ADITYA VARMA

Five-member New Delhi-based Hindi progressive rock band, Antariksh, released their debut album, titled Khoj, on September 8 at the Blue Frog in New Delhi. The album, which showcases a blend of pop, rock, funk, and progressive sounds, features 11 tracks, mixed at the Quarter Note Studio by Gaurav Chintamani, and mastered by Steve Nagasaki at Nagasaki Sound, USA. Telling us about the experience of recording their debut album, Varun Rajput (guitars and backing vocals), said: “It was pretty fantastic. This was the first time we were working with Gaurav and we spent about three and a half months in the studio. It was a long process, a lot of work; we never realised that there would be so much work [laughs]. The idea was to bridge the progressive rock world - the kind of stuff we’ve played in the past - with Hindi lyrics, which kind of gave us the drive to explore this more.”

The album is a melting pot of veteran musicians, featuring guitar solos by the likes of Baiju Dharmajan for ‘Tum’ and Gaurav Chintamani for ‘Aashayein’, guest vocals by Rini Rajput for ‘Intezaar’, and bass work by Sid Mathur for ‘Aashayein’.

We caught up with vocalist and frontman Mridul Ganesh, who said, “This is our debut album.  I would like to call it a concept album because all of the songs are kind of tied together with one single thought. The idea behind Khoj, basically, is to step back and look at situations in your life that are important. Look at things that motivate you, things that cause you fear, things that drive you; and, to write about them in an attempt to learn about yourself. For example, ‘Dheere Dheere’ focuses on feeling lost in a crowd, peer pressure and not being able to do what you want to do; so, it’s just taking situations like that from life, writing about them and by reflecting on them, trying to learn about them. That’s the common theme that connects the 11 songs of the album.”

Watch the official video of 'Dheere Dheere' off Khoj below:

In addition to Rajput and Ganesh, the band also includes drummer Vipul Malhotra, guitarist Gurtej Singh (aka gT, ex-Prestorika), and bassist Varun Kapahi, with both Rajput and Ganesh having also played in Feedback, the prog-rock band from Delhi. “We have been a part of the scene, so to say, as part of different bands for ages now,” Mridul said. “I used to be a part of Under Siege and gT used to be a part of Prestorika, so we come from that background; we all love progressive rock, so we got together a year back and we really wanted to bring that form to Hindi music.”

Khoj by Antariksh is available for purchase here