Coshish Return for Shows in Mumbai and Pune This Week

When it comes to Mumbai prog band Coshish, invoking American prog favorites Tool almost works its way naturally into a conversation. Coshish are undoubtedly informed by Tool’s cerebral and artistic choices – something that’s found its way into the Mumbai quartet’s songwriting, music videos and packaging for their 2015 DVD Mukti, which actually came with a secret way to access an unreleased demo.

Other Tool-Coshish comparisons could be drawn as well, like the gap between releases. Coshish put out their debut album Firdous in 2013 and there hasn’t been any new material since then and only a handful of tours mounted in the last decade. Drummer Hamza Kazi points out that even though they’ve been irregular, they still have an active listenership via streaming and remain a draw whenever the eventual gig gets announced. “If people are still listening to our songs, that what we want to give more of, rather than fall prey to certain concepts of how music should be released,” Kazi says.

This week, Coshish will perform for the first time since late 2019, in Mumbai and Pune as part of gig series Prog Encounters 2.0, alongside Bengaluru-based prog bands Rainburn and The Pulse Theory. In Mumbai on March 14th, they’ll be joined by rock band Sweetmint, while the Pune edition on March 17th includes prog band ShredxXx. Kazi praises the idea of a prog gig series and says he’s looking forward to sharing a lineup again with bands like Rainburn. He adds, “It’s a small community […] Those guys [in Rainburn] have been at it. The zeal with which these bands have put up stuff and made this happen, that’s where the fun part is for us.”

Although you can discount at least a couple of years owing to the pandemic-related shutdowns, Kazi does admit that they haven’t been “actively searching for gigs.” It wasn’t an intended break, according to the drummer. Guitarist Shrikant Sreenivasan and bassist Anish Nair both moved out of Mumbai, which meant that jams became less regular and Coshish wasn’t really the kind of band to work remotely over their intricate, often journeying songs.

Moving at their own pace, Coshish will present three unreleased songs at Prog Encounters 2.0 and a “half song” along with about five or six songs from Firdous. “A lot of our stuff is things we can pull off live,” Kazi adds. Compared to their first album, the drummer says the band members share just as much common ground as before in terms of influences and the sound has become “slightly more focused.” A 75-minute set is being planned with these songs.

Working titles – which have been shared exclusively with Rolling Stone India – include “Revolving Sevens” (a demo version is discoverable on their Mukti DVD as an easter egg), an astrophysics-inspired song called “Circular Time,” “Gavin Grooves” (a nod to U.K. prog band Porcupine Tree’s drummer Gavin Harrison) and “Tambi,” a playful nod to Tool’s song “Jambi” but also an in-joke for the South Indians in the band. Another track is tentatively titled “Tribal,” which has its origins in 2009. “We’ve been sitting on it because we haven’t been happy with it, but now it’s turned out to be like a beast of a song,” Kazi says.

With all these tracks in the queue, one thing Coshish is clear about is not rushing anything, especially if it’s in a bid to adhere to current music industry practices. Kazi adds, “We don’t want to go down the singles route, because we’ve worked so hard with the concept. Even if it takes two years to release, so be it. We want to be that stupid band that still goes out and releases albums, even though the world has changed drastically.”

Coshish perform at Prog Encounters 2.0 on March 14th at the Stables, Mumbai (get tickets here) and on March 17th at antiSOCIAL, Pune (get ticket here).