‘As a band, we’re still a happy unit’

Widely regarded as one of India’s foremost and most popular indie bands, Indian Ocean has been at the forefront of Indian music for over 26 years. And following a journey of rediscovering their musical identity post the split of their founding guitarist Sushmit Sen, Indian Ocean is back for a performance in Mumbai, which the band’s lead Rahul Ram himself promises will be a throwback to what it was that made them so popular.

“Amit calls it a ‘BMK’ (An acronym of its three most popular works — Bandey, Kandisa and Maa Rewa) concert,” says Rahul about what the audience can expect from the gig. Giving us a preview of the performance, he adds, “But honestly speaking, we won’t be trying anything new this time. It will be a mix of all the things that have come to be identified with Indian Ocean,”

While the first hit was the passing of their founding member Asheem Chakravarthy in 2009, many had written the band off when the second one came three years back in the form of another founding member Sushmit Sen’s split from the group.

But after surprising its fans with a collaborative album in Tandanu in 2014, the group, says Rahul, is back to exploring the core of its music. “I really don’t know what it is that made us so popular. But as far as I know, it was a mix of the ‘Indianness’ of our melody and rhythm along with the fresh nature of the sound,” explains Rahul. He further adds, “This is what we will be sticking to for this concert. But we’ll also be playing some of our recent works including tracks we’ve used in Tandanu and soundtrack of Masaan.”

Calling the recent few years a marking period for the band, Rahul says, “The time after Asheem’s passing was a really important time for us. I think it surprised our audience when the first album we did after Sushmit’s split was a collaborative one. So now we will be again moving towards what our audience has identified with Indian Ocean for all these years.”

While Rahul is now the only remaining member of the band from its founding days, he adds that the band will stay on as long as they continue to love and enjoy their music. “We are still happy as a unit and as for Sushmit split, you could say that it had been coming for quite some time. But as a band, we are still a happy unit and that is all that’s needed.”

Telling us a little about what the future holds for the band, Rahul adds, “We are now working on a new album in which we have already finished one song and another one is 80 percent done. We will be getting the album into studio in mid this year.”

Indian Ocean will be performing live today, At Dublin Square, Daddy's All Barr Jamm, Phoenix Marketcity Kurla