Exclusive Release: No Hero’s Disquieted New Song ‘Tomorrow Never Comes One Day’

Hyderabad-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Akhil Kodamanchili aka No Hero. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

In August last year, Akhil Kodamanchili – who records under the moniker No Hero – was jamming with [Chennai rock band 83 Miles Per Hour] drummer Peter Francis Joshua in Bengaluru. The session, although completely improvised, laid the foundation for the tracks featured on his debut album Bare Witness, which released earlier this month. Kodamanchili composed songs to test the jams were “more than just banter”.

The multi-instrumentalist is doing the exact opposite on his next EP, Un Own. He says, “I wanted to flex my mind and intended that songs are written, solos are fairly thought out rather than thinking ”˜Okay, here’s a progression I’m just going to improvise’.”

And that’s quite discernible on the 25-year-old’s latest track “Tomorrow Never Comes One Day”””a disconcerting four-chord wonder that promises to haunt. The first release from Un Own features keyboardist Aman Mahajan [who was played with the likes of jazz vocalist Radha Thomas and pop artist Lucky Ali] and drummer Siddhart Rajmohan, and describes “how we’re missing the bigger picture”, according to Kodamanchili. “It’s about how we tend to make decisions without considering the fact that one day we’re going to die,” he says. “I feel like a lot of the times we choose partners and we associate with people for reasons that do not fit into the basic logic of ”˜I’m going to die one day, could be any day, so is this the best decision I can make today?’”

Kodamanchili for his part, has had stints with metal band Skrypt and an experimental act called Almost September around 2007. He says he was originally headed towards “the usual engineering bullshit” before he set off to Canada’s Selkirk College to study music composition between 2010 and 2012. After returning, Kodamanchili dabbled in several projects [folk, industrial metal, avant garde, blues rock and electronica] and also landed a teaching gig at Thermal and a Quarter’s Bengaluru-based music institution Taaqademy, before he returned to Hyderabad to work on No Hero material last year. He says, “I’ve been working on solo stuff ever since I knew recording was possible, but it’s changed names and forms quite a bit.”

Watch “Tomorrow Never Comes One Day” below. Pre-order ‘Un Own’ here.