Eight Octaves: Describe your sound please. Because frankly speaking, I had a really hard time trying to figure that out while reviewing your EP – Sheep
Abhinav: In my head, it’s the sound of a thousand japanese school girls in short skirts. But on a more tangible note, we try to sound like the things we see and feel and experience around us. The best and apt description would be listening to it yourself 🙂
Arsh: The sound can be more or less summarised as something which is constantly evolving. We consciously try to write with no pre-meditated ideas of what the song is going to be and we let it evolve during the writing process. The mood and the sonic nature of the song is completely dependent on our mood and what kind of vibe we want at that point of time. There is no real sonic signature of the band, and it can range from anything from progressive to metal to minimal to post-rock to electronic. It also has to do with the various different genres the band listens to and that really comes out in the music.
Abhishek: Describe our sound…hmm.. honestly it’s a little difficult to pen down our sound and style it in words , to me it sounds like a trial experience where we do not expect a categorized sound or flair .The sound is liberal enough to inflate into varied genres. Why don’t you describe our sound.
Anshul: Explaining our sound in one word is hard for me. We have released an album From space, an Ep SHEEP, and we have our 2nd album coming up soon BATS. All the songs from all these projects are different at some level from each other in terms of their sound. So it’s tough to put all of that together and define it in one particular sound.
Eight Octaves: Who among you guys was the mastermind behind the sound? Who was the first one to develop it?
Arsh: There is no mastermind behind the sound, it is merely just a product of us jamming, experimenting, trying to push what our instruments can sound like sonically, and not having any pre-conceived notions about what the next song or idea should be like. Most of the songs, even our covers are just products of us endlessly tinkering with our sound and jamming till we feel the vibe of the song is right, as a song and as a soundscape.
Abhinav: Since the band is a collective of people, all of us try to mastermind our own sounds, and by extension, our collective sound, in our own ways.
Abhishek: We’ve always made music together under one roof; it’s always been a shared thought.
Anshul: No one in particular is mastermind behind the sound. It has always been a collaborative effort. The sound was developed during regular jam sessions for hours in which spontaneously songs were made while jamming. It has been the same since the inception of the band in the year 2007.
Eight Octaves: What is the story behind the band name?
Abhishek: It was just a name. We’ve started acting upon it since we got the term. I have no idea or a reason to share with you.
Abhinav: It’s like one of those things, that just happen, and you don’t know the what and why. Honestly, I don’t really remember.
Anshul: The name was decided when we got our first gig in 2007 after jamming for nearly 6 months straight. The name “The Circus” was decided spontaneously because the organizers wanted to know the name of the band.
Arsh: The name was a bit of a last minute decision, in 2007 we got offered a gig (which was our first) and we did not have a name till then. During that week only I was talking to a friend of mine who was writing a story called “Circles” , and I really liked the word so I told him that I was going to steal and call the band that. He was adamant that I don’t take the name, So I was like “Fine, The Circus then. “. Then I just sent it to the organizers, the posters got printed, and it’s stuck ever since.
Eight Octaves: Sheep is a compilation of 5 covers, which are very innovative to be frank. What made you select these 5 songs and then produce them like you guys did?
Abhishek: All these songs are by bands which are admired by all of us, the production style is similar to any song we would produce , we weren’t looking for a particular sound .
Arsh: Last year while recording our second album “Bats” we realised we had actually made some pretty warped versions of a bunch of songs we liked and didn’t like, and we thought it would be a cool idea to record our own interpretations of the songs and release them as an EP before the album actually came out. The idea was to tinker with a song and see if we could dissect and re-assemble it, as well as to see what all we could experiment in within a sonic realm. Nine Inch Nails is one of our favourite bands and we had been covering “We’re in this together” since the very beginning of the band so that was an obvious for the EP. “Wish” is another awesome NIN tune and we really felt like having a go at it and making it into which sounded as much like The Circus as NIN. The Bon Jovi cover was a bit of an exercise in completely re-doing a song, we took the hook (which is the chorus) of the song and some of the chord from the song and made a completely new song around it. Infact, if you notice it’s an inversion of the sound where the loudest part of the original tune is actually the softest in our version (The Chorus). “School” is a personal favourite of mine, and I really wanted to record a version of this with the band, and we managed to come up with something which strayed quite a bit from the Nirvana Version yet remains true to it. Radiohead is a personal favourite of the band and to not have a radiohead cover on a Circus Ep would be blasphemous. We went with “National Anthem” because it is one of the most open ended songs radiohead has, so we took the basic groove of the song and the bass line and made an entirely new arrangement around it. A lot of the breaks you hear in the song are actually bits and pieces of chopped up punk songs, so it was as much a production exercise as a song writing one.
Abhinav: The Bon Jovi song we had to cover for a chance to open for them (which we never did), Nirvana, Radiohead and Nine inch Nails are all bands that we really like and look up to, so it’s a great time playing songs that you love to listen to yourself.
Anshul: Every song we decided on had some reason behind it.
- We’re in together by NIN: This is one of the oldest songs we have been playing since the band formed. This is one of the songs which all of us wanted to cover.
- School by NIRVANA: We first covered this song when we were given a gig by Hard Rock Cafe Delhi and it was a Nirvana Tribute night. We played a lot of songs by nirvana in that night, but school was one of those songs which we really enjoyed playing, thus we continued playing that song till date.
- It’s My Life by Bon Jovi: We got this song to cover when we guys participated for Hard Rock Battle of the Bands. The winning band was to open for Bon Jovi in Hard Rock Calling festival, Hyde Park London. We guys won the Delhi leg and for the finals we were to cover one of the popular songs of Bon Jovi. That is how we started covering this song in our own sound and we have been playing it since then.
- Wish by NIN: Wish is a great song and we love the way it goes, from a full hardcore fast worse to a half time powerful chorus and a mid-section that is got too much energy into it. It is one of the songs which all of us wanted to cover.
- National Anthem by Radiohead: Radiohead is one of the influences of the band all together. We always wanted to cover one of the songs from radiohead. When we guys decided on an Ep of covers, we already had 4 songs which we guys were playing live so one of the songs from radiohead was a must thing. We decided on National Anthem.
Eight Octaves: Your major influences in terms of music?
Abhinav: A list of bands would be futile, but I like to listen to almost everything and keep my ears open for anything new or interesting.
Abhishek: I like a lot of bands and musicians around, I’ve always been too fond of musicians with a varied sense of sound, I like Tin Hat, Radiohead , Incubus and a lot more actually . Let’s just say, everything out there is worth a trial.
Anshul:
Bands: Radiohead, NIN, Tool
Music: Electronic, nineties pop music, electronic classical fusion, sufi, bhangra grooves, ambient music, Trip hop, sky in night, Empty roads, pretty mountains and rivers, sunsets and sunrises, modern jazz, bollywood music and many more.
Anshul: Yes.
Arsh: For me personally it’s a very diverse plate, as of right now I listen to a lot of electronic music. Some of my favourite artists would be Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Tool, Deftones, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Shobaleader one, Trifonic, Spor, Feed Me, Does it offend you yeah? as well as a lot of obscure bands and producers I constantly keep stumbling upon youtube. When I was younger, then I was majorly into thrash and groove metal, Listening to a ton of Megadeth, Slayer, Pantera, Death as well as more extreme forms of metal such as black and death metal (Emperor, Bathory, Burzum, Obituary etc.) but I haven’t revisited that for a while now. I also enjoy a lot of the new wave of metal right now such as Meshuggah, textures, Skyharbor, Tesseract, etc.
Eight Octaves: The EP is sort of a preview of what is in store for your upcoming album. So more Psychedelic-Electronica-Rock can be expected from the album?
Abhinav: Yes.
Anshul: Yes
Arsh: Well, the album will sound a little different from the EP; it has a very wide sonic plate and is slightly rawer than the EP. It goes from very full on heavy progressive to slightly upbeat pop to slightly more psychedelic and moody overtures , it’s an overview of the type of music we’ve been making and listening to over the last two years, and every song in it does song like it could belong to a different genre while retaining The Circus Sound. It’s going to be out very soon (Sooner than you think in fact) so do have a listen J
Abhishek: Like I said, the songs have a similar sound to what we make. It’s not a preview of the album but it’s just a part expression of our sound.
Eight Octaves: What is the theme of the album?
Abhinav: I’d like to think of it as a collection of short stories which may or may not be connected. That kinda depends what the listener takes away from it.
Abhishek: The second album to me is believed to be an auditory model of a graphic novel with hidden linkups here and there. The rest is up to you and all to give a theme to it .
Arsh: There is no theme to the album “Bats”, it is slightly abstract and tangential to its ownself, where every song goes through various moods and shifts, you can expect a very full on heavy part to go into a very soft section very quickly, or a very melodic chorus to suddenly turn into a very chaotic breakdown. Most of the songs deal with multiple shifts in vibe and genre. Lyrically, it’s more about images and visuals than tangible linear storytelling, there is an underlying story and a mood to every song, but it’s up to the listener to figure out what that might be.
Anshul: Why don’t you guys give a listen when it’s released and let us know?
Eight Octaves: Who handles the song compositions and who is/are in charge of the lyrics?
Abhinav: We all make the music; Abhishek and Arsh mostly make the lyrics because they have to sing them.
Anshul: The whole band handles the song compositions, and Abhishek and Arsh handle lyrical section.
Arsh: The whole band writes everything together, and whatever makes us laugh or go “what the fuck?!” or “That’s very cool” makes it to the album. Basically, whenever the four of us get very excited and have a lot of fun during a jam, a song usually comes out.
Abhishek: The theme is a collective struggle; I formulate it into our lyrics with Arsh.
Eight Octaves: Last question, where do you see yourselves after 5 years; now that the Apocalypse theory failed and the planet will exist for some more time?
Abhinav: Wow.
Anshul: More shows in different parts of the world, album no. 3 and 4, more gear, many more songs.
Abhishek: TIME TO LEAVE.
Arsh: A lot more internet presence, starting our own tour series within india, as well as starting doing tours in different parts of the world, we’ve already writing songs for album 3 so definitely more albums. A ton of promotion for the band not limited to being just online but physical on site as well, and a LOT of Music Videos because doing something interesting in that aspect is something we are very interested in. Also, making the live show into a production and not just a gig, with a lot of emphasis paid on stage, lighting, ambience, vibe as well as playing the songs. Thanks for talking to us!!
