Watch Swarathma’s Animated Procrastination Anthem ‘Dus Minute Aur’

Fresh from tours and collaborative projects, Bengaluru folk-rock band Swarathma have kept their train rolling, although they wouldn’t mind a few extra moments of rest, as professed in their comical new animated video for the song “Dus Minute Aur.”

While the single was out in October last year – and made our list of top songs of 2021 – the music video adds a refreshing new dimension, courtesy of animator and illustrator Asuma Noor. According to Swarathma, Noor dreamed up three characters to reflect the much-needed plea for extra shut-eye time, which is the main concern of the electrifying “Dus Minute Aur.”

The band said on Instagram about the video, “There is Billoo, a lanky lad, who believes he’s always going to be late. There is Chhotu, forever persecuted student of the digital age… and there is Didi, a true-blue professional but hard pressed for time and Wi-Fi. They are all of us, and we are all of them.” Clingy cats, slapping laptops and messed up Internet all get wrapped up in the stomping rhythm of the tune. Bassist Jishnu Dasgupta says, “We experimented with a lo-fi kind of animation with our long-time collaborator Aasuma Noor for this video. This song is the story of all of our sleep-deprived lives and how it feels to be stuck in a loop, forever chasing some or the other deadline.”

Swarathma’s guitarist-producer Varun Murali says about the sonic edge of the track, “‘Dus Minute Aur’ is a collaboration of 80s drum machine, synth bass lines, distorted electric guitars and huge vocals. It is a significant shift in the musical direction of the band and I am proud to have steered into this direction as a producer. It is a new facet of Swarathma.”

Animation, comics and cartoons are perhaps among Swarathma’s affinities. Their 2018 album Raah-e-Fakira­ was accompanied with a comic book, while five tracks from their third full-length record were accompanied by an animated lyric video. Their 2020 pandemic-aware single “Mushkil Mein Jeena” also featured illustrated, cartoon-like cover art by artist Ekta Bharti.

Beyond the online presence, Swarathma wrapped up a four-city tour between May 27th and June 5th, performing in Kolkata and Mumbai. They’ve also been chipping away at their collaborative project Rhythms of the Earth, a tribal music collective out in Jamshedpur. A statement accompanying their vlog from the project states, “The band spent a week in Jamshedpur’s Tribal Culture Centre over October 2021 in the company of 40 musicians from 14 Indian tribes. They were from Munda, Ho, Oraon, Bhumij, Karbi, Bodo, Koya, Kotha, Kondha, Warli, and more. It was a humbling, grounding experience. They carry their immense cultural richness so easily in their hearts and voices that they embraced us with as much love as did their music.”

Watch the video for “Dus Minute Aur” below.