Menwhopause

Menwhopause is an alternative rock band from New Delhi, formed in 2001. The band released it’s first EP titled The Story Begins (The Middle Earth Company) in 2003, which was given out as a free download. In 2006, the band released its first full-length album Home (The Middle Earth Company) and was invited to play at the South by South West festival in Austin, Texas, making them the first band from India to play at SXSW. Their new album Easy released in January 2011.

The band was formed in 2001 by guitarist Anup Kutty with an original lineup of singer/songwriter Sarabjit Chadha and acoustic guitarist Inder Pal Singh (IP). The trio became a full fledged band after recruiting bassist Randeep Singh and drummer Rahul Chatterjee.

In 2006 they released their first full length album Home. The album gained the band international recognition, making them the first Indian rock band to be invited to perform at the SxSW festival in Austin, Texas. The band’s tour was sponsored by the Indian Centre for Cultural Relations, which made them the first ever rock band to be supported by the cultural arm of the Government of India. The band also did a month long tour of the southwestern United States playing in around 10 cities in and around Texas. In February 2008, the band won an online poll for the Best Band of the Year 2007 conducted by Jack Daniel’s in India. This got them a chance to fly to Lynchburg, Tennessee in April 2008 where they performed at the Legendary Mash Festival and worked with R.E.M.’s producer David Barbe. The band signed a major record deal with EMI-Virgin Records (India) in 2008 to release their second full length album Easy. Instead of conventional studio recording, the band began work on the album by recording the tracks in a make-shift studio set up by them in a village in Uttaranchal, a state in the Himalayas, during September 2006. The album took four years to be produced with the band bringing in mixing engineer and co-producer Miti Adhikari (BBC London) and Grammy Award winning mastering engineer Richard Dodd. The album was initially released on digital format through iTunes andAmazon.com in early-January 2011 followed by physical CD format on 26 January 2011. The album immediately received favourable reviews by critics with The Times of India calling it “by far, one of the most brilliant works from an Indian rock act.” The album artwork for Easy was done by award-winning art director Abhishek Dey who has been a regular with the band having designed the layouts for the band’s first album.