Formed by the collaboration of two bands in 2010, Underground Authority started off with performances at pubs of Kolkata and music events across the country. After Yamaha Asian Beat 2010 (where they were the runners up) and India’s Got Talent Season 2 (where they were one of the nine finalists), they are currently focussed on their debut album “YOU-AUTHORITY”. They’re all for standing up for ourselves, and have reached out to a large audience with their ‘protest poetry’. We caught up with them for a quick chat.
Eight Octaves: Underground Authority was formed when two previously existing bands, !Banned and Skydive, collaborated for a live act. How did that collaboration come about?
Underground Authority: If not rivalry, then I would surely prefer the term ‘fierce competitors’ to describe us in the past, when we used to face off and compete as a band at the national / local music circuit. But then again, we always had this dream of coming together as a unit at some point of time and fortunately, it happened on the pleasant evening of April 3, 2010. We figured that all five of us wanted to experiment and come up with something new and unique; so when the idea of Underground Authority came up, we straight away went for it as we all had a gut feeling that it would result in something fresh and inviting.
Eight Octaves: You’ve been touring India, performing at college fests, concerts and fundraisers; what’s the experience been like?
Underground Authority: It is very difficult to express the feeling in a few words. It has been surreal, to say the least. We have done over 300 gigs all over the country, and it’s been quite a roller-coaster ride. However, it is something we want to keep experiencing, and with every passing day the urge to perform and tour increases.
Eight Octaves: You describe your genre as ‘Protest Poetry’; tell us a little bit about that.
Underground Authority: Well we believe in making music to express and not particularly to impress, and also adhere to the fact that it is every artist’s responsibility to talk about the problems that are there during his/her time; however, we do not instigate people to do anything rash or impulsive. In our songs, we just propagate the idea of standing up for yourself against the forces that restrict you and against your own evils. That is all, plain and simple; and that is primarily the idea we are putting forth in our debut album, “YOU-AUTHORITY”, and also our slogan, “INSPIRE-LEAD-REVOLUTIONIZE”, relates to the same concept.
Eight Octaves: All your songs have a political message; tell us a little bit about your songwriting process.
Underground Authority: We wouldn’t go so far as to call our songs “political” in nature. Yes, they do have a message and a story to tell, and most of them talk about growing some balls and standing up for one’s own self. However, we do not associate ourselves with violence, or any kind of political or social bias. We believe that every individual has his/her own battles to fight, and they should stand up for themselves and face the world, rather than become a human doormat. The messages in our songs are simple and related to life in itself and they don’t propagate lofty ideas. Being a part of the youth, we have a general tendency to highlight and showcase elements that affect the youth.
Eight Octaves: You guys have reached out to a huge audience! What makes you sound so awesome? Tell us about the gear you use.
Underground Authority: First of all, thanks for the compliment. Well, we believe that our music has reached out to people because of its simplicity and rawness. From the stage, we can gauge that people associate with the power our music generates. It’s a personal assumption, to be very honest; we have no clue!
To talk about our gear, we use a lot of stuff. Adil Rashid endorses Gibson guitars, and he is the single-unit guy, so he has a wide variety of pedals and a beautiful Bugera tube-amplifier. Kuntal De is the effects guy; he uses Schecter guitars with a Line 6 Pod X3 Live. He also uses a Kaossilator Pro along with an M-Audio Axiom Pro. He has special liking for J-C 120s. Sourish Kumar plays a Sonor 507 and a Drumcraft Acrylic Series 8. He also uses a Roland TD-4K for effects. EPR (frontman Santhanam Srinivasan Iyer) uses a Vocalist Live and Soumyadeep Bhattacharya plays an Ernieball Music Man Stingray and an Ibanez ATK 800. He also uses a couple of single pedals for effects.
Eight Octaves: You’ve performed at a number of colleges across India; how different is it, performing in different places? What kind of problems (if any) did you face?
Underground Authority: Well, one portion of India is completely different from another, and most of the time the problems we face are generally with climatic changes and food. Food becomes a serious problem at certain places; however, we realise that every part of India has its own cuisine and some of them just does not agree with us. The temperature at places also becomes an issue. For instance, once we did a gig in Rajasthan and had to fly to Guwahati, from where we would be travelling to Shillong and then to Hyderabad the following day; within a matter of 4 hours we went from 400C to 80C, and the next day to 400C again. So most of the time we have to really adjust and take care of ourselves (which never happens!) so that we can continue to be on the road as much as possible. However, wherever we have performed something has remained the same thanks to God: that is, the way people relate and react to our music. We have witnessed more than half of India going crazy at our gigs, which is an amazing experience every time. There have been certain bitter experiences at certain places. But this has got more to do with certain individuals who cannot respect artists, rather than the place itself. All in all, we have been received very well by people, and in these 3 years have witnessed and experienced some of the cultural diversity that our beautiful country has to offer.
Eight Octaves: From Closed Mic atSomeplace Else, Tuborg Unseen Underground Pub Rock festival across the north east, Yamaha Asian Beat 2010 at HRC, Mumbai, and India’s Got Talent Season 2, you’ve come a long way. Any particular gig or event which turned things around for you?
Underground Authority: Well, India’s Got Talent was quite an experience but it was a long time ago. We have done a lot of gigs and it would be unfair to just name a few, because the amount of support that we have received from people has surpassed what we expected. However, there was one gig which was held at Rabindra Sarovar Stadium on the 25th of December 2010. We remember it like it was yesterday; we had just returned from IGT and there were around 35,000 people singing our original song “I Can Lead a Nation with a Microphone” with us. That was probably the first time we felt what our music could do. EPR had tears in his eyes. The experience was overwhelming and awe-inspiring for all of us. We have done a lot of gigs with greater number of people in the audience but that experience was really special.
Eight Octaves: Who are your biggest musical influences? Are there any Indian artists you look up to, aside from A.R. Rahman?
Underground Authority: We listen to a great variety of music. In fact, our scope has no limitations; all five of us are into different forms and genres, and we like to share whatever we hear with each other. The playlist that we listen to is somewhat bizarre because it gives priority to no particular genre. Anything might play after anything. Talking about Indian artists, yes, we do listen to a lot of them, like Raghu Dixit, Avial, Vishal Dadlani, Amit Trivedi, Kailasa, Euphoria, etc. We believe in listening to everything and being unbiased; we stick to that rule.
Eight Octaves: What would you say about the current music scene in Kolkata?
Underground Authority: It is developing; there are a lot of bands trying a lot of different sounds. Some of them are really good. However, what they lack is a place to perform. New bands need a place to perform and that is something that Kolkata lacks at the moment. We hope that the crisis is taken care of as soon as possible, otherwise some really good bands and artists will just fizzle out.
Eight Octaves: What’s the news about your debut album?
Underground Authority: We are almost done with our debut album “YOU-AUTHORITY” and you will be seeing it and hearing it very soon.
Eight Octaves: Lastly, what’s next on the cards for Underground Authority?
Underground Authority: Well, the sky is the limit. But, we aspire to go beyond it. Currently all energy is focused on our debut album, which we hope the people will like. Also, we are working on a couple of music videos and getting geared up for rigorous touring. So if all goes well, you will be hearing a lot about Underground Authority up ahead.
