The Fringe Pop Release Debut Album

The Fringe Pop | Photo Credit: Subodh Patidar

Members of rock band The Fringe Pop have spent the better part of a decade writing material that’s included on their debut album, If You Haven’t Noticed Yet. Drummer Caleb Prabhakar says, “I would say the whole album is about moods. There’s a song called ‘Dilrooba,’ which is exactly what the title suggests.”

Prabhakar, bassist Aaron Marcus, and vocalist-guitarist Shreyas Kendurkar, who were students at BITS, Pilani in Rajasthan decided to get together to form The Fringe Pop in 2006. They roped in classmate and guitarist Ankeet Bhat in late 2010, after they competed at the Hornbill Rock Contest in Nagaland. The band members are currently spread across the country pursuing day jobs, which explains the delay in launching their debut album. Says Kendurkar, “By the time I was out of college, the lineup really clicked. But I got placed in Bhopal. Aaron and Ankeet moved to Mumbai and Caleb moved to Hyderabad. We just wanted some place where we could go and jam the whole afternoon and play the shit out of our set.”

The band says they made the change from raw, in-your-face rock to something that was much more melody-driven soon after Bhat joined. Says Caleb, “Our approach to songwriting changed after he joined. Ankeet’s sense of melody brought a bigger sound to our new material.”  The Fringe Pop got their big break when they won IIT Bombay’s annual cultural festival Mood Indigo’s band competition, Livewire in 2012. The win gave them recording time at Chillom Records’ studio in Gurgaon. They spent a few weeks tracking parts in April and May last year, and sent their tracks to producer Anupam Roy. Says Caleb, “We ended up going and tracking everything in a couple of takes. We all took leave from office for one week, and we finished in a week and a half. The mix and master took some time, because Anupam is a busy guy.”

While waiting for the album to be mastered, they began writing songs for a second album. Even before releasing If You Haven’t Noticed Yet, the band is already four songs down on their next album. Says Caleb, “We have demos of at least four new songs.” Bassist Marcus adds that their new songs will mark another change in the songwriting process of the band. Says Marcus, “We want to make it a bigger sound.”

For their album launch shows, which is slated to include gigs in New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and more, the band will perform the seven-track album in its entirety, along with their new song “Believe Me.” Also in the works is a live video, which was shot while the band was in Mumbai. Marcus says since members are based in different cities, they make the most of their time together. “Every time we meet, we always jam and complete more new material, so the second album is almost done. The more we meet, the quicker we complete our second album. So this launch is also helping us with our second album.”

Listen to “If You Haven’t Noticed Yet.” Buy the album here.