Bangalore’s ambient/post rock band Until We Last released their debut EP, Earthgazing, this week; marking the band’s first checkpoint, spear heading the Indian post rock movement. The six track EP in its simplest form seems like a look through Until We Last’s eyes, for a day; opening the album with a sweet toothed guitar melody – painted in this writer’s wishful imagination as the rising of the morning sun – the album dutifully pans through the ‘gaze’ of an innocent mind, ending the record with chiming bells sprinkled across a night sky. Guitarist and founder, Ketan Bahirat, is not one to fool around trying to spin too many words together in an attempt to realize his musical thought process. Ask him what Earthgazing is about, and he replies: “It’s is like a moment of looking at the earth, understanding and taking in how beautiful it looks,” with alarming ease. Delving deeper into a conversation with the guitarist gives one a clearer picture of the band’s inherent drone like simplicity, which reflects in their music – universally christened, post rock. “I mean the only word that can sort of define it [Until We Last’s music] is post rock,” a slightly bemused Ketan announces. “I mean that’s a generic term; but we haven’t come up with our own words or anything.” Ketan counts names like American post rockers This Will Destroy You, and Explosions In The Sky, as influences on the band’s sense for music; with elements of rock, punk, and even metal, that the members have grown up listening to, bleeding into the record.
 

Photo Courtesy Myriad Hues and Nikhil Unnikrishnan
 

Having spent considerable periods of time jamming with the band, Ketan feels that writing is his favorite part in the whole process; “Writing has always been fun,” he tells us, “Because we love jamming, improvising, and coming up with new stuff.” The EP is the work of nine months of intensive labor; featuring all new material, save for the band’s crowd favorite ‘To Space and Back’. With the guitars and bass tracked in bedroom recording sessions with Rahul Ranganath from alternative rock band The Bicycle Days, and mixed by guitar guru Keshav Dhar; the drums recorded at Bangalore’s Audio Academy studios; and, the record mastered in London; the band has gone to distant lengths to ensure the perfect sound. “They [Audio Academy] also had a huge warehouse in the back,” Ketan tells us, “Where they used to have orchestras, and stuff like that. So, we actually recorded the drums there for some of the pieces; that was a lot of fun, because it was a massive warehouse, and we recorded natural reverb from there.” 

Until We Last made its first appearance in 2011 as a one man bedroom project with Ketan taking the reins, among the first few musicians from the Indian music circuit to tread over the softer grounds of post rock. “First, in the beginning nobody understands what’s going on,” Ketan tells us about his previous experiences playing for the budding post rock fandom. “But, when the vibe is nice, when the place where you are playing also understands what’s going on, and when everyone gets into the mood; it gets very involving, and it gets fun.” Growing into a four member band from a solo project, and playing much loved music across stages in India, Until We Last are the post rock pin up boys. And while audiences are lapping up this EP, Ketan tells us that there is a full length album in the making. “We have already started writing,” he says, “We’ve written a lot of new material. We want to try out doing more new stuff by the end of the year.”

Stream Earthgazing by Until We Last on SoundCloud below: