‘Pilgrim’– Ready to take India by storm with their melodic alt-rock compositions & unforgettable lyrics
By Vikram Singh Kushwaha | March 27, 2019
Delhi's School of Planning and Architecture is famous as one of the country's premier institutes for a degree in architecture; however, what is not quite as well known is the fact that the college has a brilliantly vibrant an thriving sub-culture which inevitably ends up making its mark in the city, and eventually the rest of the country, every once in a while. The atmosphere at this year's Utopia, SPA's ultra bombastic annual cultural fest, was charged with an unusual anticipation which indicated something special about the occasion. Batches upon batches of the college's alumni had turned up for what was in a way the homecoming of The Pilgrim, perhaps the most iconic band in SPA's history, who were performing for the first time after a year long hiatus. A lot of musicians have earned their wings by gaining a popular following during their college days; however, rarely does a band ever evoke such universal response and enjoy the kind of unyielding cult following that The Pilgrim (now 108 Pilgrim) commands at SPA.
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The six piece band started out as a four member act which was called Shoplift around 2007/2008 with vocalist Arun Cherian, guitarist Mukul Menon, drummer Mebanshanbor and bassist Wate Zhiemi who were all members of the music society at SPA. By 2011, Nishant Kumar and Yasir Syed had also joined in at synthesizers and rhythm guitars respectively as the band took its final form as The Pilgrim. In a conversation with me, Nishant recalls, "Around the second year of college, everybody met at the music society and started playing music and played a few shows. The band used to be called Shoplift, then towards the end of college around 2011, me and Yasir joined in and at that point we thought of changing the name of the band and came up with The Pilgrim."
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He refers to the punk influence along with the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Red Hot Chilli Peppers and older bands like Queen, Doors and Radiohead that rendered itself in the signature upbeat dancy rock n' roll rhythms in The Pilgrim's music which was aimed at making people jump, something that was undoubtedly one of the defining factors that took them to the tipping point amongst the crowd at SPA.
"The music was always changing, always developing. Earlier we used to play a lot of covers also, and then slowly started doing our own stuff, so it is very unique. We have a constantly changing sound because when you're in college you're a lot more into playing really energetic fast paced stuff and then slowly we matured and started writing songs that were a little slow paced and those sort of compositions"
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On asking ifthe gradual shift in the band's sound was anoutcome of playing to newer audiences outside of college, Nishant is quick todismiss the idea. "It was neverabout the kind of reception that we are getting, neither was it ever abouttargeting any particular age group or set of people. Our new album is sort oflike a documentation of the time that we spent together as a band in Delhi, itscoming very much from our lives. There was no particular reason for writing theslower songs, our music always flows very spontaneously from the jam sessionsand then takes a life of its own."
Talking aboutthe challenges they faced in taking The Pilgrim from the old school organiccult following they enjoyed inside SPA through word of mouth to making a markin the country's indiecircuit Nishant alludes to the fact that while they always play to a packedhouse at SPA, it is really up to what people like when performing outside. "We started at SPA,so naturally everybody there knows us and they are also very intense fans so ifwere playing outside in a bar they would always show up and they also bringtheir friends who are not from college and if they like us, that word of mouthgets around. We have had some really good shows, for example when we played atZiro Festival we had a fantastic reception and that was a completely new crowd.And then sometimes we also had shows where you play to an empty audience, butthings have started to change after the release of our album and gettingfeatured on a lot of playlists on online streaming platforms so we have a lotmore people who are interested now. Its different but its good to be going outof SPA and playing at other places"
The bandcurrently manages itself so to speak, booking its own shows, planning its owntours and handling its social media promotions in house and amongst themembers. "We neverreally had a manager, we've been doing it all ourselves. We've been doingeverything from physically going to venues and talking to organisers andsending them our music to listen to. And I think it worked in that we got a lotof showed, playing all across Delhi and also getting invited outside to Ziroand a lot of colleges."Nishant says.
The Pilgrim had been out of action for a year before their performance at Utopia this month; the band had been taking that time to work on new material after the release of their album a year ago. However, they are back with a new spring in their step and are planning to play all across the country, especially the North East and south of India AND a new album may also be on the horizon around the beginning of next year. Having bid their time incubating in the indie circles of Delhi, it seems that the time has come for 108 Pilgrim to take the country by storm with their one of a kind melodic alt-rock compositions and uncannily unforgettable narrative lyrics.
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You can reach us at kaushik@thenortheasttoday.com
