written by Marko Jakob
Pix666: Hello Rain. Thank you for your time. Are you healthy and are you well? How are the other guys?
Rain: Hello Marko! I am doing good. Thank you so much for having me :). Everyone in AROGYA is doing well and great.
Pix666: Please tell the readers a little bit about your band. When was Arogya founded, where did the band members meet and what kind of music do you make?
Rain: AROGYA was first formed in 2014 between 3 musicians – myself (vocalist), Rui (drummer) and Noel (guitarist who has since left the band in 2017). The band has shifted base from Gangtok, Sikkim to a different state – Guwahati, Assam in 2017 and joined by new members Mr.G (guitarist), Deadnoxx (guitarist) & Bipz (bassist). AROGYA started out as an independent avant-garde Nepali Arena Rock band with 2 self-titled original albums under our belt. We have since evolved in our song writing and composition style, delving into dark synth rock and came up with a new 3rd album in English under the German record label Out of Line Music and produced by Chris Harms of Lord of the Lost band. The formation of Arogya was driven by a dream to achieve immortality through personal creations of good meaningful songs that will evoke emotions and stay in the memories of music loving community.
Pix666: You have been singing in English for some time now. What was the decisive point to stop singing in your mother tongue and who had that idea?
Rain: I started off singing in English since the early days in different bands. However, when I moved to Sikkim in 2013, we founded AROGYA as a Nepali music project to make an impact and connect with the Nepali speaking masses there. Under AROGYA, we found followings from both Nepali and non-Nepali speaking demographic. From the non-Nepalis, we get so many requests on social media asking for English translation of our songs.
Our manager Janice Teh and myself then decided to start writing songs in English to connect with a global audience, a decision that was collectively agreed by whole band. That way we can establish a stronger presence abroad as language will no longer be a barrier. Although our Nepali songs have been received well, understanding the meaningful lyrics in English will enable everyone to appreciate and feel the songs even more. We are extremely delighted to see all the love pouring in from different countries on YouTube and other social media platforms for our English songs, Broken & Dark World (released in 2019 and part of our new album).
Pix666: Your video ‘Mero Maya Ma’ has more than 250.000 views on YouTube. How important is the medium of video clips for you?
Rain: We put in great efforts and take pride in making not only our songs but also the music videos, which play a very important part in attracting more audiences both in audio and visually. We come up with the concepts of videos ourselves while our in-house production unit PENXILS, takes care of the videos editing and creative designing. We believe in making and presenting our own unique image/ brand with a strong thematic storyline and be fully involved from creation of song to music video.
Pix666: You also produced a nice video for your single ‘Broken’. Where was the video filmed? Who shoots and edits your clips?
Rain: Well, that was one hell of an experience! We shoot the music videos for 3 Singles including “Broken“ all within 4 days! It was a hectic schedule in the middle of the pandemic with problems booking the shoot venue but we managed to pull it off brilliantly.
All the 3 music videos including Broken was shot by the acclaimed cinematographer Mr. Prayash Sharma Tamuly in Jyoti Chitraban (Guwahati’s Film City). Janice who is also our album’s lyricist and I came up with the concepts of all the videos and screenplays. The videos were edited and special effects were created by none other than our multi-talented drummer Rui under in-house production unit PENXILS. We had 3 different sets done for each music video and the set designer Ms. Disha Anuranan did a commendable job within that short period. Also a big shout out to our two actors Arghadeep Baruah and Annie Hazarika who played in Broken and Misery’s Lair music videos. We are blessed to work with such a bunch of local talents.
Pix666: The single ‘Broken’ is the harbinger of your album ‘Genesis’, which will be released in April. Which topics do you deal with musically – what can the fans expect on the album?
Rain: To me music is the power that unites and transcends all barriers. Our music deals with love, pain, the spiritual, the transience and the effort to escape the inner demons, as does life as such. On dark days in one’s life’s journey, we wish you would find a ray of hope in our music, the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
As for the album it is full of surprises! Musically it’s a very diverse record with a fusion of metal, synth and rock, ranging from soulful clear renditions to furious heavy metal growls. A true feast for the senses, you’ll have to listen to the album to find out more!
Pix666: You recently signed to a German label (Out Of Line) and have a German producer in Chris Harms (Lord Of The Lost). How did the contact to Germany come about? How satisfied are you with the result of the work?
Rain: We are big fans of the great Lord of the Lost! When we first heard them, we were blown away with their production and music. We approached Chris Harms via Instagram and from there we ended up working together for our single Dark World and eventually the whole album Genesis. It’s a great privilege for us to work with Chris who has such a great and humble personality.
We are 201% satisfied with the results of our collaboration! Haha, that was why in the 1st place we chosed to work with him. Chris was our first preference and it went beyond our expectation. Big thanks to our record label Out of Line Music and Chris Harms for believing in us.
Pix666: Do you know in which countries your songs are listened most often? The usual platforms always have very good statistical evaluations – do you look at something like that, it could be helpful for future tour planning? In any case, I hope to see you live in Europe soon – maybe at the Out Of Line Weekender Festival in Berlin😊?
Rain: Since Broken‘s release on 27th Jan about 2 weeks ago, it has garnered 16k streams on Spotify with the most listeners from Germany, Russia & USA. Prior to Broken’s release, our songs have the most listeners from Nepal & India. We are getting more international exposure in Europe under Out of Line Music and hopefully interviews like this will help us reach out to more new fans!
And yes, touring Europe will be totally insane and performing in Out of Line Weekender Festival in Berlin would be on the dream bucketlist!
Pix666: How many people in your country listen to the kind of music that Arogya plays? How do concerts work in your home country, are there any special rules that might be unusual for Europeans?
Rain: Indian music industry is dominated by Bollywood and hip hop music. But over the past decade, with the internet especially social medias and streaming services; diverse range of music genres are gaining popularity here. Throughout India there’s about 2 dozens Music Festivals yearly and a third of it features rock and metal bands. In the Northeast India especially where we are based, it is very rich in various styles of rock music, from soft rock and roll and rock pop, to hard rock and metal.
Pre-covid there were many concerts happening here like NH7 Weekender, Rocka Rolla‘s Fireball, Bangalore Open Air, etc, giving platform and exposure to musicians along with introduction of great international acts. As for rules governing concerts, there isn’t anything special except things may not be as organised as those in Europe!
Pix666: There have been no concerts in Germany for many months because of the ‘Corona restrictions’. Were there also severe restrictions in your home country and how do people in India deal with this situation in general, what is the mood among the people?
Rain: Situation was worse here as India is the No.2 most infected country in the world. There was no music scenes for almost a year due to constant lockdowns. Decree was issued with hardly a day‘s notice and people were forced to stay at home for months with little or no supplies and things were really messy with hundreds of thousands of labourers getting stranded with no means to go home. People especially the poor and below poverty line starved and suffered greatly.
Now the music scene is slowly opening up again with concerts and festivals being planned despite the existing Covid cases. I’m sure there are more rules in place in Europe than in India to curb spread of Covid but the people here are eager to start living and partying again!
Pix666: Do you have any other news about Arogya that you would like to share with the fans?
Rain: We have 2 more singles coming up before the final album release in April! Dust single on 11th March and Misery’s Lair single on 23rd April together with our Album GENESIS launch. Both songs will be released with music videos, the theme and storyline in Misery’s Lair continuing from our Broken video!
Creating our music is the only thing that makes us strong and keep us going. We hope our songs will give the same inspirations to the audience as they do to us. Thank you for all the love & support 🙂
Pix666: Thank you very much for the interesting answers – good luck with the album and stay healthy!!!
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photos © Rupam Roy Choudhury; Assistant photographer: Bitupan Talukder; Editor: Penxils Design Studio
