The Bicycle Days Release Debut Album, Music Video

Vocalist Karthik Basker from The Bicycle Days

Three years after their first EP release, 42, Bengaluru alternative band The Bicycle Days has a new album, Calamitunes, ready for release on June 7th. The first thing vocalist Karthik Basker shares about the band’s debut full-length album is that they’ve experimented with everything from autotune to having a second guitarist on board.

Calamitunes features nine tracks, including the first single, “Crawl (The Human Experience),” whose trippy new music video is directed by Bengaluru-based independent filmmaker Ashwin Bhaskaran, who also directed the Sky Rabbit video for “Hilltop.”  Says Basker, “We went through a lot of filmmakers and picked Ashwin. The process [of making the video] was really nice, we learnt a lot about the visual side of things.” Besides featuring visuals washed over through different lenses, “Crawl (The Human Experience)” explores grayscale landscapes and water ink art that fits the smooth, mellow mash of electronica, jazz and rock that the track is.

Basker says the band has “gone out of that Radiohead trip” and is into more downtempo, electronica acts such as Boards Of Canada, Flying Lotus and Gonjasufi. Says Basker, “It’s more accessible, away from the progressive sound, into more chilled out stuff” referring to “Hush,” the first sample fans got in form of a demo in January.

Basker, who used to handle guitars and vocals previously, now handles electronica samples with guitarist Rahul Ranganath. The band has also added second guitarist, Ramanan Chandramouli [from Bengaluru rockers Mad Orange Fireworks and Jazz/soul act Leslie Charles Trio], three months ago. “We used to jam all the time [with Ramanan] and decided to get him to join,” says Basker who adds Chandramouli has played on six songs on Calamitunes. There’s no launch gig confirmed yet, but the band has plans for a tour throughout June, where physical copies of the album will be available.

Cover art for ‘Calamitunes’

Watch The Bicycle Days’ music video for “Crawl (The Human Experience)” here