Thrissur-Based Post Rock Act Mushroom Lake To Play In Bengaluru Next Week

Mushroom Lake (l-r): Raju K P (guitars), Govind Ashok Kumar (drums) , Jitin David (guitars), Vijay Gopal (Bass/Keys)

One afternoon at a random jam session, guitarist Raju KP decided to step away from heavy metal and switch to post rock. Says the guitarist, “I was really interested in post rock and I randomly started playing some melodies and the other members joined in.” The experiment resulted in the inception of Mushroom Lake in February 2011 and their first single “Acid Rain,” which they performed at their first gig at a college competition in Cochin the very next day. When asked if they won the competition, guitarist Raju KP laughs and adds, “No we didn’t win the competition, but the judge came up to us and told us that we had a very unique sound and all. We were happy with it. We just wanted to perform; we didn’t want to win the competition or anything.”

The two-year old band, which has listed American post rock group Explosions in The Sky and Irish post rockers God Is An Astronaut among its influences, has mostly been performing in and around Kerala in cities like Kochi, Trivandrum, Kannur, Kovalam and Kozhikode ”” “Gigs rarely happen in Thrissur or any towns apart from Kochi and Trivandrum. We’ve played a few in those two cities,” says Raju. They also scored a few gigs in Chennai and Bengaluru where they played the Big Mushroom Cloud Festival in 2011 at CounterCulture along with acts like Jass B’stards, Peter Cat Recording Co, The Bicycle Days, Adam & The Fish Eyed Poets ”” “We ended up playing only three songs because of some time issues and constraints.”

Mushroom Lake has one single titled “Acid Rain” and one live performance video “Silence and the Mist” recorded and available for public viewing. The live video is a part of their album which is in a live video format as well, currently in its post production stages. They will perform material from their upcoming debut album at The Post Rock Experiment, organized by Mumbai-based independent record label Ennui.BOMB at Bengaluru gig venue The Humming Tree along with post rock acts, Bengaluru-based Space Behind The Yellow Room and Pune/Delhi based Pinnochio’s Moment of Clarity. Says Raju, “We are set to play a 45-minute set showcasing seven-eight tracks but will hopefully extend it to an hour, depending on the organizers and the venue. You can expect a very chilled out set from us.”

Watch “Silence and the Mist”  below

Catch Mushroom Lake, Space Behind the Yellow Room and Pinnochio’s Moment of Clarity live at The Post Rock Experiment at The Humming Tree, Bengaluru on the 29^th of January, 8 PM onwards. Entry is priced at Rs 200.