Siddharth Basrur: In A New Light

Siddharth Basrur | Photo Credit: Prashin Jagger

It took three months bunking beds with Mum­bai sessions guitarist Vishal J Singh [from avant garde group Amogh Sympho­ny] for singer Siddharth Basrur to become a better guitar play­er. The result is that Basrur, who has previously been the vocal­ist for alt metal band Goddess Gagged and rock band Kinky Ski Munky, managed to hone his guitar skills. Says Basrur, “I used to be a shit guitar play­er. When I was 16 and started playing, I just wanted to play Nirvana songs.”

Last year, Basrur and Singh collaborated on a new post-rock band called The Library, where there was more emphasis on gui­tars than vocals. After writing music for The Library, Basrur began writing his own songs for his new project, Last Remain­ing Light. The band, compris­ing Basrur, guitarist Anurag Shanker, bassist Adil Kurwa and drummer Vaibhav Wavikar, started out as the backing band, playing from Basrur’s two-part solo EP Chasing Rain. The group got together to form alt/rock band Last Remaining Light ear­lier this year. Says Basrur, “Most of the parts [for the songs] are written by me, but essential [in­strumental] parts are also writ­ten by others. I play guitars in the band, but also wrote a bit of bass and drum parts.” Although most of the material for Last Re­maining Light’s self-titled debut album was written by Basrur in the last year, older songs such as “The Road,” written in 2009 and “Conclusions,” written in 2010, also find their way on to the 10- track album. Basrur hopes to re­lease the album in December and mentions that he steps away from the mic completely for an instrumental song. The vocalist-guitarist adds, “It’s not a post-rock kinda song, though. When we were jamming, we had 15 or 20 minutes left in the room so we came up with this song in 10 minutes.”

Thematically, Last Remaining Light’s release will be very differ­ent from Chasing Rain, in that there is no central theme binding the album. While “Conclusions” and “The Road” are love songs, Basrur sings about overpopu­lation and how Mumbai is on the brink of collapse on “Spac­es.” Although just three shows old, Last Remaining Light play at the Bandra Fest in Mumbai in November, which only be their second electric show. But Basrur says they’re open to playing all kinds of gigs, knowing that au­diences are yet to discover their music. Says the singer, who has been busy writing more songs for his new project, “Anything can suit our vibe. I’ve already written enough for another EP.”