In conversation with Sulk Station about their new EP, Dheere/Deewarein

A lot of fans woke up on the morning of April 16, to a pleasant surprise — new music by Sulk Station after more than half a decade
Sulk Station. Pic: Ketaki Joshi
Sulk Station. Pic: Ketaki Joshi

A lot of fans woke up on the morning of April 16, to a pleasant surprise — new music by Sulk Station after more than half a decade. The band, which consists of husband-and-wife duo Tanvi Rao and Rahul Giri, just released a new EP, titled Dheere/ Deewarein. “It feels like coming home,” Tanvi shares when asked about how it feels to visit the project after so many years, adding, “I’ve felt more at ease since I began working on these two songs.” The two-track EP is haunting with its reverberating melodies.

Sulk Station was formed in 2009, and the duo made waves with their moody, jazzy, piano-driven music and the album, Till You Appear in 2012. “We were relatively active till 2016. That’s when we decided to stop performing live. Since then, we have been working on Sulk material on and off,” Rahul tells us. Tanvi has been teaching music and learning classical piano, and Rahul has been working on the city-based label Consolidate and performing under the moniker _RHL. The duo says that their music has evolved over the years and has become more minimal and more song-centric, as opposed to sound-centric.

The two songs in the EP, called Dheere and Deewarein feature Tanvi’s signature sultry vocals. “The songs are almost skeletal. It’s mostly melody-driven. The melodic contour follows the nostalgia inthe lyrics. The bare minimum pads, bass and samples add a surge of warmth,” she says. “I write a lot of melodies on the piano but it’s been really difficult for me to write lyrics without over-thinking and going in circles. Many songs have come and gone this way. So this time, I just sat down with these two melodies and decided to write simple ideas. I’ve been feeling more comfortable singing in Hindi nowadays but my Hindi is not great. Rahul helped me translate my ideas,” she adds.

Talking about the current lockdown that’s in effect, Rahul says that it will severely affect live music in Bengaluru, which was already in a bad place due to the shutting down of many venues. “This is going to be really tough. With most venues shutting down before the lockdown, the live music circuit was already facing challenges, because of issues with permits and licenses. So it will definitely take at least a couple of years to recover,” he concludes.

Dheere/Deewarein is available on online streaming platforms

anagha@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @anaghzzz

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