After the raging success of the Hindi version of Quest (2021), which featured a guitar solo by Japan-based, American veteran guitarist Marty Friedman formerly with thrash metal band Megadeth the Delhi-based band Antariksh is now back with Quest English Reprise.
“The idea was to create a song, which sounded new and fresh but still very close to the original,” says Varun Rajput, frontman and founder of Antariksh. The band, which completed 10 years, is going on multiple short tours they will perform at the Bluetree 2Stroke Tour happening in the city on October 16 to “celebrate the milestone moment”.
In this week’s Soundscape, we speak to the city-based musician Rajput about his latest release and more. Excerpts...
Was Quest in the making for a decade?
That is true. Quest has had a long journey before it’s seen the light of day. The song was originally written in English more than a decade ago for my first band Feedback—during our college days.
For all these years, it was just comfortably lying in a folder of ideas on our computers until the beginning of 2019, when I got the idea to revisit and recreate it. I took the idea to the rehearsal room with my bandmates and built upon it until we had something concrete.
Then, we finally began recording it in the summer of 2019. The final song was produced, mixed, and mastered in 2020 and released in January 2021. Cut to 2022, we have an English reprise version of the song, which has brand new lyrics, melodies, and some cool new guitar parts.
How did Marty Friedman come on board? Were you a fan of his work prior to connecting with him Quest?
I always think of it as a bit of luck and a bit of persistence. The idea to have Marty play on the song sprung in my head when I was watching him deliver a mesmerising performance at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender [music festival] in Shillong in 2019. Coincidentally, on our way back to Delhi, we realised that Marty and his band were on the same flight as us.
I got a chance to finally meet him at the Delhi airport. We spoke briefly... Ever since I had seen him play live the previous night, I’d been imagining how epic it’d be if Marty were to play on Quest, which we were in the process of recording at that time. I gathered the courage to ask him and he asked me to write to him.
Once he returned to Japan, I sent him some of our music. Marty not only took the time to listen to a bunch of songs—he liked it and mentioned that it sounded a lot more “international/UK-US rock-ish” than what he’d expected coming from India. When he heard the demo of Quest, he agreed to play on it—in a few days, he recorded and sent back one of the most incredible guitar solos I’d ever heard.
The Reprise is your first bilingual attempt, right?
When I started composing in 2006, I used to play in English Progressive Rock bands. It wasn’t until 2012 when we formed Antariksh as an experiment that we thought of taking a shot at playing and writing in Hindi.
Last year, I had this thought that I did not want to feel restricted by any particular language. That’s when I decided that I’ll start writing in English too. Also, when we released Quest last year, it did really well in some Western countries despite it being a song in a language foreign to them. That is when I thought, the impact would have been so much more had the song been in English. Going forward, Antariksh will be writing songs in both Hindi and English.
TRACK - QUEST REPRISE
BAND - ANTARIKSH