On day eight of this year’s Music Interview Marathon, we speak to Indian fusion rock band InRegalia who describes their creative process as a “seed” and their ambition to perform globally like their heroes.
Band Name: InRegalia
Members: Peter Abraham (Lead Vocals), Vijay Fernandes (Guitar/Backing Vocals), Warren Swaries (Drums), Keith Pereira (Keyboards/Backing Vocals) & Saurav Das (Bass/Backing Vocals)
Genre: Rock/Fusion Rock
Founded: August 2011
Originated From: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Discography: Was It a Dream (Single), Rock This House (Single), A New Horizon (EP), Tight Squeeze (EP), S.E.V.A (Single) & Set Me Free (Single)
How would you describe your music?
We play English language rock music with a dash of Indian classical music elements within.
What is your musical creative process like?
We use a variety of different approaches. We use the idea as a ‘seed’ and then work off of it. The ideas could come to me from any situation or experience.
Some examples could be a guitar riff, a vocal melody idea, a percussive groove we’ve heard on a song and at times it could come to us when we’re in a totally non-related musical situation.
Basically, we just keep our senses open to anything we perceive as an idea. We then write the lyrics to these ideas based on what we feel about the different situations or circumstances and the observations we’ve made about life in general.
At any given point in time, there are at least a few ideas at the back of our heads. We don’t necessarily sit down to finish it immediately until we feel we have something to help complement the idea.
How did the band form?
The band’s roots began in early 2011 when Vijay met the former bass player through a musician whom we were rehearsing with at the time. It went through quite a few line-up changes until March of 2012 when Pete auditioned for the singer’s part and joined the band.
A year later, Warren joined us after we’d auditioned several drummers. We’ve had a few good keyboard players who played for us during that time but it wasn’t until 2015 that we found Keith. Saurav took over the bass duties in the middle of 2018 after our bass player quit the band.
How did you come up with your band name?
The band’s name was one of the 25 or so names we’d come up with during the time we played with a couple of cover bands when we were in the US.
A lot of the band names resonated with metal music, which was not what we were looking to write. Later when we moved back to India, we’d pretty much set our mind on InRegalia though we didn’t have a band.
Only when the band took birth did we christen it with the band’s name. We intended for the music to reflect a bit of ethnicity but yet have it resonate with a mass audience. So, in retrospect, the name made sense from that point of view.
Who influenced you within the music industry?
Steve Harris of Iron Maiden has and will always be our hero. Also a special mention to Saurav’s first and only bass teacher and brother Sandip Roy of Cactus who has had a huge influence on the way we approach life and music.
Have you performed live much and what was your favourite gig to play at?
We always say it’s never enough no matter how much we’ve played. There are always venues and events that we’ve played in the past and we love to repeat those when we can.
Of course, it’s always fun to play in new places. Favourite one? Well like they say you never forget your first – this was back in 1998 when Pete was in his college band. It was a stellar line-up of many of the country’s best musical acts (across genres) of the time all coming together. We opened this two-day show called ‘Peace Together’ with another college band. The experience was surreal for someone starting out and playing to a crowd of more than 3000 people, the memories give Pete goosebumps to this day.
What is the best thing about being in a band?
You get to be a rockstar, something everyone secretly wants to be at some level.
What’s the biggest problem you’ve had to overcome so far as a musician(s)?
In our country, there isn’t much money in being a musician who plays original music in English. So choosing between selling your soul to do music for a living (mainstream film music) and playing music you love was a decision we struggled with for a while, but in the end, we made the right decision.
What plans have you got coming up this year?
Sex, drugs, rock n roll (laughs)… well close enough anyway. We do have a single coming up very shortly and work continues on the next single after this one. We want to release our EP and we’re targeting the early part of 2022 to do that. Other than the recording and releasing aspect, we’re hoping more live venues will open up allowing us to finally start gigging. Fingers crossed!
What is your ultimate dream as a band?
To tour as a band and play venues where we’ve watched our heroes play… that’s the ultimate dream.
You can find out more about InRegalia by visiting their website.
If you’re in a band or a musician and would like to appear on this blog, please contact me and I’ll forward you an interview template.
Also, check out my other Music Interview roundups from 2018, 2019, 2020 & 2021.
