The Tramlines Project Launch New Album ‘Perception’ With Shows This Month

There’s an intentional and unintentional “Indianness” that opens post-rock band The Tramlines Project’s debut album Perception. The song “Right & Wrong” opens up and surges in the way that only post-rock bands can pull off, with intense violin portions from Saurabh Chandran and tabla as well.

Exploring the “weight of expectations” and other aspects of a relationship that’s coming apart at the seams, “Right & Wrong” breathes fresh life into the familiar, grandiose and cinematic post-rock palette. “It is pure tension and argument among notes, and we could feel it,” the band’s guitarist Rahul Seth says.

Completed by guitarist Prajwal Shekar and drummer Aritra Das, the seven-track album Perception also includes bass by Aniket Thyagarajan. In the works for more than a year, the album comes after The Tramlines Project have already gathered a few feathers in their cap – from supporting the country’s post-rock frontrunners Aswekeepsearching on tour and playing on the same lineup as guitarist-composer Plini. The songs were also an outcome of the time that the band were dealing with their own personal challenges, including Seth’s father’s passing.

Songs like “Empty Inside,” “Lucid Dream” (their lead single that was out in September), “Frostbite” and “Alive” journey through intense phases but also bring up contemplative movements, making the case for a deeper, more attentive listen. Thyagarajan adds a bit of jazz with a bass solo on the penultimate song “Output,” which sees The Tramlines Project trudge into prog metal territory as well. The album closes with “Hope,” which has a smattering of brighter synth to reflect their overall outlook.

The band is taking the album out on the road with launch shows in Mumbai on November 9th at antiSOCIAL (playing alongside Suraj Mani, Baiju Dharmajan and Deepu Sasidharan), in Pune on November 10th and in Bengaluru on November 17th at Fandom at Gilly’s Redefined. Seth terms the undertaking of booking a tour as an indie band as challenging, but not impossible. “First steps are always difficult. We have been analyzing data about how and which venue in which city behaves. Keeping that in mind, we planned our tour,” Seth says.

He likens it to a marathon more than a 100-meter sprint, knowing that an audience will grow as long as a band can keep them engaged. There are more cities to be announced for the next phases of the tour as well, where The Tramlines Project will play Perception in its entirety, plus a few songs by their major inspiration, Irish band God Is An Astronaut. Seth says, “We are heavy, emotional and ambient where it needs to be. It [the album] is a story with fewer words, with freedom to interpret the way the audience can relate too. It is everyone’s story! The feelings which we don’t talk about, and only we know it within ourselves.”

Additionally, there are plans to tour Europe with the album as well, plus festivals around India. “It is going to be a packed 2024. If we can execute this plan it will be a big win for the band and breakthrough,” the band says.

Listen to ‘Perception’ below. Stream on more platforms here. Get more info on the Tramlines Project tour dates here.