Punk On Toast Ready Debut EP ‘For Hire’
Listen to a teaser of the Mumbai punk rock band’s five-track EP, slated for release on January 1st
Punk On Toast. Photo: Jay Pillai
Back in 2008, about a year before guitarist-vocalist Aditya Naik started Punk On Toast, he wrote a song called “Rampage,” which sounds like a typically teenage-angst-fueled punk song about wanting to break free. But 22-year-old Naik says he wrote the song for a friend. Adds Naik, “He was one of the smartest kids in college and then he didn’t give his exams, just for fuck’s sake so that he could tell his parents he had enough.” When asked how his own parents are handling his punk leanings, Naik says, “They are dealing with it.”
Punk On Toast’s debut EP, For Hire captures the rage of their earliest material, written when the band was formed in 2009. From the 90-second “Democracy Is A Lie,” to the takedown of Mumbai city that is “God’s Own City,” For Hire is the kind of punk rock that’s really needed to fill the void, after hardcore punk band The Riot Peddlers disbanded and party punk rockers The Lightyears Explode went on a break.
Punk On Toast also took a break in 2012, but resumed gigging in 2013 and started recording the five-track EP in August with recording engineer and bassist Ashwin Shriyan [from extreme metal band Demonic Resurrection]. Naik says they chose Shriyan because he had originally recorded Punk On Toast’s demo versions for the title track “For Hire” and “I Don’t Want To” in 2011. Adds Naik, “He [Shriyan] was a friend of our previous drummer and I remember recording with him way before he had a home studio or anything. I just connected my guitar straight into a CPU.”
With the EP set to release on January 1st, Punk On Toast have a Mumbai launch gig in the works, where they will play the EP in its entirety along with newer material, which Naik says is more “mature.” Adds Naik, “The stuff on the EP is very straight to the core, but the new stuff, I’m on a different level as a guitarist and a writer.” Ahead of their launch gig, however, bassist Prathamesh Sadansing leaves for the U.S. to study filmmaking in January. Naik says they are roping in Mumbai-based guitarist and friend of the band, Kunal Dole filling in on bass for the next three months. Says Naik of Dole, “He drove all the way from Mumbai to Pune to catch our set at [café venue] High Spirits. That’s pretty hardcore.”
Listen to a teaser to For Hire
 For Hire tracklist:
1. “Democracy Is A Lie”
2. “Gods Own City”
3. “I Don’t Want To”
4. “Rampage”
5. “For Hire”
