A Q&A with InRegalia

From Mumbai, hard rock with subtle Indian classical entwined…

What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
Vijay: ‘Set Me Free’ is our latest release. It’s a song which explores child labour, a social issue which should be eradicated but still runs rampant.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
Saurav: With every new wave of Covid came lockdowns, so the band barely got any time to sit together and work on the finer details of the song. Getting all of our parts recorded and then making sure we were all satisfied with the output without being able to do it collectively, like we usually do, was quite a challenge.

What do enjoy most about producing your own material?
Pete: We’re pretty much a DIY band and we’ve pretty much done it all on our own since our very first release several years ago. The song idea might originate from one or two of us to begin with but for me the fun part is how individual thoughts and ideas come together to flesh out the song. Once ideas are tossed around, we shortlist and work on the best ones in the jam room. It feels really rewarding when there is a seamless fit of those around the initial skeleton. Never gets old.

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
Saurav: Our songs are what we like to call honest rock’n’roll. We aren’t trying to outplay ourselves or be musicians that we aren’t. Similarly, our songs talk about the world we live in, the lives we lead and things that are happening around us. We want our audience to be able to resonate with that, we want to it to be relatable, almost as if we were adding music to their lives.

How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
Pete: Vijay tends to be the primary songwriter on most of the songs while Warren handles the recording, mixing and mastering duties. The song ideas and themes vary as per what Vijay is thinking about at that point in time. When Vijay brings us a rough ‘sketch’ of the new song, we try to play it and sing along in the jam room a few times just to see if the vibe and flow is working or not. Then each of us brings something additional into the body like ideas around additional riffs/bass lines/rhythms, thoughts about how a solo should be and which instrument should feature in it, lyrical tweaks and more. Following that it’s a matter of playing it a number of times with all of the newly incorporated changes till we lay down a scratch recording of it. Once all of us are happy with the outcome, we record the instruments in our jam room. Last of course, is the vocals which are recorded in a professional studio with everyone being there for those sessions. We tend to let studio magic happen naturally when it comes to the vocals. That’s what we refer to as those last minute vocal ideas which might arise when we have the studio’s recording engineer doing the session. An extra/new set of ears generally gives us one or two interesting new ideas to incorporate on the vocal front. And that pretty much sums up how we go about a song from start to finish.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
Vijay: I like checking out new music all the time but the one artist that I come back to more often than not since I started this project is Alter Bridge. It’s the confluence of the energy and the melancholy which I like the most about this band and I must say the antithesis of rock music – ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll’.

What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
Saurav: The UK and the USA for sure. It’s a dream to someday play at Slane Castle, Red Rocks Amphitheatre and of course Madison Square Garden.

If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
Pete: We’ve done songs on a variety of themes – many of them about our city Mumbai and the struggles of making it here (‘Second Time Around’ and ‘Tight Squeeze’), child labour exploitation (‘Set Me Free’), and of course about having a good time (‘Rock This House’). If I had to pick just one song, it would be ‘Lalitha’ from our first EP called A New Horizon. This song (Lalitha is a very typical girl’s name in India), written by Vijay, was inspired by the people that fake the trans community. While the genuine trans community exists and are well respected, we in Mumbai and possibly other parts of the country, see few people who fake the trans community. The main reason is to extort money of course but the methods used by them is what inspired this song. One of my personal favourites to do at an InRegalia gig.

What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
Vijay: I just like to keep it simple, honestly. To keep growing on as many fronts – reaching new listeners, fans, songwriting and so much more. I don’t believe there’s an end to this journey which is the fun part but also the most challenging as well.

Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
Saurav: Enjoy responsibly, and listen to more InRegalia.

For more info visit: inregaliaband.com