If the first year is any indication of how much of an impact your band will make in the future, Mumbai alt rock band Daira have had it pretty good. Formed in late 2014, the band immediately went to work on their songs in the studio with producer/guitarist Vishal J Singh, releasing their nine-track album Daira in September. Drummer Pratik Kulgod recalls that pushing the album out was essentially a do-it-yourself effort. He told us, “We still take pride that we did it ourselves. We were turned down by venues for our launch gig but we still went ahead with it wherever we could.”

In the last few gigs, the band has already brought out new songs like ‘Bhookamp’ and ‘Mahaul’ that will find a place on their second album, tentatively due by the end of the year. One of the first new songs following their debut came when the band applied to take part in band competition Dhun, where they were required to write an entirely original song about skill and talent. ‘Basar’ was born out of that, even though the band was suspiciously barred from the competition, with organisers citing that Daira were a 'professional' band. Ahead of their gig at Hard Rock Café Andheri in Mumbai tomorrow Kulgod also says they’ll perform songs such as The Joker-inspired ‘Mazedaar’ and their most recent composition, ‘Lailaj’, which they performed at B-Flat Bengaluru last month. Kulgod adds, “You will hear a better version at HRC.”

With the album still in pre-production stages, Daira have set their sights on shooting and releasing a music video from their debut album, although Kulgod prefers to leave the track name to be guessed. While they released a performance video for ‘Kaabil Jahaan’ via MTV Indies in October last year, Daira are working on a story-based music video. Kulgod adds, “We might have something by the end of the month.”

Daira performs at Hard Rock Café Andheri on February 11. RSVP on their Facebook event page.