JOIN USThey were birds of the same feather. Some of them lived in the same vicinity, some went to the same college while others met at various musical gigs. Now a noted band, ‘Dequma’ has come a long way. After a lot of changes in the line-up, it now comprises Inder Mehra, the guitarist; Abhishek Srinivas, the drummer; and Vinod Gunasekaran and Mohak Sanandan, the vocalists. “‘Dequma’ started with us playing for different bands. But we all had the same musical direction,” says Mohak.
An exclusive metal band that believes metal music to be their “religion and soul”, they create tracks that oppose injustice and corruption. The band members say, “We believe in original music as several well-known bands have laid a foundation for us to build on. Now, it is our turn to do the same and we focus on aspects like psychological disorders and extreme emotions of mankind. We are looking at new musical dimensions that aren’t explored yet.”
The band elaborates on their music influences and say that they look up to many bands playing varied genres. ‘Death’, ‘Mayhem’, ‘Necrophagist’, ‘Sikth’ and so on; it is these musical influences that led them “not to be biased about their songs to a particular genre”. “Categorising music can only limit our creativity,” Mohak adds.
While their performances are “chilled-out”, their jam sessions are “intense, argumentative and constructive”. With assorted inputs coming out from each talented band member, they experiment with different sounds and musical elements. The jam sessions often happen during the weekends and they say, “There is a flow of creativity at these sessions and it provides room for us to be able to push our abilities and explore new dimensions in music.”
The band is noted to perform at various resto-pubs including ‘Harry’s Pub’, ‘Blue Waves’ and even at many college events. Their rocking guitarist, Inder, has been recognised as the best guitarist at ‘Pit V.5’, a metal festival held in Kolkata. “These shows and recognitions inspired us to experiment more with our style of music. One of the most memorable moment was when Mohak blacked out on stage during one of our performances and still managed to win the best vocalist award!” they explain beamingly.
The metal lovers have more to boast about as they have judged a couple of competitions and have been even featured in MTV and many international radios. “It is a proud moment when people seek inspiration from us, which also inspires us to do better,” they say. Their music has attracted a great fan base and they say, “After four years of performances, we felt honoured when artistes James Murphy and late Scott Clendenin from the popular band ‘Death’ appreciated our songs!”
They call the band their home and are looking forward to launching their debut album. They add, “We have also lined up, for this year, an official music video for our new single ‘Theory of Justice’”. They are even in talks with a few record labels from Europe and they explain, “We want to sign up with a label that can bring the best out of our band and break all barriers to portray our original music to the world. We experiment with our sounds, mixes and other maniac elements. Our music is a fusion of all this and we would like to term this ‘bi-polar’.”