Hear Pune Outfit Nemophilis’ New Rock Ballad ‘Close to You’

When Pune-based vocalist-guitarist Kshitij Kumar began putting out covers in 2014 under the moniker Nemophilis, he soon had the urge to work on rock music of his own. Kumar roped in drummer Akarsh Singh, whom he played with in a metal outfit, as well as bassist Saurabh Lodha to join him. Soon after, they added guitarist Mayank Katare to complete the lineup. Over the last year, the band has gone on to release a bunch of singles – covering a number of genres – and recently put out their latest offering, a rock ballad titled “Close To You.”

The new track was initially penned by Lodha, written for his partner. Kumar says, “It just came to him in the moment as he realized he is head over heels for her. He wrote the verses and later I worked on it to write a chorus and bridge.” The track includes acoustic guitar strumming, electric guitar plucking and solos, soft vocal harmonies, backup singing by Kashmira Khot, joyous drumming and more.

Nemophilis recorded “Close To You” at Pune’s Gray Spark Audio and Omniana Studios. The song was mixed by Kumar and mastered by Lodha. On recording a song as a band, Kumar says, “Even though we have done it a number of times, it never takes away any of the fun, it’s always a gentle reminder of what we love about what we do.”

While the band also put out a cover of English rock outfit Queen’s magnum opus “Bohemian Rhapsody” recently, they plan on releasing a 10th single soon too. “The ideal route from here is to compile these songs to form an album which will be our full-length debut. There’s also music videos in the works as they prep to release the record sometime next year. “We will be happily obliging the request to deliver a new music video very soon,” says Kumar.

Stream “Close To You” on Spotify below and on other platforms.