Mumbai based progressive rock band Daira have a huge fan following all over the country and are one of the top contenders at most music festivals. With two albums and a third expected this year, Daira’s music is heady, packed with some great guitar riffs, brilliant drumming, powerful vocals and lyrics that anyone can relate to, ingredients that convey the sound they label as art rock.

The band consists of lyricist Piyush Kapoor who also handles vocals and plays the trumpet and kazobo. There’s also Vikalp Sharma and Shivam Pant on backing vocals and guitars, Pratik Kulgod on drums and Sourya Mukherjee on bass guitar.  Their latest work is their single Mazhar with Piyush playing the trumpet giving the song an 80s feel.

Verus Ferreira spoke with the band a few months ago to know more about their journey so far.

Tell us how did Daira come about?

The sound of Daira was originated when 5 musicians coming from varied musical influences jammed together. It has evolved over time and after a few line-up changes. Daira’s music can be defined as art-rock with some psychedelic elements

Was it difficult to find like-minded musicians to put together a team like yours?

It wasn’t as difficult to put together the like-minded musicians as it was to sustain the like-mindedness and maintain the team. We have had a couple of line-up changes that jolted our flow, but those changes eventually proved to be a blessing in disguise and opened new dimensions to the band’s sound.

How did you come up with the name 'Daira'? What does it mean?

There is no interesting story behind naming the band. It was a discussion where we were brain-storming on potential name options. That’s when our vocalist Piyush Kapoor suggested the name ‘Daira’. Everybody unanimously agreed to it. ‘Daira’ is an Urdu word that means boundaries and limitations. With the music and experiences we create, we try to push our boundaries with each passing day.

You spoke of band changes, do you still face the problem or do you now have a steady line-up?

Currently we do not have a permanent bass player, but we are blessed to be working with Aswin Lal, the bassist of Calicut-based instrumental band ‘Harbingers’. Aswin does sessions for us and has also played bass on our Live improv (improvisation) album ‘Vipreet Buddhi’ and our upcoming 3^rd album.

Can you tell us something about your two albums?

Our debut self titled album ‘Daira’ was released back in September 2015, within a year of the inception of the band. The album was produced by renowned producer and musician Vishal J Singh who also mixed and mastered the songs of the album. The latest album ‘Vipreet Buddhi’ is an experimental improv album that emerged out of mere spontaneity. We went to the jam room with an idea of recording an improv jam and extracting a song out of it. But the end result was such that we did not feel like omitting anything and the entire recording essentially became an album. The album is divided into 2 sides. Side A was conducted by Vishal J Singh and Side B was a free-flowing jam. The album was mixed and mastered by Daira’s guitarist Vikalp Sharma

Soundwise, how different are the two albums from each other?

The two albums are starkly different from each other. This is mostly because our sound had evolved a lot in this time difference between both the albums. We also had a couple of line-up changes between this time and the 2 musicians who were different in the second album viz. Shivam Pant on guitars and Aswin Lal on bass totally altered the sound. While the first album had 8 conventional songs aligning towards alternative rock, the second album is like a soundtrack with a lot of psychedelia and surrealism.

Lyrically, what do your songs speak about?

The lyrics speak about various human emotions and are mostly the stories of what we observe and experience in our day to day life. It is a mixture of different expressions for example, the song Meri Soch talks about the freedom of thought and how everything is being controlled nowadays. Having said that, the lyrics are also open to interpretation from a different perspective.

To someone who has not heard your music, how would you describe your sound?

The sound of Daira needs to be given a listen with an open-mind. It’s something that can be felt and connected with.

You also have some visually attractive album covers. Can you throw some light on it?

The art and conceptualisations of our visual elements are done by our friend and artist Ashwyn Warrier who is also Daira’s photographer and the director of our debut music video and documentary. Ashwyn has been foreseeing the visual side of Daira and had collaborated with Kashyap Purushottam who illustrated Daira logo and the album art of our debut album. More recently Ashwyn collaborated with Anjana Suresh who illustrated the much-detailed album art of ‘Vipreet Buddhi’.

Did you guys have regular jobs, left it all to concentrate on the band?

Not all of us had regular jobs but our drummer and manager who are engineers did leave their IT jobs. All the other members who were involved in something or the other also left aside everything to focus on Daira. Our vocalist Piyush Kapoor who used to sing with Kerala-based band Thaikkudam Bridge opted out of the band as he wanted to focus entirely on Daira.

How do your families react to the career and the music you are doing?

It was the sheer passion and the willingness to do something on our own that made everybody leave whatever they were doing. While the friends and family often show some scepticism and concern on how it will pan out, they believe in what we are doing, because they see the hard work the band members put in and the conviction with which everybody goes about their business.

Who are your musical influences be it Indian or international artists?

There’s Pink Floyd, System of a Down, King Crimson, Rage Against the Machine, Avial, Rammstein, Thermal and a Quarter, among many others.

Any artist or band you wish to collaborate with?

We had done a collaboration project with singer-songwriter Kalyaani and rappers Swadesi on the song Trouble which was released last year. We are open to more collaborations with anyone with whom the vibe is matching

How important it is to get associated with a music label for an indie artist?

A music label with all their resources and funds can certainly help trigger things for an artist, but nowadays the labels pick-up only templates that are trending and will work. Moreover, some labels just help in distribution of music by keeping a major chunk of revenue share and not invest in the recording or production process. It is important for an indie artist to associate with someone who can foresee the future and work towards it in an organised manner. It can be a label, the manager or the band members themselves. A lot of indie bands have worked with the DIY method and got things done for themselves.

Organizers don’t always cover costs for the band. So how does Daira break even?      

We usually try to collect funds and save whenever we are getting good enough money from some gigs. That saving goes in the production, marketing, miscellaneous expenses that come our way. There are some months when we get a lot of shows and some months when we do not get any shows at all. We also have a rule as a band, that if an individual is earning anything outside of Daira, 20% of the money earned goes to Daira funds. We strive for finding ways to sustain and grow. It’s been difficult, extremely difficult at times, but after that when the other side of the hard work, when a good gig gets converted or when our music is received well, is very satisfying.

The band plays a genre of music known as 'Awadhi Rock' pertaining more to Hindi and Urdu writing style. How did this genre come about?

Our music mainly inclines towards rock, although we do love to add elements from other genres as well. As far as the language goes, almost all of the lyrics are written by Piyush (vocalist) only. And being from Lucknow, Awadhi is widely spoken and used there, so this comes naturally to him. 

What is the reason you guys wear face paint for all your live performances?

It's something that defines our visual identity, which in turn add to our appeal to the audience and what we are trying to express through our music. It's not particularly based on a theme. We also get to collaborate with a lot of artists this way. We have had artists come to our gigs in cities like Bangalore, New Delhi, Calicut for our face paint.

You released a full length album titled ‘Itni Jurrat?’ in September 2018. What is the new album all about, musically and lyrically?

Musically, this album was written entirely while jamming with each other. One of the members comes up with a riff or a melody and we take it from there. Mostly it is more of rock music slightly fused with other genres. For example, Mahaul has funky bass line intro. Lailaaj has a hook riff. Ailaan is a very psychedelic, mostly an improvised track so on.  'Itni Jurrat?' was written over the span of a year or so because we went through a line up change after we wrote Bhookamp, Mahaul, Mazedaar and Lailaaj. A listener can easily tell the difference in the style that Shivam (guitar player) brought with him in the other songs.