PARIKRAMA has been around in the music scene for 28 years now, and have performed in countries including Russia, USA, Canada, Vietnam, Muscat, Bhutan and Nepal. The classic rock band, which also includes elements of Indian music in its soundscape, was the first Asian band to perform at the Download Festival in 2007, and open for Iron Maiden in Bengaluru, the following year.
Since 1991, the band has been around solely on the basis of singles and live gigs. They’ve also been giving listeners free access to music, and playing for various causes, while pursuing their own respective professions — all, without making any noise.
Although formed as a college band, meant for a duration of just four-five months, to play classic rock numbers by Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Rolling Stones, the band has continued to thrive and outlive several others. Their sole mantra — sticking to the basics and keeping rock music as authentic and simple as possible.
This June, Parikrama will be coming out with a video of one of their most famous songs, Tears of the Wizard. The song’s video, which was inspired by the character of Gandalf the wizard from the Lord of the Rings, is directed by Sujit Jha and captures the scenic beauty of the Mechuka valley in Arunachal Pradesh. The video has been produced by Sanjiv Monga's GooseOnDaLoose Films for the Tourism Department, Govt. Of Arunachal Pradesh. Sanjiv is also the co-director of photography, for the video, along with Raja Sengupta.
“We never used to record our songs or make videos until now, but we are changing that policy, and we will be coming out with more videos, singles and originals very soon. There are many songs that we are working on, from our old repertoire to the new ones. Tears of the Wizard will be the first to be released, followed by a few more,” informs Subir Malik, one of the band’s founding members.
“Millennials are more active on social media, and visual content usually gets promoted faster than audio content. So, for the kids today to start listening to our songs, they need to have more visual content,” he reasons. The Tears of the Wizard video will be the first big release by Parikrama after But It Rained, though there was another one called Colourful Wonderland in 2014. But this will be on a bigger scale.
“Tears of the Wizard was created when we were writing songs for the Download Festival in 2007. We came up with five to six different ideas, from which three songs came out including, Am I Dreaming,” recalls Sonam, the lead guitarist. “Nitin came up with a very Gothic riff, resembling the behrawi raag in Indian classical music, which we further developed. We decided to include a lot of violin in it as well, as we had to cater to Western audiences,” he explains.
Nitin Malik, an ardent Lord of The Rings fan, whose song Am I Dreaming is based on the character Frodo shares, “Gandalf is my favourite character from LOTR, and though he is usually seen as a powerful and invincible character, I have portrayed his vulnerability in this song. Gandalf The Grey is killed and resurrected in the second part of the movie.”
Interestingly, Nitin’s wife Indrakshi Pattanaik Malik styled the look for all the band members in the video, which features Nitin Malik as the lead vocalist, Sonam Sherpa and Saurabh Chaudhry on guitars, Subir Malik on keyboards, Gaurav Balani as the bassist, and Srijan Mahajan on drums.
“The video is not just about the band, but also the natural beauty of Mechuka Valley, which is right next to the Indo-China border, surrounded by mountains and a river flowing past it. We were disconnected from all sorts of communication for an entire week, but it felt like heaven,” shares Sonam with a smile.
Parikrama will soon be travelling to Macau for a performance on May 5, and another one in Dubai on August 16. In the meantime, both Sonam and Nitin are working on more easygoing and melodious songs for their upcoming releases. “We are concentrating on the soulful side of Parikrama as of now, which includes softer numbers like Till I Am No One Again and Open Skies, where you can enjoy the music. But there will be a few heavy numbers too,” adds Sonam, who also runs the Parikrama School of Music.