Hi Bangalore!

Getting on stage in 15. Come say hi, Bangalore!

Way To Bangalore

Just three dudes. Holding some chai. Looking for Love In Tokyo on the way to Bangalore.

We're on at TOIT tonight at 7 pm.
Come for the beer. Stay for some tunes.

Bangalore Soundcheck

Good morning, Bangalore! Soundcheck has commenced.

Toit, 7pm tonight.

ComegetsomeLeadFeetPaperShoes

Lead Feet Paper Shoes Tour Begins Tomorrow In Bangalore

Gawde Sir teaching Joshua Singh what it means to be left behind. Lead Feet Paper Shoes tour begins tomorrow in Bangalore.
7pm, Toit. See you there!

Bacardi House Party Hyderabad

Bacardi House party stage at Bacardi NH7 Weekender Hyderabad, here we come!
That's our favourite kind of party.

Get your tickets here: 
https://insider.in/event/bacardi-nh7-weekender-2016-hyderabad-nov5-6

We Have T-Shirts!

We have T-shirts! Thanks to bossman Sumer Mehta of The Harbour Pressfor the design, and printed by the awesome folks Redwolf, we will be taking these on tour! Soon going to be available online too.

This Is What Jam Looks Like

We're live from the studio.

This is what jam looks like.
Feel free to ask questions.

Fun Mid-Rehearsal Facebook Live Session

Doing a fun mid-rehearsal Facebook Live session today at 8pm.

Catch us at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender 2016, Hyderabad on 5th November.

Get your hands on the tickets right here - http://bit.ly/2d9C77g

We Have A Good News And Bad News

So, as you've seen, the tour's coming up soon.

We have good news and bad news. Bad news is, due to an unfortunate injury, one band member is down.

The good news is we're fortunate to have some very talented friends that have agreed to step in and take over his duties for some gigs.

Maybe this video will be better proof.

First up, we have Toit Bangalore this Sunday. RSVP here - http://bit.ly/2dFcAUW

Nucleya, Spud In The Box: Artistes combine art with music at live shows - Hindustan Times Oct 24, 2016

Nucleya, Spud In The Box: Artistes combine art with music at live shows

• Akshata Shetty, Hindustan Times, Mumbai
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• Updated: Oct 24, 2016 07:56 IST
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A rig designed for Nucleya’s performance at Dome, NSCI, Worli, Mumbai. (Nishant Matta)

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Picture this. You walk into a venue on a regular gig night, expecting a band to belt out some music. That’s what you came for, right? But instead, as the musicians perform, you also spot some artwork that has been used to complement the show. In effect, the venue transforms into a space where music inspires art, and art inspires music.

Artists and musicians have been collaborating for gigs for some time now. While music festivals like Burning Man (Nevada, USA), have art installments at the venue, Indian events such as NH7 Weekender, Enchanted Valley Carnival, Supersonic, and big artistes like The Raghu Dixit Project, Dualist Inquiry and Nucleya, among others, have always married art and music together during their performances. Many Mumbai-based musicians have recently started exploring this trend to bring something unique to the audiences.

Creative Collaborations

Singer Raghu Dixit included puppets in his live performance. (Akshata Shetty)

Recently, alternative rock band Spud In The Box launched their debut album Lead Feet Paper Shoes with an arty twist. Each track in the album had a corresponding photograph, and all the pictures were tied together and displayed on the stage. Elaborating on the concept, freelance photographer Parizad D, who played a key role in the execution of the idea, says, “The idea was to bring a character, which the album is based on, to life. In the character’s story, we touched upon various themes, one of the prominent ones being the element of duality. We used various motifs in the artwork to exemplify this.” Parizad adds that artists Sumer Mehta (The Harbour Press) and Ayesha Kapadia (KometJuice) worked “tirelessly” on the project along with the band. Also, artists Zarwan Elavia and Johan Pais (Anything Metal Works), made metal hands for the show, which were placed on the stage as well. “They plastered the walls with giant eyes, suspended notes from the ceiling and converted some space on the stage into the character’s room,” says Parizad.

A cube designed by Transhuman Collective. (PepsiMTVIndies/Facebook)

Similarly, Swapnil Rao, Soham Sarkar and Snehali Shah, of Transhuman Collective, worked with drummer and music producer Aditya Ashok for a music show at Sitara Studio, Lower Parel, a few months ago. “We designed a cube, which was made out of plywood. We painted it white and hung it on the stage with the help of fish strings,” says Swapnil. The visuals were projected in such a way that it synced with Aditya’s music.

A Dual Treat
Live performances are fun to attend, and when you add something to make them more engaging, it is always a win-win situation. For instance, when Dualist Inquiry used a rig, designed especially for his live performances, his fans loved it. Tej Brar, artiste manager, Only Much Louder, says, “Sahej Bakshi aka Dualist Inquiry is a true artist. His artistic sensibility extends beyond music. To build on this identity, and to give fans the best experience, we decided to build the rig. In doing so, we were able to immerse the fans into the world of Dualist Inquiry and provide them with a visual accompaniment to the music.” Brar says they used the Dualist Inquiry logo as the top section of the rig. They also projected visual content on the rig, which had been specifically designed for the tour.

Artwork created for the Spud In The Box album launch in Mumbai. (Sukrit Nagaraj)

Following suit was Nucleya, who recently performed to a packed audience at the Dome, NSCI, in Worli. The rig at his show was designed for the performance, and his album’s art was projected on the rig. However, it is important for the visual artist to blend his or her style with that of the music they are trying to represent. “Artistes are pushing the envelope when it comes to delivering an experience that goes beyond just great music. It makes a show more special, and that’s helpful in keeping the evermore audience engaged,” says Nikhil Udupa, partner, Control ALT Delete.

Watch: Nucleya’s album launch in Mumbai

Space is all you need

Even the venues that hosts gigs which combine music and art believe such shows have a lot of character. “Music is a form of art, and we always believe in showcasing all forms of art,” says Sumit Vaswani, culture manager, Social. “We encourage artists to experiment with the venue, as it’s a flexible space, and we’re always happy to see collaborations. An indoor space without furniture can be used as a blank canvas efficiently,” he adds. Rao, meanwhile, hopes more people and venues take the effort to explore this concept.

Courtesy: http://www.hindustantimes.com/art-and-culture/nucleya-spud-in-the-box-artistes-combine-art-with-music-at-live-shows/story-fJD2Av6M87eTfiORuKpS9L.html

Spud In The Box To Release Their Debut Album – ‘Lead Feet Paper Shoes’ - Just Bollywood

Spud In The Box To Release Their Debut Album – ‘Lead Feet Paper Shoes’

I am writing in to you with regard to the six-piece alternative rock band Spud In The Box’s new album titled ‘Lead Feet Paper Shoes’. The band has released the album on 23 September and it will be followed by a India-wide tour.

Spud In The Box is a band that has gone on to garner popular and critical acclaim for their tight, energetic live performances and accessible songwriting. The band strikes a perfect balance between intricate musical arrangements and catchy melodies.

SITB has played at some of the most popular music festivals in India, such as – A Summer’s Day, Bacardi NH7 Weekender, The Kala Ghoda Festival, The Pepsi MTV Indies launch, Live from the Console, India Music Week, The M.A.D. Festival, Ragasthan, the Revival of the Bandstand festival, and the Celebrate Bandra Festival. They were also the first act to play atop the Red Bull Tour Bus in India.

They have opened for Grammy award winning artist Norah Jones and have played alongside the biggest names in India like The Raghu Dixit Project, Indus Creed, Scribe, Shaa’ir + Func, Soulmate, Junkyard Groove, Nikhil D’souza, Ankur Tewari, and Blackstratblues, among others.

The band’s new music is very different from what they have done so far and hence, is very interesting.

Kappa TV Episode

Why not start off this lovely Sunday morning with some chill Radioheadvibes? Here's a snippet from our Kappa TV episode airing through this weekend.

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Music Mojo at KappaTV

Incoming.

Watch this space for links.

Mark The Dates

Hello.

Mark dates. You know what to do.

Poster creds: Tarqeeb

Mark The Dates We're Coming

On your mark.
Get set.
Mark the date.

We're coming through. 
__________________

RSVP:
Spud In The Box Album Launch Tour 2016

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S/Os:
Mixtape for the tour. Special love to Naveen and Vinit.
Asli Music for release distribution.
K.J. Singh for being superproducer.
Tarqeeb for the sweet poster.
Tour partners - Pepsi MTV Indies

Dates Out Tomorrow

Taking Lead Feet Paper Shoes out on the road from the end of this month. Hitting some places we've never been to and revisiting some old favourites. Get your calendars ready!

New jamroom = funtimes

New jamroom = funtimes

The Letter: Spud in the Box’s ‘Lead Feet Paper Shoes’ feels like home - Wishberry

The Letter: Spud in the Box’s ‘Lead Feet Paper Shoes’ feels like home

Posted on 13 October, 2016 by Team Wishberry

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Hello Spuds,

You are called Spud in the Box, but with ‘Lead Feet Paper Shoes’, you have showed that you really think out of it. All your spuds, I mean, spades are in the right place with one. Now, I am just a plain music buff, and not a music expert hence, will just honestly tell you what the album made me feel.

I opened the artwork first, out of curiosity built by the pictures on your Facebook page. Please tell Parizad that what she has done is magic, and the entire artwork became even better after I was done listening to the album. It all fits, like family; a crazy, dysfunctional, yet a fucking awesome family which still feels like home.
Let me know.

Well, let’s go song by song, shall we?

Drown In, the intro to the album, is representative of what to expect from the album. It has the crazy parts, a hint of kickass melody, and the instrumentation supports the melodic insanity. After looking at all the album art, this does not come as too much of a surprise.

Post that crazy intro, Bullet Points hits hard in the face out of thin air. I like it! I really like it when a song does that to me. It is heavy, the riffs are intense, and the lyrics are awesome. The song really seems to be a well-rounded thought.

The second track on the record, Institute of Madness, starts off to the beautiful piano, and I went ‘huh?’. But, that went away instantly because I knew this was going somewhere. Plus, considering the track following this one, it only makes sense that it is placed here. The melody is brilliant and remained stuck in my head for a while. Institute of Madness is the December of the album, and we all wish December was the second month in the year.

Crime has to be one of my favourite tracks on the album. It is rock n roll, a pretty high tempo, and makes me get off my chair and jump the fuck out of this song. Though the intro is acoustic, it moves into heavier electric guitar swiftly and boy, does it rock! Again, nailed it with the melody here.

Use Your Words opens and closes with that tinkle of a song from the older times, almost like a nursery rhyme for adults. But, oh, does it get dark or what! And, Let’s get drunk and write down the truth, You know, I’m quite the liar when I’m sober, is a universal truth and says a lot very simply. And that is what the song is about, isn’t it? Use Your Words is a plea to just fucking say it, and that applies to the entire world.

Image Courtesy: Spud in the Box's Facebook, Image Credit: Parizad D

Headrush is my favourite track on the album. It starts like poetry; soft, mellow and mildly melancholic, it ever so slowly rises like the sun in slo-mo. It befriends and unfriends melody, but even when unfriended the song truly stands strong and makes me move. The end, boy, the way it elevates to that zone where it sounds like a damn fun song, yet keeps its melancholy intact, in fact increasing it; just beautiful.

After that genius of a track, Highs & Lows comes in to maintain that. It has got a great vibe! Though, not at par with the best in the album, but this proper alternative rock song holds up really well and keeps the expectations from the rest of the album intact. There’s a line in this song which is beautiful - Because when answers aren’t related to the questions asked, You’ve got to look behind a different mask for your clues. Man, that hits home.

Hold Your Horses has a sick solo, BTW. But, rushing to it doesn’t justify the strength of the solo. The way the song builds up, slowly picking up pieces, gathering strength as it progresses is incredible. The result is great, like a bouquet of all things nice with chemical X.

Lead Feet is more of a prelude to Paper Shoes than it is a song. The acoustic track moves ever so mellow as a build up to Paper Shoes, yet never truly building up in itself. And after a nice pause,Paper Shoes begins with its beat. Hebe Morwenna has provided the female vocal parts on this one, and damn, she sings like a dream. Her honey-like voice compliments Rohan’s voice beautifully. Though, this is not my favourite on the track, I love the feel and vibe it creates. Slightly melancholic, yet not sad; peppy, yet not truly happy.

Manic is probably the most melodious track on the album for me. It is straight up, in your face, alternative rock, and fuck, I love it! It has its intricate moments, yes, but it still retains its simplicity and I really like that about it. Like its name, it does go crazy, but in a supremely good way. The guitar effects in the bridge are something Jimmy Page would be proud of. They fit the whole feel of the song really well, and add another layer of beauty to it!

When I listened to Until We Fall, I suddenly discovered that I wanted all albums to end that way. It is a beautiful goodbye from an incredible album. I actually wish people said goodbye that gently, softly, lovingly, yet hauntingly. Haunting because it hurts that the album is over. Good thing these are digital files and it repeats automatically.  

Lastly, congratulations on a kickass album. I hope everyone buys it, enjoys it, loves and hates it, dances and grooves to it, breaks things to it, makes out to it. Because it is one of those albums which can just about fit any situation in life. 

And I will catch you guys live whenever you perform next in Bombay. But, hey, crazy idea. Let’s sit down and chat as if we are old friends and not new?

And hey, have fun, drink and dance. You have truly created a masterpiece of a debut album. You deserve it.

Cheers.

courtesy: https://www.wishberry.in/blog/the-letter-spud-in-the-boxs-lead-feet-paper-shoes-feels-like-home/?utm_content=buffera9671&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer 

Lead Feet Paper Shoes Now Available

Lead Feet Paper Shoes now available to stream and buy on Bandcamp - https://spudinthebox.bandcamp.com/

For those of you who've been asking for high quality files, here's where you can get your hands on them!

A Journey Inside Spud In The Box’s Fantastic Visual and Sonic Universe - Homegrown Oct 06, 2016

A Journey Inside Spud In The Box’s Fantastic Visual and Sonic Universe

Two years of remaining all but invisible in our still-nascent independent music scene usually means one of two things for a band. Either all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put their instruments together again, or every single member of said band was deeply invested in giving life to their latest artistic surge. Luckily for anyone who still rolls the name ‘Spud In The Box’ off their tongues fondly, the six-piece alt-rock band is back from their seeming hiatus with a concept album unlike anything we’ve ever experienced on home turf before. Post navigating  their visually adventurous album release firsthand last week in Mumbai, the only thing left to do was seat as many of them as we could in a small room and try to map out  exactly what went on over the past two years that culminated in such a unique piece of work. Think of this as a repository of the disjointed conversation.

“Duality’s been rooted in us and our music ever since we started playing. It’s just seeped into a lot of things – the songs also started becoming about it, ” says Ankit Dayal, vocalist, jumping straight into the album’s most obvious theme. With a name like Lead Feet Paper Shoes, the idea of opposites being partners-in-crime as such, really sings through even before you hit play. Rohan Rajadhyaksha, keyboardist/ vocalist, agrees that the concept first came through quite subconsciously.. It’s clear that this narrative then extended itself into the way the entire launch was structured, resulting in one of the most thematically unified musical works we’ve experienced in a long time. It’s imperative to at least attempt to paint a picture of what they created live before you delve deeper though.

                                                               Song: Bullet Points

Across from the band, at the other end of the venue, was a screen – unassuming at first. The lights would dim down on the band, and you could feel the audience turned in the other direction, and you couldn’t help but look. Playing with the light and sound, a shadow would emerge from behind the screen. It didn’t matter who it was or what binary labels might define it. What gender this person was, felt irrelevant for example. All we (kind of) knew was that it was a shadow and it was reacting. At first, the movements were small and repetitive. It was looking around – up, to the left, down. Repeat. These restricted, wary movements almost made one feel as though this shadow was a foetus exploring the confines within which it lay.

Parizad, the photographer and visual director behind this production says, “We were worried people wouldn’t realise that there was a screen at the other end. We didn’t want to spoonfeed anyone, but they had to be made aware. So the way we planned the set, the lights, the songs that were playing was all meant to guide the viewer in the experience of the set.” And guide, it did. Throughout the performance, the character was evolving. Different props with repetitive movements aided with the evolution – instruments, typewriters, metal claws for hands. There was a restlessness building from within – it was sweating, but it was still. The calm before the storm, one would say. If not at the shadow, heads were turned towards the source of uncomplicated, textured melodies and the striking visuals running its course behind the band.

Of course, all this might have seemed almost too abstract had the band not begun to pique audience’s interest much before the live show with a truly striking photo narrative–as mysterious as it was alluring. More importantly, it built interest in this ‘character’.  “We had a lot of conversations to conceptualise the cover. The more we talked about it, the more we felt that one picture just isn’t enough. I couldn’t think of a single image that was representative of the album, or the brand – and so we came up with the idea of a photo story, with a picture for each song. This photo story was released prior to the launch of the album, sighting everyone’s curiosity. There was a whole narrative journey weaved through these images that struck a chord, despite not making complete sense at the time. Things soon snowballed, and we went from wanting visuals for each song to recreating an entire visual universe,” says Parizad. “Which comes back to this one character,” says Ankit, filling in the blanks. “Even though the songs go all over the place, we still wanted this one element that makes sense of everything – the music, the visuals, all of it. And that element was the character.” 

                                                         

                                                      Song: Hold Your Horses Closer

A lot of the character’s narrative can be deciphered through the photostory found below. “While we want the viewers to have their own opinion, the basis is this character. He is eccentric, lives in his own world, lives in a space where things make and don’t make sense and there is a sense of constant change. What we did for the images was to create a story within each photo. And each photo is a chapter in the life of the character,” Parizad explains. Lending more context as to how the music connects back to it all, Rohan tells us “Bullet Points is the song that gives you an overview of the story, and the character.” He reminisces of album art of vinyls from a time gone by, and this photostory is a digitized version of the same concept – bringing it back in a new avatar.

It seems strange almost to write of a band, but read what comes across as a review of an interactive theatre performance. But therein lies the beauty of this collaboration – the art, the music, the performance is an amalgamation of something so much larger – the ‘complete visual universe’ that they keep speaking of. “The whole concept was based on the maximalism of listening to something and experiencing it with your senses. It had to be everywhere around you, behind the band, just everywhere. And all of these visuals had been shot last year in a 2 day shoot,” Ankit explains, validating the feeling of sensory overdrive we experienced.

II. It wasn’t long before the ‘element of surprise’ was a dot in the distance, and the performance’s cohesive nature became more apparent though. No sooner had I blinked my eyes than the shadow emerged from behind the screen, and a striking man in a mask of eyes brushed past me. With the sound of the fourth wall shattering in front of us, He stood up, draped a jacket onto himself and started scrambling through a pile of papers with notes scribbled on them, as though he was looking for something. Overcome with a sudden hunger, he started to crumple these papers and eat them. There was manic chaos in that beauty, a burst from all that was building up. He was staring right at us (or was it through us?) with these eyes that weren’t his. Taking it all in. And in a flash like movement, he was gone. Back into womb from which he came.

I was curious as to how this part of the production realised itself, and Parizad was quick with an explanation. “The eating of the paper, the typewriter, the flowers – it was to recreate the setup of the photo story for the audience to experience. To make it more tangible. The photo story was released before, so it was to recreate the screen viewing in real life. A lot was broken down and planned, but a lot was spontaneous – because, Himanshu…he just did what we wanted to, and it worked.” This sort of collaborative expression is what characterizes this unique album launch in that it goes so far beyond just the band, requiring each person’s vision and intuition to complete this picture and bring it to life.

What added to the performance were the props and the decor. “A huge theme is visual perception,” says Hartej Sawhney, one of the lead guitarists. “And that’s where the eyes come in – what you see yourself as, what people see you as, what you actually are. It also questions the elements of performance – who is performing? Are we all performing? Do we perform every time we step out? And the fact that someone is always watching.” It was these questions, above any that resonated louder than anything else that night. It’s not often that you leave a gig asking yourself more questions than you have answers for. The eating of the paper – a metaphor for the way we consume the internet? Information enough to drown in, information we consume as though we don’t have a choice, until it starts to eat us from the inside. Most often you’re just left with a feeling of cotton mouth, unable to swallow anymore at the end of it all. The retreat back to behind the screen also gives the album the feel of a complete cycle. As Ankit says, “The album leads you in one direction, circles around and comes back to a point where you restart the story. You could listen to the whole album again in a completely different light.” This “music per square inch” concept makes sense with such a high density of action all around. The idea is to compress as much as possible in a single square inch of music – so much so that when you listen to the album 20 years from now there will still be something new, something you may not have heard before.

Even after collecting all the crumbs, it’s easy to feel like there are still a thousand remarkable references we might have missed. All the unanswered questions and comfortable abstractions do point to one undeniable certainty though. Lead Feet Paper Shoes is the conceptual work of a band that has truly grown into themselves. They took their time in a world that thrives on instant artistry, and in doing so, they coaxed a rare emotional reaction out of viewers. Even if they make us wait another two years for their next album, it’s likely to be well worth our time.
         
           [Scroll on to see a selection of images from the band's striking photo narrative]

Song: Highs and Lows

Song: Use Your Words

Song: Crime

Song: Headrush 

Words: Tansha Vohra

Expanding Our Turf

Expanding our turf. Follow us on Apple Connect for updates and cool things - http://apple.co/2e4WggX

Behind The Scenes From The Bombay Launch At antiSOCIAL

Behind the scenes from the Bombay launch at antiSOCIAL. A lot of wonderful people put a lot of work into making it what it was. Have a look!

Pictures by Sukrit Nagaraj