Raising the roof

Inner Sanctum comprises Gaurav on lead vocals, Chintan on guitars, Michael on bass, Rajiv on second guitars and Abhinav on drums. It all began a few years ago when Chintan and Michael wanted to start a band.

“Chintan was my senior in school. But it was only in college, when we met through a common friend, that we started jamming,” says Michael, who came up with the name Inner Sanctum.

Abhinav met Chintan through a friend and started jamming with them too.  Apart from their personal favourites, the band’s inspirations are Testament, Martyr, Bloodbath and Opeth. 

Ask them about their favourite Bangalore band and they all have a common answer — Extinct Reflections. Apart from that, Michael’s favourite is Thermal And A Quarter while Rajiv likes Slain. “Kryptos and Myndsnare are also my favourites,” says Gaurav. “We have learnt a lot by watching these guys, who have stuck on for a long time,” he adds.

Inner Sanctum may soon be performing at Mood Indigo, the cultural fest of IIT-Bombay.

“It’s a competition and if we get selected, we will perform at the fest,” says Michael. The band also hopes to bring out an album in a year or two. Says Rajiv, “We hope to do some international shows and do well in terms of album sales.”

Abhinav adds, “We just plan to work on the album material and go with the flow.”
Despite having performed many gigs, Gaurav says that I-Rock is the closest to their hearts.

“Winning I-Rock was the best thing to have happened to us. None of us expected to win it,” he notes. Agrees Abhinav, “It was an amazing show, where we performed for a crowd of 4,000 people.” He adds, “We had always wanted to take part in I-Rock, but we never expected to win it. We just wanted to promote our music and have a good time.”

“The Great Indian Rock and October Fest went really well too,” says Michael.

Another memorable gig that the band was at Rock In India, where they were one of the bands chosen to open for Iron Maiden.

And finally, what is the secret of this aggression, which can also be termed as a never-ending energy, on stage? Gaurav merely laughs, “I always felt that as a lead vocalist, I should make our audience tear its hair apart. Hope we have been successful in doing so.”

Well, Inner Sanctum fans would surely agree that the band has indeed succeeded in its mission!