Pune and Bombay-based freak funk project Run Pussy Run is out with its debut video and single with a composition called Roaches. The single is the first off RPR’s upcoming EP, which will also feature other compositions like Octopus Mother, Long Wait to Death, Lady Lustitia, and more.
The song was written by Gowri Jayakumar (guitar, vocals), while she was waiting at the Mumbai airport. She saw a bunch of cockroaches scuttling about, which set a series of riffs and a storyline in motion. At a metaphorical level, the song also explores the acceptance of uncomfortable living — one fraught with dirt, filth, fear and stagnancy.
Mumbai-based multi-instrumentalist Jose Neil Gomes features on the track on psychedelic violins, especially in the dream sequence.
The video is a collaboration with Pune-based LMB Productions — led by director and animator Anurag Ramgopal. Ramgopal was initially supposed to simply gather footage of the band while they recorded the single, but thanks to circumstance, could not make it on the day of the recording. However, later when Jayakumar and Ramgopal caught up over coffee for the first time, a world started culminating in his mind. "As I was telling him about my world of roaches, he kept sketching little landscapes into his notebook, and I knew he was in!" says Gowri.
With limited budgets and resources, the only way to go forward was by making it a collaboration. Ramgopal's team own most of the equipment they use, which made things easier. And in between commercial work and deadlines, Ramgopal's team stayed up nights on end to sculpt the roach-filled world. The whole video took about a month to come to fruition, and its launch was supported by two concerts — one in Pune on High Spirits following the day when the band was stranded in the Bombay rains — and one at Antisocial, Khar, on another day of rains and visarjan, to a great audience.
The entire project is self-funded, independent, and has been brought to life by every member of the band and the video team.