Dark Light is a four-piece psychedelic and progressive rock band who started out earlier this year. Dark Light has managed to look beyond competitions to land gigs at venues such as the Humming Tree. The band, which comprises vocalist and lead guitarist Mohammed Uvais, vocalist Jose Xavier, keyboardist Anand Pilakkat, bassist Kailash Suresh and drummer Shakthi Prasad, are on a mission to leave audiences in a trance with their trippy rock, but also aim to create the energy of stadium rock.
The story behind the band
We were all playing in different bands and came together quite by accident. It all began when Shakthi, who was working in Mysore at the time, came to Bangalore for a week and walked in on (Mohammed) Uvais jamming in the Infosys jam room. They were shortly joined by Kailash on the bass, who was a friend of Shakthi’s and played with him in the band Distortion Culture. Anand, a friend of Uvais’s, joined in as the keyboard player. Then after a long series of bizarre incident, surreal auditions and quirks of fate, they were joined by Jose on vocals, thereby completing the lineup.
You guys play music because
All of us have very different tastes and influences, but after we started jamming our sound began to gravitate more and more to a progressive space and since progressive rock encompasses all forms of music, it came quite naturally to us. Some of our major influences are legendary progressive bands like Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree and Tool.
You’ll still remember the time when
The most fun gig so far has undoubtedly been playing at Sea Rock 2013 in Goa (at BITS Pilani). We finished third and it was the first time the band had participated in a competition. We really loved the vibe and energy of a college fest.
The toughest part about being a young band
It’s been smooth sailing for us so far, and we have enjoyed performing across Bangalore. Audiences have been very receptive to our music and to progressive rock in general. We just wish we could play a bit longer (like past the 11 pm curfew).
Story behind the name
We were brainstorming one night, when Anand came up with the name and it struck a chord with all of us. We are not quite sure what exactly it means. Perhaps it means different things to each one of us and besides, all band names are abstractions. “Lucy N’ Fur” was a close second but we figured it was 30 years too late to use it.
Musicians that inspire you
Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, U2, Opeth, Guns N Roses Radiohead and Led Zeppelin.
Compositions over covers
Playing covers is not necessarily a bad thing as long as it’s fun for both the band and the audience. It’s given us a sense of what we need to accomplish technically as a band and has helped us improve our performances. But we certainly would not like to be reduced to a cover band; we have three original compositions so far intend to launch our E.P soon.
Follow Dark Light on Facebook.com/DarkLightTheBand
