Artist's Perspective

Written by Ramesh Srivastava

Day two of recording is pretty much as expected: vocals in the morning, guitars and keyboards in the afternoon. It's nice when you get to this point of the process, because it's all about adding those magic touches that make a song sound like an actual song, as opposed to a skeletal structure with missing pockets of potential energy. The only unusual thing about this recording session is that it's occurring only a week or so before our first album is released, and therefore has nothing to do with the aforementioned record. In a way, it's strange to be back in the studio after such a short time, but in reality I think it's the best thing to do: to continually move forward.

The last few months have been very strange. We finished the record, played at South by Southwest, witnessed the record leak onto the Internet, monitored critical reaction (a highly unadvisable, yet primarily unavoidable action), and, finally, headed off to Europe to do our first ever promotional tour. The last action in that list was definitely the most pleasurable. Personally, I didn't know that promotional tours existed any longer--when the opportunity was presented, though, I jumped at the chance to take part. For anybody who is unaware of the promotional tour concept, the process (as I experienced it) is as follows:

You arrive in a particular city around seven in the evening, whereupon you meet up with the record label representatives of that district. If luck is on your side, then you have some sort of meal and further recreation and retire to a hotel to rest for the following day's interviews. As soon as you wake the following morning, you do a circuit of interviews, ranging anywhere from three hours to eleven hours. After that, you head to the next city, and the cycle begins all over again. It's remarkable to me that some artists opt out of these junkets, as it seems to me to be a pretty cushy deal. (Plus it's always flattering when somebody wants to know your opinion about something, but I suppose that I have always been predisposed to a bit of talking.) Either way, not only was this press tour both eye-opening and enjoyable, but it also re-ignited my desire to create music.

It's amazing what new scenery/new faces will do for one's creativity. As I have said before, our album [released May 22] was born out of a sense of frustration, ruminations on death, and a general, permeating anxiety. But following my recent excursion, I felt re-inspired by a new kind of energy, one more rooted in something that may be described as "positivity." (That has yet to be determined—, though; it''s best never to count one's chickens before they hatch.) And that's when you know that it's time to begin the creative process again. Everything you create should be a reflection of yourself at the time of its genesis. Our first album is thematically entrenched for a reason, —because it reflects the experience that surrounded it. These new recordings will hopefully bear that same reflective quality.

Regardless, you have to keep moving forward. Especially in a time like this. Nothing is more of an escape from the pressure of the upcoming album release than having the opportunity to create more music. It serves to remind me that I entered this process with the goal of longevity, and it helps to put into perspective the things that I have already created. It's strange, making music on our own again without anybody watching, but the spontaneity is very refreshing. In these moments I remember that, at the heart of a song, at the heart of a band, lies nothing more than the people of which it is comprised.