India is home to 1.4 billion people but, according to New Delhi duo Lydian Slip, the country is bereft of any form of a rock scene. However, if there’s to be a rock revolution in the country, the catchy “raw, honest and melodic” sound of Lydian Slip, which draws on elements of punk rock, grunge, nu-rock and 80s rock, will be a pretty good starting point.
Lydian Slip started out as a studio project of Sagar Sharma (vocals and guitar) last year. He’d been writing songs for more than a decade but had struggled to form a band or meet like-minded people, so began working on his own DIY project. But he soon found someone on the same wavelength in drummer Aditya Dutta, who he met a gig a few years back and previously played in the same band.
As Sagar tells us: “The first time I saw him play the drums, he was just smiling and grooving, unbothered with any kind of band chaos and politics, and I thought to myself, ‘yeah, that’s the kind of spirit I need.’
“He’s just got a very positive attitude and we share a common love for rock, punk and metal in general. So when I decided to start producing my music, I showed him the songs and we chatted for hours, jammed, and he gave me very specific feedback regarding the music production. I’m kinda clumsy and unaware, while he’s very sharp. so I think it brought out good chemistry.”
Together, the pair have crafted an engaging sound that instantly feels very familiar. As Sagar explains: “With Lydian Slip, I’m trying to fuse some of my early inspirations together: early 2000s post-grunge, alternative rock and a bit of 80s melodic rock. Even though the themes are intense, the music is not too extreme or dark. It’s more fun and optimistic.”
Our latest taste of this is new single We Will Survive, which was released last week. It opens up with a high-pitched guitar and distant backing instrumentals before blasting into a lively opening riff. It drops into an engaging verse, which flows into a big singalong chorus, before a building second verse crescendos into another chorus. The pace drops with stabs of bass answered by bursts of guitar bringing it to a close.
On the track, Sagar told us: “The reception has been absolutely great. It’s gonna feature in a few radio stations, we’ve been reviewed, blogged and playlisted, and still being covered by different media outlets across Europe and South America. One of my friends (who’s also a brilliant singer) texted me that he drove 120 km/hr listening to the song while coming back from a gig, I don’t support overspeeding but, that’s the kind of feeling you get: a mix of rage, resistance and optimism. It’s a close reproduction of the pure emotion I had in my head while writing it.” Check it out here:
That follows on from previous singles, the delightful anthemic debut track Wheels of a Revolution and the catchy Bleed It Out, which you can check out in the lyric video here:
We’ve only previously featured one Indian band on GigRadar, so Lydian Slip is our very first Indian rock band. We asked Sagar for his insights into Indian rock and metal, and he told us: “Two words: “barely any.” There used to be a rock scene a decade ago, but the commercial pop music industry is just too strong and oversteps almost every indie rock initiative.
The Hard Rock Cafe in New Delhi plays everything but rock, they host mostly tribute gigs, or anything that sells. But no original music. I would say there is a jazz, hip-hop, funk and even a metal scene in the country. Lots of cool bands, but I can hardly count good rock bands. Parvaaz is the only one which comes to my mind right now. They kick ass!”
The Lydian Slip sound has been influenced by a huge number of bands including Pink Floyd, Blue Oyster Cult, Fleetwood Mac, The Cure, Tears for Fears, Simple Minds, Oasis, Alice in Chains, Velvet Revolver, Winger, Linkin Park, Billy Idol, Incubus, Mad Season, Seether, The Offspring and Poets of the Fall.
And on what inspires him to write music, Sagar explains: “Songwriting is mostly an emotional reaction to something which affects me, bothers me or puts me down in general. Music is where I could channel those negative feelings and turn it into something positive, so it’s basically a method to retain my sanity. Social unhappiness, urban alienation, capitalism, greed, war, injustice are some of the things that bog us down. But that’s just the state of the world we live in, I would love to explore new themes as we grow old, in a utopian world.”
Lydian Slip are only just getting started leading what we hope could be a rock revolution in India. They’ll have plenty more music, videos and recordings coming out way in 2025, including some songs that Sagar has written in Hindi, and hopefully a debut gig to really get that rock movement rolling. The duo also run a podcast on their YouTube channel, discussing their creative process, music and the state of the world and their minds.
You can follow Lydian Slip on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.
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We discovered Lydian Slip through music submission platform Groover
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