Exclusive Premiere: Pune Prog Band Lotus Celebrate Creation on ‘Castles’

Within their own self-admittedly chaotic lives, guitarist Siddharth Amarnath and stringsman Robert Alex say that their post-metal, prog and ambient project Lotus has been a “constant motivation.” That’s something the Pune duo channel on their latest single “Castles.”

Coming two years after the song “Glass Turns to Sand,” the studio project enlisted producer Shubham Gurung (Alex’s bandmate in post-rock band Aswekeepsearching) on “Castles.” The track goes from a spotlighted riff to radiant djent and modern metal dissonance, before settling into a meditative, ambient build for the latter part of the song.

Alex says, “The theme of ‘Castles’ is celebrating creation. The introductory riff was the first idea of the newer material that Siddharth had come up with, and on hearing it I instantly felt a shift in the way we would write music. And the way the song progressed was so different from what we had initially imagined.” That “pleasant surprise” of progress also added to the theme of the song.

Gurung also put together the video edit for the song and Lotus say he’s helped shape their forthcoming EP. Alex’s other bandmate – guitarist Aniket Patni from metallers Noiseware – has been working on the artwork for “Castles” as well as the EP and Amarnath says the themes and concepts will be revealed when the EP is set to release. Alex adds that though Lotus remains a studio project ever since it started in 2013 , there’s more plans set in motion for 2020. “All that I can say at the moment is that we really intend to give a unique experience to our listeners with each release and they should expect our very best and truest selves,” he adds.

Listen to “Castles” below.