Punk On Toast Talk Full-Length Album

Punk on Toast frontman Aditya Naik. Photo: Sairaj R Kamath

When guitarist Aditya Naik talks about performing at one of Mumbai’s best-known club venues Blue Frog this week with his band, Punk On Toast, his mind always goes back to the one notorious show in 2012. Naik, then 19 years old and probably under the influence of one thing or another, played a subpar set, broke his guitar string and even took a dig at the club’s high-end clientele, almost burying the band’s chances of performing there again. Naik says matter-of-factly, “Last time we played with [Mumbai punk rockers] The Lightyears Explode at Blue Frog was a very disastrous gig for us. We’re really looking forward to put up a great show.”

After four years and a lot of gained maturity, Punk on Toast performed in March this year at Blue Frog and will return to the venue on June 30th to perform alongside The Lightyears Explode, alt rock band Gumbal and punk band Mommy’s Not Home. Drummer Kalidas Shenoy adds, “The best part about us ”“ not boasting or anything ”“ we feel that whenever we play, there’s at least one new song on the bill. We’ll be debuting two new songs as part of the album.”

The as-yet-untitled full-length album is also underway with the band completing live drum recording and slotting guitar, vocals and bass recording with Ahmedabad-based Uddipan Sarmah at his BlueTree Studio. Naik says, “I believe we sound best when we play live. We really want to capture that energy on the record.” The band, which also includes bassist Prathamesh Sadansing and guitarist Yogesh Lokare, plan to finish recording by July 20th.

As for the two new songs at their Mumbai set, there’s “My Friends,” in which Naik reminisces about going to see annual rock gathering Independence Rock and seeing rock and metal bands such as Pentagram, Zero, Blakc and Demonic Resurrection for the first time. Then there’s “Caught in the Divide.” Says Naik, “It speaks about how an average citizen of India basically finds himself isolated.” That certainly falls in line with the band’s already anti-government stance on songs like “Modi-fied” and “For Hire.” Their call to mosh in Mumbai, however, will be on “Being Inhuman,” which takes aim at Bollywood actor Salman Khan, whom Naik describes as “the king of fuckups.” He adds, “We’ll try to get a moshpit going for sure.”

BOMB Night ft Punk On Toast, The Lightyears Explode, Gumbal and Mommy’s Not Home takes place at Blue Frog, Mumbai on June 30th, 2016. Event details here.