The Lightyears Explode Pop Anxiety ‘Pills’ on New Song

Through the pandemic, Mumbai pop/punk band The Lightyears Explode – comprising vocalist-guitarist Saurabh Roy and bassist Shalom Benjamin – released a four-track EP called Mellow (2020) and a single entitled “Nostalgia 99” (2021). Since then, the pair have also been working on background music for films and have even been chipping away at their forthcoming sophomore full-length album Suburban Prose. 

The new record follows the band’s critically acclaimed debut album from 2013, The Revenge of Kalicharan, and The Lightyears Explode have just released the first single off Suburban Prose with the jittery and explosive “Pills.”  

Keeping with their new pop sound we first heard on Mellow, The Lightyears Explode also interject the song with distorted guitars, steely vocals, blitzing basslines and a high-octane chorus with jumpy drums that are a nod to their punk roots. Talking about the track, Roy says, “‘Pills’ lyrically is about when I was prescribed some anxiety meds for a while during the lockdown. I would forget to take them, so I wrote a song from the point of view of the pills to almost remind me to take them.” He adds, “Sonically, I wanted it to be really simple with loud and soft dynamics. I think you can tell some of Adam Schlesinger‘s [late American musician from rock outfit Fountains of Wayne] influence on the structure of the songwriting. We also wanted to be loud again.”  

Apart from Schlesinger, Roy also cites bands that helped shape the sound of Suburban Prose, including My Chemical Romance, Green Day and Weezer whose albums he got back to listening to after spending 2020 listening to just singles. The vocalist-guitarist says, “I wasn’t very happy, and I missed distorted guitars and albums in general. I didn’t just want us to make a nostalgia record for the sake of it, so some influence from our previous EP Mellow and new bands like Muna and Pale Waves also creep in.” 

While work on Suburban Prose began early last year, The Lightyears Explode plan to release a second single this May before finally releasing the full album in September. The band is also lining up gigs to help promote the album for when it’s out. Ask Roy what listeners can expect from the record and he says, “Alternative rock with a whole dollop of pop with a punk-rock attitude.” 

Stream “Pills” on Spotify below and on other platforms.