Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean will take the stage yet again at its usual music address in the city, Someplace Else, at 9.30pm on Sunday. But one member who will sorely be missed is Asheem Chakravarty and his signature voice and rhythm styles on the tabla. Asheem, who quit his advertising job to set up the band, died of cardiac arrest last December leaving fans in a state of shock. The band is now limping back to life on stage without its favourite member whom the boys fondly remember as “the resident guru of the Soch Mat school of thought”. Guitarist Susmit Sen tells t2 about Indian Ocean sans Asheem....

How is Indian Ocean coping without Asheem?

It hasn’t been easy, obviously. I had been playing with him for 28 years, that is even before we had set up the band, and going up for the first time on stage without Asheem was hard. We’ve been alternating between tabla players and vocalists and auditioning musicians but it’s not easy to replace Asheem. He would do everything from the tabla and percussion to vocals. Nobody on earth can sing like Asheem. He had his own identity that lent itself to the band. But then the show must go on and now we’ll have to look for someone with a different identity.

Susmit Sen

Have you found anyone to fill his shoes yet?

To get a completely confirmed line-up will take time but we three (Susmit, Amit Kilam, Rahul Ram) are there. We’ve had Tuhin Chakraborty and Gyan Singh alternating on the tabla and Himangshu Joshi and Sudhir Rekhari have been filling in on vocals but it’s going to be floating till we find someone permanent. It’s been 20 years of performing together and we can’t rush things in about four months.

How has the band evolved?

I’d say Indian Ocean has been through three stages. The first was when it was formed. Second, when the vocals came in and third is the one without Asheem. We’re about to release our next album in July, which will belong to our second phase when Asheem was very much around and sang and played for it. I’ve never been able to explain our sound in words but whatever we end up doing, we can’t run away from our inherent selves. The stylisation of the songs is typically Indian Ocean but the compositions are very different.

Tell us about this new album...

It’s called 16/333 Khajur Road. It’s named after the address of the place where we’ve been practising for the past 20 years and what fantastic memories! There are seven tracks and we’ll be releasing one song at a time every month from July onwards for free download on our official website and then we’ll go ahead with the solid release. Like our last two albums, this too will be produced by us under our label. It’s very important for the rights of our songs to remain with us.

What about making film music after Black Friday?

Yes, film offers do keep coming. We’re not going out to fetch ourselves work in films but when they come to us and we like the concept, the money and the people, we do it. It has to be our kind of music and that is the expectation of those who come to us with offers. We like doing it because we have that kind of liberty. We’ve just completed the music for two songs in Aamir Khan’s Peepli Live and talks are on for some other projects. We had also done the music for Avik Mukhopadhyay’s Bhoomi but since the film ran into trouble with funds, it never released. We’re using that music in our forthcoming album but we’ll give the film a licensing agreement to the music once they’re ready to release the film.

How does it feel to be the subject of Leaving Home, a first-of-its-kind film on an Indian band screened nationally?

It felt really good. It was the first time ever in the history of Indian bands to have a big-screen release for such a film. It was about how the band was formed, our journey and there’s a lot of music from our live shows and rehearsals. It captures for posterity the answers to all those questions that people always ask us. And that’s a very special feeling. The film ran for two weeks in Pune and the reviews were good, so we’re happy for Jaideep (Varma) who spent four years on us.

Mohua Das

WHAT’S ON YOUR PLAYLIST

Neel Adhikari, singer and guitarist, Span and Five Little Indians
1. The Tourist by Radiohead
2. Stranger Things Have Happened by Foo Fighters
3. Hurt by Nine Inch Nails

Srinjoy Sengupta, 28, banker
1. Dil kyun yeh mera from Kites
2. Dhanno from Housefull
3. I Know You Want Me by Pitbull