Psy ‘O’ Circle is slowly making its way into the Delhi music circuit. lead singer Vinit Rai speaks to Shrabasti Mallik about the band’s quirky name, the members’ love for classical rock and their future plans
How did you get into musicIJ What were the early influences and inspirationsIJ
I have been into Indian rock circuit for the past few years and am still an active member of Pune-based Vedic rock band Bhramm. When I moved to Delhi in 2013, I wanted to explore a different genre than the one I was already playing in the past. Since I’ve grown up listening to artistes like Aerosmith, Doors, Iron Maiden, Guns N Roses and others which have been my initial influences and have inspired me to venture into music. So I teamed up with my guitarist friend Sarthak (whom he met at a Tech Support company they used to work in), after months of struggle and searching we got Varun Verma, a young and talented drummer and Suraj Biswas, an innovative bass guitarist. We jammed for two months and gave a debut gig in April at Kaulfest, organised by a Delhi based veteran rocker, Arjun Kaul.
How do you look at the burgeoning Indie scene in the country with so many platforms available today, from reality shows to dedicated channelsIJ
Platforms have always been there in some way or the other. Yes, we can say that in today’s world it’s quite easier to approach those platforms. But again, if it’s convenient, then it’s not just for one artist but for all. So in any way or the other, every artiste needs to stick to the basics, that is, making good music first. Still I’d agree to the point that distributing your music is quite easy today as compared to past decades, owing to the growing trend of the internet. The Indian artists can always do better than just going for TV auditions, because reality shows are just a source of entertainment.
How did you come up with such a quirky name for the bandIJ
I wanted a fusion of psychedelic with rock-n-roll. I wanted a name to reflect the kind of music we were playing. We wrecked our brains for a month before finalising on Psy ‘O’ Circle.
Which genre of music would you classify your music toIJ
As the name specifies, all our compositions have a psychic feel to it; not necessarily in a dark way. For example, Psychopomp is more like having fun, playing your own music, competing with a fictional character like Grimm Reaper. While on the other hand, Post War Rock describes the pain and disaster caused by a war and likewise. So we tend to experiment a lot with rock-’n’-roll and blues, apart from adding the pyschic feel to it. But still if we have to name a genre then it’s rock-’n’-roll, because the rest flows within this.
Did you draw influence from masters like Rolling Stones and the BeatlesIJ
Oh yes, definitely. An artist should never forget the basics. Playing in the genre, its quite obvious to draw inspiration from the likes of Beatles, Rolling Stones and Doors. Infact, what we play today is placed on the foundation that they laid.
What is it about old school metal and classic rock that attracted youIJ
Old school is something that gives a raw feel and that’s what rock-’n’-roll is all about. Moreover we members, share a common love for classical rock.
Share with us the experiencing of putting together something like Psychopomp.
Psychopomp’s story is not a very dramatic one. When we were at the initial stage of forming this line-up, our guitarist Sarthak Bhattacharya suggested this as a name for the band. But later when drummer Varun Verma and bassist Suraj Biswas also joined, we realised that naming our band Psychopomp is going to restrict our musical ideas. Instead, we decided to make this our first composition. When I started writing on it, I did a little research on psychopomp. According to a Greek myth, psychopomp is a fairy guide that escorts the soul to their rightful place after they leave Earth and in return he gets paid in gold. Grimm Reaper is said to be the last of the psychopomps, who illegally (as per their laws), started bargaining with human spirits. And in our case all we have to bargain over is our rock-n-roll. So basically, all four of us are in a game of rock-n-roll with Grimm Reaper so that he can spare our souls. But if we lose, our spirits will have to serve him as a slave for another 1,000 years. It sounds funny, but we love the ring that the story has.
Any reason for such a unique name for a debut albumIJ
Usually, every band tries to set an individual identity with their first album. We, too, wanted the album to be self-titled. It’s just what we felt right.
Is there any specific target for your kind of musicIJ
Honestly, had this been year 2000 then I’d have really struggled to look for a good answer for this question. But today, the scenario has entirely changed. I believe India is the only country where we have listeners for every genre — be it rock, metal, blues, pop, Bollywood, hip-hop, country, jazz, classical, new age, world — and the list goes on. I think we are living in the most healthy phase of Indian music. Although more than 60 per cent people are still influenced by Bollywood music, but the scenario is changing slowly and acceptance of artists like Parikrama, Indian Ocean, Pentagram, Demonic Resurrection and Kryptos are examples to justify this. Now thankfully, people know and can very well differentiate between, ‘popular music’ and ‘good music’.
Tell us something about your forthcoming projects.
For now we are just trying to focus on the pending recordings which we are doing with Delhi’s famous sound engineer, Sahil Dhingra. Once we are done with that we’ll be launching our EP followed by a five city tour. We just started in February and have already done over 10 gigs within just three. Now we are close to launcing an EP and already have over 500 organic likes on Facebook. This might be nothing for a big band but I believe that when they started, even this much would have been more than they could have expected.