Indus Creed Prep Three-Song EP, New Album

Last year, veteran rockers Indus Creed made an explosive comeback on the Indian music scene after a 12-year hiatus. Now, the Mumbai band has confirmed that they’ve entered the studio to begin work on their new record, 16 years after the release of their last album Indus Creed in 1995. The band ”“ frontman Uday Benegal, guitarist Mahesh Tinaikar, keyboardist Zubin Balaporia and new members drummer Jai Row Kavi and bass player Rushad Mistry ”“ is also considering releasing a three-song EP around August as a primer for the album. “We’ve only just begun recording,” says Benegal speaking from the studio where the band are tracking guitars and laying down drum tracks. “We’re thinking of putting out a 3-song EP in about a month of so and then completing the rest of the album and putting it out by October. The EP will be a sort of teaser for the album, just to give people an idea of what the sound is going to be like.”

Benegal says it’s too early to tell what the album will sound like but says the songs will be “melodic, big and very today.” “It’s not Eighties rock, let’s just put it that way,” he laughs. “But there’s a sound we bring, which Zubin, Mahesh, and I bring, and then we have new ideas coming from us as well as from Jai and Rushad, so I’d say contemporary sounding for certain” Benegal reiterates that the emphasis of the album will be on melody but also on songs that can be stripped down. “Even with bands that are big and large, the songs that appeal to me the most are the ones that I can just pick up a guitar and play. So I’m hoping that our material is kinda like that too. In its essential form it’s a song and then in its complex form it’s a bigger piece of sonic architecture.”

Despite the fact that it’s been over a decade since the band got together in a studio to record an album, Benegal says it doesn’t feel like a new process. “Well, Zubin, Mahesh and I have been working together in the studio anyway, not necessarily in a band format but doing other recordings, jingles and stuff, and it’s not like we’re meeting in the studio again after all these years, but of course, we’re now collaborating on something that’s very personal, after 16 years. I would say there’s a great understanding between all of us, there’s a unity and a purpose, so that remains intact.” The musician also says that the dynamics within the band haven’t changed. “The dynamics have become a little more mature I think. We fight less. We’re not calling each other assholes and pricks and going ‘I told you so’ as much as we may have 15 years ago. I mean, we still say that but a little infrequently.”