Hi guys, firstly congrats on an awesome comeback into the music scene with a bang! How was the experience as a whole?
Thank you most kindly. Though Rushad’s sex life isn’t how we want to be remembered by. Oh, you mean as in our return with some impact. Sorry. The experience, as any musician will tell you, is mad-mad. But mad good, I would add. The roller coaster never stops in this business. Sometimes it’s a trip and sometimes you want to retch. But mostly we’re tripping.
Changing the name from Rock Machine to Indus Creed, has anything changed in the style of music you make?
Our sound and style has altered as we’ve moved forward, I think. That’s evidenced through each of our albums, where we’ve tried to explore new territories. It’s more fun when you play with your music, not just play it. Right now our sound is where we’re at—in this moment. It’s large, melodic and right-here-right-now.
Your new album, Evolve, is highly anticipated by fans. However you have played a few songs live with great response. What influences do you bring to songwriting?
Our influences come from many different places, not all musical. Creating music comes from the wider experience of life. It could be the state of the world or the state of your mind—maybe that’s the same thing. Musically we are all sponges. We absorb—subconsciously and intentionally—the sounds and ideas that make our blood flow to the right places. It’s an incredibly fertile period in India—the world!—right now and people are creating amazing shit these days. We’re loving wallowing in the chaos.
What has been your best show till date? By best I mean wildest and craziest.
No way to answer the ‘best’ part. We’ve done a lot of wild and crazy ones. In the upper reaches of that list would be a gig we did years ago in Manipal, at MIT. We arrived to discover that all the alcohol and weed in Manipal and the surrounding towns was sold out; the students had been stockpiling for days. It showed during the gig. They were blotto beyond repair. But not enough to let us go when we finished playing. They made us stretch our 1.5 hour set to 3 hours. They just wouldn’t let us get off stage. So we just played the entire set again. They were so smashed they couldn’t tell.
Tell us about the gear you use on stage.
That’s a tough one—it’s varied. Mahesh plays a PRS, which he endorses, plus an Ibanez and a Les Paul. He uses a TC Electronics effects processor and a shitload of analog pedals. Runs all that through a Marshall usually. Zubin’s arsenal contains high-tech elements made by Korg, Virus and Yamaha to which he includes his trusty old Roland D-50. Rushad swears by his Warwick bass, which loves more than anything in the whole world. Jai plays a Pearl drumkit, Zildjian cymbals and Vater sticks while he chomps on tasteless Whoppers. I play a modified Fender Strat, which I run through a simple chain of distortion and chorus and occasionally step on my Boss AC-3 acoustic simulator. But I prefer the real thing to the simulator which I get from my Washburn acoustic guitar.
If today you weren’t musicians, what would each of you be doing?
Zubin would be conducting Navjot orchestras, Mahesh would run the best prawn curry shack in the city, Jai would eat there every other day, Rushad would be chasing Parsi chiquitas at Zubin’s Navjot soirees and I would be filming the whole darn thing.
Who are your top 5 bands/artists—Indian or international—and why?
There are no tops, only bands that swim in and out of our playlists at different stages. We’ve each got varied loves. I’ll try a wild guess at some kind of collection of our current tastes: Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, Foo Fighters, Deftones, Meshuggah.
What can we expect from Indus Creed in 2012?
The new album Evolve! Which we will tour to the heavens and then some. And then we’ll write more and record more and play more. It’s all about creation and release.
Do you have any message for your fans?
Yeah! But the album, spread the word—and the music—and come to our gigs. We’d like to make friendship with you.
Just in case any of our readers don’t know, where can we find you and your music online?
We’re at http://www.induscreed.net, https://www.facebook.com/IndusCreedNow, https://twitter.com/induscreednow and http://www.youtube.com/induscreednow. When the album’s released at the end of April it’ll be on a smorgasbord of outlets, including the likes of Flipkart, Infibeam, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and more, more, more. Cheers!
