Journey on a unique track

Cross Legacy’ is like any other modern rock band —  with guitars, keyboards, violin, bass and drums. The only difference is that it is a Christian rock band with inspirational lyrics.

The band consists of Bijoy Thangaraj (lead vocals, guitars, keys), Billy Sunday (lead guitars), Dr Amith Ramos (violin, keyboards, backing vocals), Isaac Theogaraj (bass) and Jagan Jayaraj (drums).

Explaining the sound of the band, Bijoy says, “We are more towards modern rock with synthesiser and pop influence as compared to classic rock of 70s and 80s, which mainly used guitars, drums and bass.”

The band has performed at many gigs in and around Bangalore, which include the opening for John Schlitt of Petra’s (four-time Grammy winner) concert in Bangalore in February 2012.

 Soon after, they released their first single, ‘Legacy’ and their second single, ‘I Bow Down’, the following year along with a music video.

‘Cross Legacy’ recently release their debut album, ‘A New Dawn’, which is available for download on iTunes. CDs will be available soon.The release of the music video of the title song, ‘Dawn of the New Generation’, will follow the album release. The music video is directed by Ebey Joseph who also directed the band’s debut video, ‘I Bow Down’.

The album features Christian rock music in the lines of international bands like ‘Skillet’, ‘Switchfoot’ and ‘Newsboys’. The band members’ influences include classic rock bands such as ‘Whiteheart’, ‘Whitecross’, ‘Petra’ and modern artistes such as ‘Newsboys’, ‘Delirious’ and ‘Tobymac’.

The band has been working hard on their debut album for more than three years.
 It took so much time for the band mainly because they did not want to compromise on the quality and wanted each of their songs to be a masterpiece.

The songs ‘Crazy Times’ and ‘I Bow Down’ are a favourite with all the members of the band. “We have really done exceptional work on it including a guitar solo. However, we didn’t want any song to be a filler and so each song is dear to us,” say Bijoy.

The album is mastered by Justin Shturtz at Sterling Sound, NYC, one of the mastering studios in the world. The official album cover art was done by Nikolai Lockertsen, a big name in the field. Guest artistes on the album include Steve Alfred, Candice and Bianca.

“This is my best production till date,” says Bijoy who mixed all the songs in the album. Bijoy has also worked as producer for the Indian bands, ‘Ehsaas’ and ‘Scales 'n' Hammers’ and has collaborated with many artistes around the world for songwriting and composing.

One of the songs titled ‘Stand on His Word’ from the album ‘A New Dawn’ includes collaboration with reggae artist, Madi Simmons for lyrics. The album also includes an Indian fusion mixed collaboration for the song ‘Love Revolution’ featuring Aravind Nair from ‘Scales 'n' Hammers’.

“Life is a gift with goodness all around, we just need to choose and look around to seek the truth. It’s a journey of seasons, just keep the faith. Sooner or later, it will turn into something beautiful,” says Jagan about the song ‘Life and Death’ from the album.

“After years of working and re-working on our tracks, here we bring our brand new album,” says Billy Sunday who has put in amazing guitar solos in the songs, ‘The Crazy Times’, ‘I Bow Down’, ‘Sea Of Traitors’, ‘Life and Death’ and ‘Legacy’. Billy is also the producer of the band, ‘Salvation Creed’.

The band is not averse to electronic dance music (EDM), which is the current craze among the new generation. “Our song, ‘Sea of Traitors’, has elements of EDM with a dance feel to it,” says Bijoy.