Parikrama has been on the music scene for 28 years now, having performed in Russia, USA, Canada, Vietnam, Muscat, Bhutan and Nepal. The classic rock band, which includes elements of Indian music in its soundscape, was the first Asian band to perform at the Download Festival in 2007, and open for Iron Maiden in Bengaluru, the following year. Since 1991, the band has been only produced singles and performed live gigs. They’ve also been giving listeners free access to music, and playing for various causes, while pursuing their own respective professions.
Although formed as a college band to play classic rock numbers by Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and The Rolling Stones, the band has continued to thrive and outlive several others. Their sole mantra – sticking to the basics and keeping rock music as authentic and simple as possible.
This June, Parikrama will be out with a video of one of their famous songs, Tears Of The Wizard (TOTW). The video, inspired by the character of Gandalf the wizard from the Lord of the Rings, is directed by Suchit and Sanchit Moonga, and captures the beauty of the Mechuka Valley, Arunachal Pradesh.
“We never used to record our songs or make videos, but we are changing that policy, and we will come out with more videos, singles and originals very soon. There are many songs that we are working on from our old repertoire. TOTW will be the first to be released, followed by a few more,” informs Subir Malik, one of the band’s founding members.
“Millennials are more active on social media, and visual content gets promoted faster than audio content. So, for the kids today to start listening to our songs, they need to have more visual content,” he reasons.
“TOTW was created when we were writing songs for the Download Festival in 2007. We came up with five to six different ideas, from which three songs came out including, Am I Dreaming,” recalls Sonam, the lead guitarist. “Nitin came up with a very Gothic riff, resembling the behrawi raag in Indian classical music, which we further developed. We decided to include a lot of violin in it as well, as we had to cater to Western audiences.”
Nitin Malik, an ardent Lord of The Rings fan, whose song Am I Dreaming is based on the character Frodo shares, “Gandalf is my favourite character from LOTR, and though he is usually seen as a powerful and invincible character, I have portrayed his vulnerability in this song. Gandalf The Grey is killed and resurrected in the second part of the movie.”
Interestingly, Nitin’s wife Indrakshi Pattanaik Malik styled the look for all the band members in the video, which features Nitin Malik as the lead vocalist, Sonam Sherpa and Saurabh Chaudhry on guitars, Subir Malik on keyboards, Gaurav Balani as the bassist, and Srijan Mahajan on drums.
“The video is about the band and the beauty of Mechuka Valley, which is right next to the Indo-China border, surrounded by mountains and a river flowing past it. We were disconnected from all sorts of communication for an entire week, but it felt like heaven,” says Sonam.
Parikrama performed at Macau on May 5, and has a gig in Dubai on August 16. In the meantime, both Sonam and Nitin are working on more easygoing and melodious songs. “We are concentrating on the soulful side of Parikrama as of now, which includes softer numbers like Till I Am No One Again and Open Skies, where you can enjoy the music. There will be few heavy numbers too,” adds Sonam, who also runs the Parikrama School of Music.