Chemirocha explore the depths of instrumental rock in their debut album

Instrumental rock albums are so rare in the Indian independent music landscape that when such an album comes along once in a while, there is behind it stories of perseverance and self-doubt. Chemirocha, who has just released their debut album Short Lived Fantasies of a Two Winged Dream, an instrumental album of progressive rock with a tinge of pop punk, also has such a story to share.

Banker Arjun J.Satheesh and sound designer Nitin began working on the album close to a decade ago. Both were part of the active independent rock music scene in Kerala in the mid-2000s, with Arjun being the guitarist for bands like Soulburn, while Nitin is the former bassist of metal band Chaos. When they got together in Kochi in 2016, they hit upon the idea of working on an album.

“Both of us have similar music tastes. One of the ideas was to blend modern progressive rock with the pop-punk and similar genres of the 2000s, all of which evoked a sense of nostalgia in us. We began making these songs on acoustic guitars with no idea how it would turn out. It took several jamming sessions over the years to take shape, during which we almost abandoned the whole project. Later, guitarist Fredy Rocazaurus of the Old School Studio helped us at a time when we did not have much of an idea about recording songs. Some of the demo tracks we mixed initially were sent to drummer Nishanth Hagjer, who joined with us to make the entire album, which was produced by Adam Bentley,” says Nithin.

The eight tracks in the album do not follow the typical verse-chorus-verse structure, but progresses like a fluid lucid dream with the riffs repeating only rarely. As free flowing as the music is, they also appear to be the reactions of the musicians to specific happenings in their life, although both of them prefer to leave the task of interpretation to the listeners.

“Although we did consider having a vocalist initially, later we thought this is the way to go. One of the strengths of instrumental music is that it is open to interpretation in so many different ways in different countries and cultures,” says Arjun.

In fact, the name of the band is also the result of such an interpretation. It was believed to be how the Kipsigis tribe in Kenya used to pronounce the name of legendary country musician Jimmie Rodgers. A track recorded by a musicologist in the 1950s of the tribe singing ‘Chemirocha’ is now on YouTube. Just like that story, the duo’s “two-winged dream” can evoke myriad interpretations and reactions, each unlike the other. But, unlike the album title, their music is not going to be a “short-lived fantasy”.