Mumbai act FuzzCulture's incredible drive to meld intense electronic dance music with grungy, potent rock, surprisingly does not come in the way of their unobtrusive sound. The electronic rock outfit, which started off in 2012 in Delhi as a duo, is now a one-man act featuring Arsh Sharma. FuzzCulture’s new eight-track EP Escape To Where You’re Wanted which released earlier this month is perhaps their most interesting work yet. However, Sharma tells us that his process is often led by his influences and he has no idea what his next album may sound like.
“I don’t know how the next bunch of songs will sound at all (it could be a cabaret album for all I know!). The only thing is that up on stage, I like playing the guitar and performing and hence some of my rock influences creep into the music,” Sharma tells us. The EP’s songwriting is distinctly more cultivated than their earlier work and the sound designs on numbers like All My Friends Are High and Beautiful and Valid, are trippy and unlike anything you could have possibly heard this year. Experimental techno and ambient electronic acts like Aphex Twins and Squarepusher are steady favourites with the artiste, although much like any of us, he did go through an industrial metal phase in college.
“When I was very young (like 10 or 12) I was this crazy metalhead and I used to find all these thrash metal and death metal bootlegs. High school was about grunge and by the time I’d gotten to college I got a little bored of all the rock music I was listening to. College was a lot of industrial music like Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Skinny Puppy as well as bands like Radiohead and Tool,” says Sharma, who is in the middle of writing his next batch of upcoming releases. The artiste does believe electronic music is more self-aware now, but it has space for more imagination and innovation. “It definitely does give artistes a lot more reach and lets them earn a living but as for creativity and art in general, I don’t know how inspiring this mainstreaming and categorisation of music really is. Playing live is my first love in life and the things which make life really happen for me so I absolutely love performing,” adds FuzzCulture.
You can stream FuzzCulture’s new EP on Spotify, Apple Music, Saavn.