Vega Massive Release New Single

From left: Khambata, Nanavaty and Chatterjee

As twisted plots go, Agatha Christie is the reason why Vega Massive exists today. The electronica project, which includes journalist and musician Suprateek Chatterjee and composer Nariman Khambata, came to be after the duo got together in 2009 to compose music for an adaptation of Christie’s murder mystery play The Mousetrap. Chatterjee and Khambata, both fans of film composer Hans Zimmer besides bands such as Portishead and Massive Attack, hit it off immediately. “Nariman’s sound production was flawless,” recalls Chatterjee, “We shared a brilliant vibe when we worked together on the play. We knew we would work together more often.”

Soon after, Khambata invited Chatterjee to be a part of his band, One Track Mind, as a guitarist. “We played classic rock and classic rock covers of bands like Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and U2,” says Khambata, “But I knew that we didn’t want to stick to this format. We wanted to do grander things.” Vega Massive that was formed in 2011 was a result of this need to scale up. With Chatterjee on guitar, the band also includes vocalist Sarosh Nanavaty, Rahul Pais on bass, Pranav Dongre on keyboard and Spud In The Box’s Vivaan Kapoor on drums.

Vega Massive has released three tracks until date including the ska-influenced “Awake”, trip-hop “Asleep” and electro heavy “Urbania,” which also contains Chatterjee’s interpretation of Raga Jog on guitar. “Nariman and I co-produce the songs and do most of the songwriting together. Nariman is a fantastic producer to work with since he’s been doing this for a long time,” says Chatterjee, who credits Khambata’s background in sound production for the band’s heavily-textured sound. Khambata, who also composes music for ad jingles, says of their sound, “While working on scores, you are exposed to a lot of new music that it’s hard not to want to amalgamate that into your sound. Vega Massive is that experiment.”

The band’s latest single “Babydoll,” is pacy and noisy, yet perfectly contrasts Nanavaty’s vocals and recalls the dark, industrials grooves of Trent Reznor’s experimental band How To Destroy Angels. Both Chatterjee and Khambata juggle their day jobs and meet in Khambata’s South Mumbai studio to keep Vega Massive going. “We have started jamming and we will perform in the distant future,” says Chatterjee, “But it’s difficult to translate our sound to stage just yet.” Vega Massive hope to hit the stage by the year end.

Listen to “Babydoll” here