Indian Ocean is widely regarded and one of India’s foremost bands. They have been around for over two decades, and have earned a cult following with their unique sound. Somecritics describe Indian Ocean’s music as an amalgamation of Contemporary Rock, Indian classical, jazz, folk music and fusion that integrates themes like spiritualism, activism,environmentalism, the futility of war and mythology.

Formed in the early 90's Indian Ocean has been one of the spearheads of the Indian Rock scene.  The band has managed to maintain this inimitable sound in all their albums and have attained some rave reviews from the critics. Some of the themes of their songs are Sufism, environmentalism and mythology.  Definitely exclusive in what they do, Indian Ocean have toured all over India and played all across the globe.

The lead singer of this band, Rahul Ram, plays bass from melodic enmeshing with vocal and guitar lines to the more standard laying of foundations over which the band soars. His riveting stage presence is an essential part of Indian Ocean’s electrifying live concerts. His vocals have a raw power, an uncompromising edge that emphasizes the folk roots of the band. Rahul also ends up doing most of the talking at live shows. His experiences as an activist/supporter with the Narmada Bachao Andolan and during his four years studying in the US have exposed him to a variety of musical styles from all over India and the world, and have strongly influenced his musical expression. 

Another founding member of the band is drummer Amit Kilam who is happy balancing between the conventional and non-conventional. He believes in layering rhythm rather than heavy drums, and prefers simplicity over technical wizardry. He incorporates Indian rhythms into his drumming in a unique fashion, moving in cycles of 8, 10, 12 14, 16, rather than simple 4/4 or ¾ styles. He goes easy on the skins, yet his playing is very dynamic. Amit was introduced to music at the age of 4 by his parents, learning the guitar (hawaiian - Indian classical). He is an instinctive musician, picking up all kinds of instruments with ease, and he sings well too! 

In December 2009 the band lost Asheem Chakravarty to cardiac arrest. In his place Tuheen Chakravorty an accomplished percussionist. (Indian Percussions) joined as a permanent member. Around the same time vocalist Himanshu Joshi was roped in to help out with backing vocals, filling in for Asheen.

Somewhere in 2013 another founding member and guitarist Susmit Sen left the band and was replaced by the young and dynamic self taught guitar player Nikhil Rao . Rao started playing in local rock and metal bands in college and was a big fan of India Ocean. It has been reported that Rao who took on reins as lead guitarist used to travel 40 kms each way to hear the band perform.

It's relevant to any and all who may wish to know more about the band themselves that one of their songs Kandisa from their third album ‘Kandisa’ is in fact an old Aramaic prayer originally sung by Syrian Christians and still, to this day, sung by the Nasrani Syrian Christians down in the Kerala region of India. Listening to this live you would surely get goosebumps.

To date the band has released seven album Indian Ocean (1993), Desert Rain (1997), Kandisa (2000), Jhini (2003), Black Friday (2005), 16/330 Khajoor Road (2010) and Tandanu (2014). The band has also worked with the Bollywood industry and have contributed a lot of music for various films. They also have their own documentary on the band ‘Leaving Home – The Life and Music of Indian Ocean’ released in 2010.

We met up with the band when they performed sometime back at the Walk of Hope concert in Mumbai. Excerpts from an interview.

You are performing at the Walk of Hope concert. What made you want to be a part of this initiative?

The message of peace and harmony that Sri M is spreading through this walk resonates with us as individuals and as a band. So we said why not, let’s associate with the cause and spread the message.

Indian Ocean has continued its journey even after the sad demise of Asheem and the exit of Susmit Sen? How has the journey been so far with new members joining in?

Asheem’s death caught us by surprise, we didn’t know he was that sick or that his condition would deteriorate so soon. We still had a lot of date commitments on the tour, So Himanshu and Tuheen jumped in almost mid tour to keep Indian Ocean going, Kudos to both of them for adjusting so well. With Susmit we were better prepared as he had been unhappy for a while, so we identified Nikhil before the exit and once he came onboard rehearsed the hell out of our older songs. The rigorous reversals really helped the new line up gel. We also made ‘Tandanu’ with this new line up and we love the album ‘Songs for Masaan’ have also happened since the new members came so the journey continues…

Has the sound of Indian Ocean changed over the years compared to when it first began making music?

Definitely when the band started it was almost all instrumental, then vocals came in, multiple instruments and technology came in so the bands sound kept evolving. Now with the new members it sounds distinct from older Indian Ocean songs, but we have been told and we believe all our songs retain that quintessential Indian Ocean sound.

What new material is the band working on presently?

We have already started hashing out ideas for the next album hopefully we are able to put it out in an year.

Who does the songwriting in the band ?

The way we make songs is one of us starts with an idea we have and we play it together over and over again, keep changing adding parts till we come up with a song that all of us love. We never write our own lyrics, Sanju (Sanjeev Sharma) has wrote most of our lyrics, sometimes we use poems / existing songs and change that around. Sometimes the tune comes first and sometimes the words come first. The ideas can start with anybody.

In the past Indian Ocean has done a lot of work for Bollywood, has anything new come in?

We have never done a lot of bollywood work. We did Masaan last year and we might have a few projects this year. Wait and watch.

Are any tours planned for the this year in India and overseas?

Definitely our 1000^th concert is coming up soon. We are planning something special around that. And we will be touring Egypt this year

Any collaborations coming up with independent bands?

Nothing planned as of now. These things usually happen organically.

What do you guys feel about the present Indian music scene?

It’s a great time to be in the Indian music scene, there are a lot more avenues to play and have your music heard now than there were when we started and the quality of concerts and production have gone up the audiences have grown as well.

Interviewed by Verus Ferreira