Seamlessly blending diverse elements in music can fetch you attention, quite organically. Ahmedabad-based Aswekeepsearching achieved popularity by innovating the largely instrumental sound of post-rock by arranging lyrics written in Hindi over them.
Merely five years since inception, they’ve two albums (namely Khwaab and Zia) and multiple Europe tours to their name and have become a significant name in the Indian rock circuit.
It’s with the same proactive force that vocalist and guitarist Uddipan Sarmah now drives forward for a seven-city solo tour featuring new renditions of the act’s older tracks—right before the release of the quartet’s third album, Rooh.
“This Monsoon Tour is to make sure that Aswekeepsearching’s music reaches places where the entire band can’t be present. The solo set will feature stripped-down versions of songs from past albums but with live electronica, guitars and vocals,” says Uddipan.
To dig a bit of history, we ask the young musician if he was a solo artiste earlier. “Before Aswekeepsearching, I used to write music alone but was always part of a band. I’ve been working on this new solo set for a while and has resulted in me experimenting with electronica,” he says.
His debut lone performances also come at a time when the whole act seems to be leaning more towards developing their vocal content. While, sophomore release Zia attracted the attention of rock enthusiasts for the use of diverse instruments like tabla, sitar, violin, and cello, Rooh is more vocal-oriented as heard on the recently released title track.
“For the Monsoon Tour, I’ve also added vocals to old instrumental songs like B303 which never had lyrics,” informs the guitarist.
Since he dropped a hint, we prod further to know more about the upcoming release scheduled to be out on September 27.
“We’ve chosen simplicity in our approach to music but it sounds fuller,” comes the seemingly paradoxical answer. “We’ve influences from music ranging from electronica to singer-songwriter style, and the songs feature instruments like saarangi and violin,” he adds.
Even before he started his solo musical journey in Bengaluru on August 16, he had been travelling across the country for album listening sessions. Uddipan will be flying to Kochi and Hyderabad for such forums (RSVP on their Facebook page) besides his performances in which he shares the stage with Mumbai-based singer-songwriter Mali.
Tour dates:
August 24 at Nosh Haus, Kochi
August 25 at The Moonshine Project, Hyderabad,
August 29 at Fun Republic Social, Mumbai
August 30 at TopCat CCU, Kolkata
September 1 at Urban Mantra, Guwahati
September 4 at The Finch, Delhi