped at everything we got. Now we care more for the little things, such as the stuff we eat before a gig, the spontaneous improvisations we make (we know ourselves enough now). We still have the vigour in our music, we think it has taken a different form though.
Is the adrenaline rush still the same?
Even before we enter the stage, people are going nuts now. We were thrilled with the responses we got for international covers. The high that we get for our original works though is still unmatched. For instance, ‘But it rained’ continues to elicit the same response as it did 15 years ago.
Your personal and creative lows that you had to handle
It’d be very interesting to say that we struggled so much to get here, but honestly, things have been generally smooth for us, God has been kind. All these years, there has been no sense of desperation or regrets at all. At our best, we were performing at a rate that 20 bands would perform in different cities.
Even as individuals, we have matured in handling the creative differences that exist. Ultimately, we all are different individuals with different perspectives, but our goals remain the same.
On the evolution of many genres and bands in the indie-scene
Aren’t there more genres than bands now? When we started out, there were only thrash metal and metal bands in the country. Still they are music at the end of the day. There are so many bands that sound so good on stage but you don’t listen to them in your car.
The experience of live music is truly being celebrated, people are learning to enjoy them.
