#RSOffStage feat. Aditya Ashok: ‘Lots of Interstellar Exploration Has Taken Place Here.’
The Skyharbor drummer and electronic producer talks about his irreplaceable balcony and the mellow music he listens to in his downtime for our photo series on life beyond the stage
Drummer Aditya Ashok also goes by the production handle OX7GEN. Photo: Swaraj Sriwastav
Mumbai-based producer and drummer Aditya Ashok a.k.a. OX7GEN has a room with a story to tell. The walls are decked with album art, posters and movie and tour memorabilia””a collection that the musician has carefully curated over the years.
The drummer’s walls are plastered with music memorabilia from around the world. Photo: Swaraj Sriwastav
“Other than being my personal rehearsal room and studio, my room used to be the practice spot for the bands that I used to play with, like Rosemary, The Colour Compound, Goddess Gagged, as well as about a 100 musicians that I’ve played with at some point in the last 10 years,” explains Ashok.
The newest addition to the artist’s home setup is a set of drum microphones to help him record drums from the space. The second-newest is a set of drum heads he picked up in Europe during his recently-concluded tour with Skyharbor, supporting alt metal heavyweights Deftones.
Ashok currently plays the drums for Skyharbor, as well as a whole host of other bands. Photo: Swaraj Sriwastav
“The balcony attached to my room is irreplaceable. In a city like Bombay, that kind of space is priceless and is always my go-to spot when I’ve worked for a while and need to declutter my head for a few minutes,” says Ashok. “It’s also been a place of major congregation for friends and musicians. Lots of interstellar exploration has taken place here.” He recently collaborated with musician Siddharth Basrur on his bedroom project RUNT and also co-founded the producer collective DASTA with Zokhuma, Sandunes and others.
Ashok heads to his balcony when he needs to clear his head. Photo: Swaraj Sriwastav
While one would expect Ashok to consume a steady diet of bass and power-heavy music, the drummer-producer has a surprisingly mellow taste in music. “Over the last year or so, my ”˜listening to music’ playlist has been very mellow, mostly jazz trumpet, Bossa nova, Ali Farka Toure etc,” says Ashok. “There’s so much high energy and heavily produced music I’m personally involved with while writing and performing that it’s extremely therapeutic to have these polar opposite styles filling up my free time.”
Aditya Ashok. Photo: Swaraj Sriwastav
Ashok also maintains an impressive collection of vinyls from his travels and tours abroad. However, music isn’t his only interest.
“I really enjoy cooking. I don’t cook that much, and there isn’t a huge list of things I can make, but I still love it. When I have a kitchen of my own I plan on getting pretty deep into it.”
