Listen: Easy Wanderlings’ Easy-Going and Emphatic Debut ‘As Written in The Stars’
The Pune group’s guitarist Sanyanth Naroth on why they were apprehensive about revealing their identity and launch plans
Easy Wanderlings performing at Bacardi NH7 Weekender in Pune last year. Photo: Himanshu Rohilla
One of the things you rarely hear from an emerging artist is how they don’t want to play in one of their city’s most popular venues. Pop/rock collective Easy Wanderlings’ composer and founding member Sanyanth Naroth says he’d take a rooftop or a surf shack any day over a club. That said, he adds, “Every stage is a different feeling that way. Our set at NH7 Weekender [in Pune, 2016] was very fun.”
Born out of Naroth’s love for writing and playing easy-going music while he was studying social entrepreneurship in San Francisco, he wrote “Enjoy It While It Lasts” and showed it to college bestie Malay Vadalkar, who suggested they bring vocalist Pratika Gopinath on board to sing. Naroth says, “The goosebumps we got when we heard her sing it”¦ we knew she’s the one.”
One of their most popular songs to date with over 170,000 hits on YouTube, the recognition came at a point when Easy Wanderlings remained anonymous, operating on social media only through their artwork. Naroth says, “We used to get messages from all over the world asking if we’d playing somewhere near them soon. I had to tell them we’re in India!”
There’s a certain universality–or at least less India-specific hints–on their debut album As Written in the Stars, which was recorded earlier this year. The songs are story-centric, journey-based and vary between playful as well as melancholic. Naroth says, “Some people who heard it told us we can make a musical out of it.”
There are experiments in poetry on songs like “Ode to a Bristlecone” and a cinematic tone to the closing track “Going Easy.” Naroth adds, “There’s ”˜Dream to Keep Us Going,’ a jumpy, happy song about focusing on your real goals, ”˜Here’s to You’ is very playful, with the accordion, but melancholic, because it’s about missing friends.” The guitarist says “I For Little Things” was written while he was working in Bogota, Colombia. “It’s about core values, saying that I will live for the little things.”
With collaborators and band members based in Pune, Chennai, Copenhagen and Valencia, Naroth says everyone in the band are friends of friends, but share a great chemistry. He adds, “The important thing is not perfection, we’re willing to learn and try to do our best.”
Stream the album here and buy it here. Watch the video for “Enjoy It While It Lasts”
