Music lovers in the city were in for a musical blitzkrieg over the weekend with electro-rock duo FuzzCulture from New Delhi launching their debut album as well as performing to a packed audience at Hard Rock Café.
Titled NO , the album comes after a successful EP launch in 2013 with the band, featuring guitarist/vocalist Arsh Sharma and drummer Srijan Mahajan, returning to their roots of rock ’n’ roll with very strong live elements in their songs. The album comprises eight tracks varying from industrial rock and electronic pop to punk rock in the Universal Music release. Known for their provocative style and boundary-pushing attitude towards making unique signature soundscapes, the award-winning duo shares their experience with MetroPlus.
Having played before a couple of times in Bengaluru, the pair says they like it here. “The music scene is really good. Even though you have deadlines, it’s a great music city. More than musicians coming out to other gigs, regular people come and that is amazing,” says Srijan.
Releasing their debut album NO as part of a six-city tour, the band says they look forward to playing some of their songs in the gig here. What’s with the name? Srijan says the album name stands for just ‘no’. “It stems from the fact that our music is not conventional or traditional. Our major problem is that everybody tries to put us into a box. We wanted to say no to all of these things. It’s our way of telling people give our music a shot instead of putting us into a box.”
Explaining the story behind their roots as a rock-inspired electronica act, Srijan says: “When we started doing this, we thought we will do dance music. But it was something neither of us connected with and we were trying to fit ourselves into a hole that we didn’t really like filling. We decided to give into our basic instincts and allow them to steer us.” Arsh adds that they are rooted in rock and roll. “We’ve both grown up listening to rock music. That’s how both of us started playing. That foundation cannot be erased.”
With a very strong live presence, FuzzCulture believes a lot in being performers. Harsh explains: “When we started doing dance music initially. People were turning their backs to us. I really didn’t like it. So we decided to make music where people don’t turn their backs to us. We give people a real show.”
Srijan points out that he does know that for a fact that there was nobody else in the country doing what they were doing when they were doing it. “We playing instruments while doing electronica is unique. Now it’s become big. Something has happened. Maybe it’s not us. But something has definitely changed.”
Looking ahead, the duo says they have no idea where they are going. “If you listen to the last song in our album, you will know we have no clue where we are heading. We want a clean slate to start over. We don’t even want to think. But we will continue to put out new material regularly,” says Srijan.
The name FuzzCulture means a lot to both of them. Arsh says: “For me, it’s a name that’s easy to find on Google. That’s most important to me.” Srijan adds: “I have a strong tendency to distort and destroy everything that I work on. That’s how the word fuzz came up.”
Arsh makes one thing very clear. “We don’t care if we inspire anyone or not. There is no social message in this. We don’t want to make the world better or worse for anyone. We just want to play our music for ourselves and our audience.”
