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Hear New Delhi/Boston Artist Flying Cupid’s Surging New Track ‘Changes’

Multi-instrumentalist Abhiruk Patowary, part of metal bands such as Acid Pit and Gaia, calls on Bengaluru vocalists Siddharth Nair and Shiyasz Abdul

Apr 01, 2020

Boston-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Abhiruk Patowary aka Flying Cupid. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

In his pursuit of finding a name for his new project, multi-instrumentalist and producer Abhiruk Patowary wanted something “weird” that just stood out and made search results easy. The Guwahati origin, New Delhi bred and Boston-based metal artist tells us his mother helped.

Patowary – the bassist for New Delhi metal band Acid Pit and guitarist for djent/metalcore band Gaia –  says, “I was having a conversation with my mother and I told her I was writing metal songs and needed a band name. I asked her to give me the first thing that came to her head and she said, ‘Flying Cupid.’ I thought, ‘You know what, that works.’”

This was as recent as earlier this year. Now, Flying Cupid has its first release in the djent-edged song “Changes,” off the upcoming seven-track EP Reflections. Although currently back home in New Delhi for self-quarantine due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Patowary was in Boston since May 2019 when he started at the Berklee College of Music. “We shifted to online and the college got shut down. I thought it’s better to be in India than in Boston, in my own workplace that’s familiar,” he says.

While he’s all praise for his faculty at Berklee, he’s happy to find more collaborators for Flying Cupid amongst students, including vocalists and guitarists to feature on Reflections. For “Changes,” however, he enlisted Bengaluru-based vocalists Siddharth Nair and Shiyasz Abdul (both from mathcore band Haiku-Like Imagination). Interestingly, Nair has also featured on Patowary’s writing with Gaia, on their 2018 album Aerial. “Siddharth understands my sound and what I’m going for and that’s a great thing. He has a great work ethic so it’s always a pleasure working with him,” the guitarist says.

While both Gaia and Flying Cupid are predominantly metalcore and djent, Patowary says his ideas were different and there’s a new EP with the band in the works as well. All the tracks on Reflections are ready to go and the next one will be “Hands of Time,” featuring a video directed by Lukas Magyar (filmmaker and frontman of metallers Veil of Maya). Patowary says, “Around 2017, when I was writing for Gaia, I texted him to ask if he’d like to do guest vocals. He said he had other commitments at the time but mentioned he makes music videos and said he can help with it. He made the first Gaia music video and we’ve been in touch ever since.”

There are also plans to take Flying Cupid out on the road, hopefully once the live music space hobbles back to some kind of normalcy. For now, Reflections is slated to release in July.

Listen to “Changes” below.

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