It has only been a couple of months since the last edition winded down, so it is understandable when Subhash Rao, the brains behind the country-wide Broken Roads tour series, says planning has been hectic and nerve-wracking. He is putting together a five-city tour for Bengaluru metal band Final Surrender, who will launch their new album Nothing But Void between October and November.
A band with a drummer like the prolific Jared Sandhy (who is also often flying into the U.S. for shows with American metal band Day of Reckoning), Rao says this edition of the Broken Roads Tour was completely spontaneous. Subhash adds, “I did have a lot of artists approach me asking me to help them out and even after the tour was announced, many artists wrote in to me or called me asking if they could be a part of this tour. The fact that so many established artists and well-groomed musicians wanted to be a part of this tour is overwhelming to say the least.”
Unlike the August edition which featured Mumbai rock band Last Remaining Light and Bengaluru rock act D’s Kitchen touring together, Final Surrender are the only fixture on this tour, while local acts will be added to the lineup in each city. For instance, earlier this week, they were joined by Mumbai blues/alt rock band The Tripp, while their Bengaluru launch on October 30 includes a set by prog band Pineapple Express. Subhash explains that the idea for having local bands, throwing out any genre restrictions, was to promote indie music across the board. “It wasn’t a decision made on any financial model or anything but maybe as a selfish sort of thing where I can say – ‘I did that!’” laughs Subhash.
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As for Final Surrender, they are playing these shows as a four-member act, heading out to Mysuru on November 5 and Mumbai on November 23, with an additional date in Chennai and more cities yet to be confirmed. Jared says about their live set on tour, “This time will be more sludgy, raw and bone crushing to keep things single guitar oriented, so the fans are in for a treat.” While Mysuru isn’t a regular stop on most bands’ itinerary, Jared says they’ve always had great shows in the sister city. “With Final Surrender this is our fourth time around playing in the same venue (Purple Haze), and surprisingly we have had the most craziest response from our fans playing there. We have had a couple of situations where the gigs have been sold out.”
They’ve been prepping five hours a day with rehearsals, with the setlist slated to include songs off Nothing But Void and their previous album Empty Graves . One of the major changes in terms of sonic direction is sticking to a raw metal sound instead of the fusion experiments on Empty Graves . Vocalist Joseph Samuel says, “ Nothing But Void is definitely the darkest album we’ve written till date but we’ve intentionally kept it abstract, it is focused more on a soul-searching experience. Everything we see and tangibly feel through life in its entire beauty and agony comes with an expiry date, and when you reach the end of it you are left with an inescapable sense of meaninglessness.” This reflected in Joseph’s inability to find a reason to write as well. “This is us being honest about our issues; in pure helplessness we’ve tried to capture that void,” he says.
Jared, who also took over production duties on this album, says there is more in the works following their Broken Roads tour shows. He adds, “We are definitely coming out with a music video for a single that will be out soon, and we are planning to do a world release with our label Rottweiler Records and add more gigs to the year-end.”
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Final Surrender and Pineapple Express perform as part of the Broken Roads Tour at Indigo Live Music Bar, Koramangala on October 30. Tickets: Rs 450, with Rs 200 cover charge.