Type to search

Artists Home Flashbox New Music News & Updates

Exclusive Stream: New Delhi Rock Band Nowhere Station’s Cosmic Debut Album

The self-titled record comes on the back of releasing three prog/alt rock singles to test the waters

Oct 29, 2020

New Delhi rock band Nowhere Station. Photo: Gautam Vohra

Considering that New Delhi’s rock quartet Nowhere Station’s members are all architects and urban planners, they had a refreshing original plan to release each of their seven songs from their debut self-titled album in different cities with performances. While COVID-19 threw a spanner in all those plans, vocalist-guitarist Rijul Singh says they shifted focus to work with visual artists and graphic designers to create artwork for each song.

Formed in 2017, Nowhere Station — comprising Singh, drummer Anant Mital, guitarist Anurag Hazarika and bassist-keyboardist Dhruv Dhingra — offer up a swiveling, trippy sound on their album, which is meant to be one “long infinite loop.” Songs such as “Oceans Beyond,” “Fire” and “You’ve Got Me” were out earlier on, which shaped the record as a fun-filled alt-rock package with elements of experimentation and prog. The second half of Nowhere Station, however, builds on ambient and minimal structures (“Upside Down” and the closing track “Repeat. Sleep.”) with a brighter dollop of roomy rock (“Sharp But Minor pt. 2”).

Dhingra says he’s most keen to see how “Upside Down” is received, considering the “reactionary manner” in which it was written. “The theme of the song revolves around internal and external conflict in that it addresses both things that are happening around us as well as within,” he says.

Financed by the help of crowdfunding — raising over three lakh rupees over a period of 30 days — guitarist Hazarika says they learned along the way the importance of investing in good studio time. “It was very humbling for us to actually reach and then surpass the target, and we have too many people to thank for getting us there,” he says of the campaign, which helped them record, mix and master the album at Gurugram’s Ferris Wheel Studios.

While Mital mentions that the band are working on two music videos for songs off the album and new material, there’s also a virtual 360-degree live experience in store on October 30th. The drummer says, “We’ve been playing our music out of the back of a pick-up truck on the streets of Delhi and have collaborated with some visual artists, animators and cinematographers to create a (hopefully) immersive, borderline-surreal experience.”

With their background in architecture, it’s no surprise to see they’re working their way around how the pandemic has mostly prevented gatherings in public spaces, like gigs. Mital says that there are “small architectural and urban design interventions” which can help restart shows, like drive-in shows to reworking existing indoor venues to ensure social distancing and better ventilation. “Or just by creating slightly more elaborate versions of the good old busk — reclaiming spaces that are not traditionally viewed as ‘public’ (such as roads and parking lots) and converting them into meaningful, participatory places,” the drummer adds.

Listen to ‘Nowhere Station’ below. 

Tags: