Perfect Strangers Set for Debut South East Asia Tour
The Bengaluru rock band play seven shows in Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam starting March 27th
Bengaluru rock band Perfect Strangers. Photo: Bikramjit Bose
Just days after their big win at the Hornbill International Rock Contest late last year, Bengaluru rock band Perfect Strangers had already set their sights on an international tour. Guitarist Debjeet Basu says, “That process of putting together the tour took two months. It was tough. We were very clear we didn’t want to play fancy venues. Our exposure to Hornbill told us that we should go and play to a crowd that will appreciate our music.”
Between March 27th and April 6th, the band heads out for seven shows in smaller but well-known venues in Singapore, Bangkok, Phnom Penh and Hanoi. Basu says, “So we found pubs like Wala Wala ”“ it’s the oldest one in Singapore. Anyone who wants a good night out on a weekday, will go to Wala Wala because they know good quality bands play there.”
Perfect Strangers had released their debut album A Strange Connection in September last year, whose production was crowdfunded. For their tour, funding came in part from the Rs 10 lakhs they won at Hornbill and from sponsors such as Vans and Pro FX. Basu, who has more than a decade’s worth of sales experience at his former day jobs, says it wasn’t difficult to convince brands to get on board. In exchange for brand logos featuring prominently on merch, product placement in future videos and shout-outs, Perfect Strangers will get on the road with fewer money woes. “My personal experience with brands is that only the ones who really like your music will come on board. It’s not so much a question of how you look or how much you can jump around on stage and how many followers you have, even. We don’t have that many followers, but we still got that deal,” Basu says.
There’s a warm-up show taking place tonight in Bengaluru, where Perfect Strangers will run through a two-hour set, including material from A Strange Connection, a new song called “City of Heartaches” and covers of classic rock bands such as Journey and Toto. Basu says right now they’re far from worried of how the shows will go. He says with a laugh, “It’s madness man. No one’s bothered about what to play, more about what to do on the first day in Singapore.”
Perfect Strangers and Another Kind of Green perform at Fandom at Gilly’s Redefined, Bengaluru on March 22nd, 2019. Event details here.
