FuzzCulture: Ready To Rage On Debut Album

Watch the video for “With Open Eyes” by FuzzCulture

When you’re one of the most energetic two-member bands in the country, your songs sure as hell can’t be about love and peace. Delhi electro-rock duo FuzzCulture, comprising guitarist-vocalist Arsh Sharma and drummer Srijan Mahajan, are putting that rage down in tracks, for their debut full-length album No., which will be launched tonight. Says Sharma, 27, “The lyrics address a lot of anxieties that have started plaguing me as I see myself ageing and still struggling with the same things I was maybe a few years ago. The concepts of insecurity of the self, the fear of growing old, the effects of jealousy and the need for individual isolation are very prevalent.”

With Sharma is a part of experimental rock band The Circus and Mahajan has been extensively touring the country with rock veterans Parikrama, the duo have been giving FuzzCulture just as much priority ever since they launched their debut EP Indulge.Divulge in August 2013. The duo say they’ve gone back to a “songwriting-based approach” for No., which is being released on Universal Music India. Says Sharma, “Earlier, we used to try and construct the songs backwards from the computer but this time the songs have come from a basic guitar-vocal-drums approach and then taken ahead to incorporate the electronics in it.” Mahajan adds that the album is all about rock ”˜n roll. “When we started writing this album, we realized we’re two black t-shirt boys who like loud ass rock ”˜n roll and instead of fighting it, we might as well embrace it.” While the band already had about 15 song ideas together by last year, they were working on the eight-track album between gigs.

FuzzCulture album art designed by Visual Amnesia. Photo: Courtesy of Universal Music

Thematically, FuzzCulture called upon Delhi-based visual artist Reuben Bhattacharya aka Visual Amnesia to design characters which drew from Sharma’s lyrical premise of negative emotions. Says Sharma, “I get negatively affected by a lot of people that I meet and a lot of that comes up in the very minimal lyrics that I write. There are veiled references to a lot of people that I know in the songs and most of them will never know which song is about whom.” It’s straightaway evident that the band Is taking aim with songs like “Hipster Smackdown,” “Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing,” “Animals” and “Promising Tomorrows,” which go into everything from industrial to glitch to bass and even straight-up punk rock.

But Sharma says that a new FuzzCulture album doesn’t mean that his other band The Circus has taken a backseat. Adds Sharma, “Even though Abhishek [Bhatia, frontman and producer under the moniker Curtain Blue] and I have been pretty involved with what we do, we’ve been meeting at Studio Fuzz [the studio that both Sharma and Mahajan co-own] and have been writing the third album for almost two years now.” It’s going to be a busy year for Sharma, who says the Circus album will be ready by July. Until then, he’s got a lot of work to do with FuzzCulture, including a tour of Hard Rock Cafes across India to promote No. and possibly more international shows. Sharma gives us an oft-repeated ambition of probably every band out there, “We want to reach out to as many people possible with this release.”

This article originally appeared in the May 2015 issue of Rolling Stone India.

Buy the album here

FuzzCulture kick off their album launch tour on May 14th at Hard Rock Cafe, Delhi. Free entry. Full tour details in the poster below