16/330 Khajoor Road used to be Indian Ocean’s jam pad. It is also the name of the band’s new album.
There’s something in the address. Without ever having been there, you can imagine 16/330 Khajoor Road to be an intriguing place. And it is exactly that. Old, unkempt, hidden behind overgrown trees, this grey house in Karol Bagh, Delhi, exudes solitude and attracts no passers-by. That works perfectly for Indian Ocean, one of India’s most popular Indo-rock fusion band. 16/330 Khajoor Road has been the house where the band has jammed for the last 13 years.
The house has an interesting history beyond Indian Ocean as well. Before Partition, it hosted mushairas where Faiz Ahmed Faiz recited his poetry. After independence, the house sheltered the hordes of refugees who poured into the city. And now that Indian Ocean are moving out of the house, the band has cut an album dedicated to their musical abode.
Called 16/330 Khajoor Road, this is the sixth album in the band’s 20-year career. Starting today, their songs from this album will be available for free download on the website www.indianoceanmusic.com, one song every month leading up to the official release of the album seven months down the line.
“The name is quirky, and produces interesting sounds when spoken in different languages,” says Rahul Ram, bassist and vocalist. But is it viable to give songs away for free? Ram laughs, “Ask us one year later; it’s an experiment, for now.” The band is also planning to tour all over the country promoting the album.
Guitarist Sushmit Sen interjects, “There are reasons for doing so. For one, music companies don’t pay us [artists], so why should fans pay to listen to us? Second, as musicians we lose all our rights if we give our music to a music company; third, this is the best way to reach out to the audiences.”
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The band’s 14,988 fans on their Facebook page would vouch for this argument, even though Ram says that many people still prefer buying music in CDs, with their arty covers and physical notes.
Revolutionary, spiritual, political, personal — Indian Ocean’s music is all this and yet is free from any “thematic diktats”, drawing inspiration, instead, from “life”.
With 16/330 Khajoor Road, the band has tried several new things. For the first time, Ram plays the saxophone, Amit Kilan plays the clarinet and a woman (Anusheh Anadil of the Bangladeshi fusion band BANGLA) has lent her vocals, says the band’s manager Dhruv Jagasia. “There are a lot of variations in this album and each song has a distinct identity,” he adds.
The album has most of the songs that the band’s former percussionist and vocalist, Asheem Chakravarty, last worked on. He was one of the founders of Indian Ocean and Chakravarty’s death on December 25, 2009, came as a shock to the band and fans alike.
Remembering him, Jagasia says, “He was so much fun and always had ‘a simple solution’ for everything. All of us as a group, now laugh a lot less.”
Chakravarty’s last song with the band, ‘Zindagi Se Darte Ho’ — which, along with ‘Des Mera Rangrezi’ — was made for Aamir Khan Productions’ forthcoming Peepli [Live] will release on August 13. Ram says, “Bollywood projects are chancy.” “While ‘Bol Raha Hai’ was elongated from a 30 second ad jingle for a motorcyle band we did (incidentally, it was never aired), the other songs of this album are our compositions for films like Jaideep
Varma’s Hulla, and Arindam Mitra’s Shoonya which didn’t see the light of the day,” informs percussionist Kilam.
The band has a simple philosophy in life — high standards, low expectations. It has brought them a long way from 16/330 Khajoor Road.
