Former Lounge Piranha Guitarist Launches Solo Project

Kamal Singh

The now-defunct Bengaluru post-rock band Lounge Piranha’s music had taken a punk edge briefly after bassist Rohan Ramesh left the band in 2008. Although vocalist and guitarist Kamal Singh says that that sound fizzled out pretty quickly, the outlet for punk-influenced alternative rock has found release in Singh’s new solo project, Hoirong.

Singh, under the moniker Hoirong, which means “asshole” in Manipuri, released his first solo album, The Resurrection Of The Princess Of Woe And Her Vampire Hound Posse, last week. While that’s a lot of words strung together to remember, Singh’s new noise rock project has 10 tracks with grungy fuzzy riffs over programmed drums.

The guitarist wrote and recorded all songs on The Resurrection Of The Princess Of Woe And Her Vampire Hound Posse, using his laptop mic and audio workstation Logic Pro. “It wasn’t even a real one, it was some pirated one and my computer had no great soundcard, but I think the noise sound goes with it,” says Singh, who plans to move to New Delhi this August to study music therapy. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” he adds about both, studying and releasing the album.

Songs on the album were derived from rough versions Singh had written in the past couple of years. “In 2009, I started writing for 3 Sevens [Singh’s alternative/pop project], and then I wanted to get a bit loud. Some of these tunes including “Super Glue” were recorded on a video camera and “Bonda” was pieced together from when I had written it down in an old book somewhere,” says Singh. The ideas, discernible after you get through the wall of fuzz and noise from Singh’s guitar, are strong, with a latent, underlying theme of the pace of life in Bengaluru, according to the guitarist. “I’ve been stopped on the road and asked about who I am, and how the government treats its people, and we [people] treat each other,” says Singh, referring to the treatment meted out to those from the North East in Bengaluru.

Singh may also take Hoirong to stage after moving to Delhi later this year. “I’ve met a few guys in Delhi and if I can get a band together, I’ll do it. But I plan to improvise on the sound, keep it open for the other members,” he says. Now that Hoirong’s album is out of the way, Singh says he’ll finish recording songs for 3 Sevens, his other solo project. “It [3 Sevens] will take another three or four months, but I want to play live in Delhi [with 3 Sevens] as well,” says Singh.

Stream The Resurrection Of The Princess Of Woe And Her Vampire Hound Posse from Hoirong here