Listen: Kolkata Rock Band Candy Cloud Conspiracy’s New Single “Conspiracy”

Candy Cloud Conspiracy. Photo: Vedant Gupta

Early this year, Kolkata producer and singer-songwriter Neel Adhikari, who regularly hosts open mic nights at one of the city’s oldest venue, Someplace Else, caught alt rock band Candy Cloud Conspiracy. Says Adhikari, “They just ripped it. I think they’re one of the most promising bands from Calcutta.” Adhikari also places them between electronic music artist Arnab Mukherjee aka Troubleshooter and pop artist Nischay Parekh in terms of freshness. Says Adhikari with a laugh, “If these three bands played a gig together, it’d be like the Calcutta New Wave.”

The band, which comprises vocalist-guitarist Amartya Ghosh, bassist Rohit Ray, lead guitarist Aahel Iyer, synth player/bassist Jinu Kochar and drummer Sparsho Mukherjee, was formed while the band members were still studying at the Calcutta International School last year. Kochar, a college student and the oldest in the band, joined the band in June. Ghosh says that school helped them move from a casual approach to music to getting serious about playing gigs. Says Ghosh, “That’s where you meet people and chill around with them and become good friends with musicians.”

In addition to their new single “Conspiracy,” the band recorded an EP, Make Believe, in September [with Kolkata producer/composer Varun Kishore], which is slated for release in December. Says Ghosh about their single, “We wrote this song to partially explain of our band name as well. The song is more about an uncertain, dark form of love.” While they are set to play at weekly gig series Jamsteady in Kolkata in December, all band members graduate from school in January, after which they plan to get much more active in the Kolkata scene. Says Kochar, “Now we’re way more serious into it [writing music]. We’re working on two or three more originals and making a music video.”

Listen to “Conspiracy” by Candy Cloud Conspiracy