Producer-Drummer Aditya Ashok Launches Ox7gen Live

OX7GEN Live | Photo Credit: Jishnu Guha

For Mumbai drum ”˜n bass producer Aditya Ashok, the sky’s the limit. To say that the 25-year old artist, who began his career as a drummer for now-defunt psychedelic rock band Rosemary in 2008, has had an impressive career graph would be an understatement. Over the last few years, Ashok has performed at Glastonbury Festival in England with electro pop band Shaa’ir and Func, opened for American electronica artist Michal Menert and started his solo electronica act, Ox7gen. The producer is now ready to launch his latest project, Ox7gen Live ”“ a five-member band that will rework his music for stage. Says Ashok, “A live band is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but it needed time to conceptualize and execute. There were certain people who I wanted to work with, so I worked my tracks around that.”

Ox7gen Live comprises Mumbai pop rock band The Colour Compound’s Bradley Tellis on guitar and samplers, Mumbai electro-rock artist Donn Bhat on guitar, Mumbai pop rock band Spud In The Box’s Rohan Rajadhyaksha on keys, Rosemary’s Suraj Manik on bass guitar and Ashok on drums and synths. Says Ashok, “A few of us were a part of Krunk All-Stars last year and that’s when I looked at the idea realistically, since I already had a blueprint of how it would work.” Adds Rajadhyaksha, “It’s unlike anything that I’ve done before, but it’s not that different [from Spud In The Box] in terms of setup because it’s still a band.”

This month, Ashok will launch his EP Dimensions. His band Ox7gen Live will perform tracks from Dimensions, as well as songs from 2012’s Any Minute Now and 2013’s An Ocean For Everyone. Says the producer, “When I was working on Dimensions, I was already thinking about how I would perform it live. In a band setup, you can reinterpret a lot of the music so that when you hear it live, you’re not hearing the exact same thing.” Featuring songs such as “A.W.T.Y. [Are We There Yet],” “Momentary” and “All Your Love,” the five-track EP shifts from the drum ”˜n bass-heavy sound that Ashok is known for, to include more distinct elements of alternative and post rock. Says Bhat, “This is new for all of us, it’s new territory ”“ so we’re experimenting with how we’ll perform live.”

Dimensions is also the first of Ashok’s releases to feature vocals. Says the producer, “My whole learning process has been through trial and error. I’ve written vocal melodies before and I’d tried to write lyrics, but I couldn’t come up with something that I was happy with.” Ox7gen Live will also feature the impressive lineup of collaborators on Dimensions EP, including vocalists such as Mumbai alt metal band Goddess Gagged’s Siddharth Basrur, Mumbai electro-swing duo Madboy/Mink’s Saba Azad, Mumbai singer-songwriter Rachel Varghese and The Colour Compound’s frontman Rohan Mazumdar. Following their Mumbai debut, Ox7gen Live will also perform at the Delhi and Pune editions of Bacardi NH7 Weekender, as well as the High Spirits in Pune in November.

Ox7gen Live
October 30^th, 2014 – Blue Frog, Mumbai
Entry – Rs. 350 or Rs. 1000 full cover post 9pm

Listen to “Momentary” by Ox7gen featuring Rachel Varghese: