Making music might be an ordinary pursuit but setting trends in it is an extraordinary achievement. Indus Creed, touted as the trailblazers of Indian rock music, is one such band that can be credited with some unique work in the field.
The band that has toured across the length and breadth of the world has come up with their new album, Evolve. “We started recording the album in 2011and I guess it's a natural evolution. We took a huge gap to come up with our next since 1995, as we felt that the scope for playing our kind of stuff became less with the barrage of Bollywood music. We had a dream run and we decided to stop as we have always played what we believed in,” says Zubin Balaporia, the band's keyboardist.
Joining Zubin are Jayesh Gandhi on guitar, Mark Selwyn on bass and Mark Menezes on drums. Uday Benegal, the main vocalist of the band, says that band culture being an underground phenomenon in India, their kind of music can never rival the mainstream Bollywood offering. “But we are comfortable in our own space. Our music might not reach the hinterland but still it can reach many people who want to listen to such music.”
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Is the scene any different now? The members of the band opine that people are open to original music. In the 1980s and ‘90s audience wanted them to play Pink Floyd and the likes but today they demand originality. They not just played cover material, they created their own music.
Living in an age of digital downloads that has led the music industry into chaos, do they feel affected? Uday states, “I dispute the word piracy. If a person downloads the music and shares it with his friends, he is actually spreading the word. But if the same exercise is done for earning money, that's wrong. Universal Music is doing a fantastic job with the pricing of the album that costs just Rs.175. People who listen to this kind of music can very well afford the amount. Even the downloadable version of the songs costs Rs. 96 on Flipkart. If people still indulge in such practices, that's an unfortunate attitude.”
Zubin attributes the band's success to the core fan base that has stayed with them for the last 20 years. He even goes on to call them family and the most important reason for the existence of the band.
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How much of the band's own evolution is reflected in Evolve ? Well, the musicians feel the best way to find out would be listening to the album. The songs have been fine-tuned by renowned sound mixing engineer Tim Palmer.
The band is touring Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai and began the first leg of the promotional tour with Delhi.