Mumbai, Dec 19 (IANS) American post-rock band Explosions in the Sky, who played their maiden gig here recently, have enthralled music lovers with their brand of ethereal, cinematic soundscapes since the last 16 years. Members of the band believe it would be “amazing” to incorporate traits from Indian classical music.
“Something like that would be amazing. I myself am not very familiar with that sort of basics about Indian classical music. We know the notion of certain instruments played: harmoniums, tablas…” Munaf Rayani, the band’s guitarist, told IANS.
“Tablas would be hard to show up on our records but some new music that we have been working on has undertones of harmonium. Sitars are also quite specific – they stand out in a way. Maybe it would fit well with what we do but it’s not anything that we have tried yet,” he added.
Rayani also said that the band enjoys “listening to all kinds of music. Indian, Indian classical all of it.”
Explosions in the Sky played at Johnnie Walker The Journey 2015 on December 12, and the band said that it was “a dream come true” for them to perform in India.
Rayani said that the band had not heard any “contemporary” Indian artistes, but he has watched Bollywood movies and listened to old Indian singers.
“One name that really stuck with me was Kavita Krishnamurthy. She sang a lot of really amazing songs for many of the films that I saw. There is no specific song that I can point out where I remember her voice but it’s the overall experience.
“Very recently I made my wife watch the movie ‘Mera Naam Joker’. However, I don’t really know much about the bands that have now started playing in India,” he said.
“The internet is such a powerful tool and it has made the world such a small place to live in that we just need the name of the band and we can go online and listen to them. You don’t even have to work hard for it,” he added.
Asked if the band would like to collaborate with Indian artistes, Rayani said they are “not really thinking about that now.”
“As far as the collaboration goes I think we have been together for so long… I mean it has been 16 years. Mike and I were friends even before that, we all have been friends for a really long time so it would be difficult for someone else to come and sit at our table. We are a really close group so we are not really thinking about that now,” he added.
Formed in 1999, the Texas-based band has released six full length albums, along with soundtracks for films like “Friday Night Lights”, “Prince Avalanche”, “Lone Survivor” and “Manglehorn”.