Exclusive Premiere: Bengaluru Act Spacebar Get Anthemic on ‘Volcano’

Winners of the Bengaluru leg of the Ticket to Hornbill contest, pop-rock band Spacebar performed at the long-running Hornbill Music Festival in December to perhaps their biggest crowd yet. “We were amused by the response we got from the locals, ate grasshoppers on a stick, drank rice beer and made some new friends,” the band said in a post.

Once they were back, work was mostly focused on gigs and releasing their single “Volcano.” Sonically, it plays up roomy rhythms from drummer Deepak Dass and bassist Arun Maharajan, molten riffwork from guitarist Winston Joel Samuel and resolute lyrics from vocalist Rahael Roy Thomas. Just when “Volcano” simmers down, Aadarsh Subramaniam launches into an ecstatic keyboard solo. The track is mixed by producer Yogeendra Hariprasad (from prog/fusion band Pineapple Express) and mastered by Kochi’s prolific engineer Vivek Thomas.

Thematically, the song sees Spacebar talk about “a person fighting his own thoughts” in the quest to reach their full potential. Guitarist Winston Joel Samuel says, “[It’s] about how thoughts lock us up and drown us from being ourselves. We don’t like talking about our emotions to people and we seem all lively on the outside, but [on the] inside we’re dying. It’s a song that speaks about the mental struggles people go through in this society that nobody talks about.” The song’s bridge features a voice sample of a friend of the band, who is studying to be a psychologist, detailing everyday struggles with uncomfortable situations. The accompanying animated lyric video colors in a different perspective of space exploration, courtesy of Aizawl company ScreenFarm Productions.

Formed in 2018, Spacebar has so far released just one song “Push Me Away” but are now working on a full-length album, slated to be out later this year.

Watch the video for “Volcano” below.