Exclusive Premiere: Hear That Boy Roby’s Stoned-Out Jam ‘T’
The Chandigarh rock trio offer bluesy hooks and experimentation on their upcoming debut album ‘Four Pair of Jeans’
Chandigarh rock trio That Boy Roby. Photo: Avirat Sundra and Revant Bogra
As far as capturing a psychedelic substance-induced trip on record goes, Chandigarh’s That Boy Roby come pretty close on their latest single “T.” With varying tempos and a monolog that leads into vocals you can’t quite decipher, it’s the band’s second single off their debut album Four Pair of Jeans, slated to release in July.
Frontman and founder Sangram Malik says “T” is more or less a stoner’s story, tied to tripping on Malana cream, a strain of cannabis that many hash aficionados around the globe trek to Parvati Valley for. Malik adds, “The language spoken in the track a local dialect of a remote village in the upper regions of the Himalayas.” The video, which starts with a wide-eyed Malik cycling on a road, features rehashed footage from yesteryear Indian films fed through a stoner lens.
Malik began writing songs around five years ago, adding drummer Paarth Kosar and bassist Ishan Sharma in 2017. The frontman says it’s certainly not easy to find like-minded musicians in Chandigarh. He adds, “But for us to connect and develop that synergy did not take long, in fact all it took was one jam. So the sound that you hear today took about five years to actually evolve from the bedroom project to Four Pair of Jeans.” The nine-track album also includes guests such as Suhail Yusuf Khan adding sarangi, bass from Tony Guinard and drums by Nikhil Vasudevan (both part of the Ska Vengers) and more. Malik adds, “Experimentation has always been the driving force of this album where the aim was to make a cohesion of flavors imparted from different musicians. The album doesn’t fit in one genre but delivers a flavor so wholesome that can only be justified by experimental rock ”˜n roll, which is our sound.”
They’re currently working with Chandigarh-based event organizers Gaah to plot a multi-city tour and an album launch show in their hometown. Malik says he’s glad they have a support system when there are few nearby. “From getting the project out of the bedroom, the formation of the band to [getting us on] the stage, they have been equally responsible,” adds Malik.
Listen to “T” here.
