Let’s face it; most of us started listening to rock music thanks to some international band. We hardly understood the lyrics and all we did was head-bang to provide maximum momentum to the over-grown hair that went well with the ‘I listen to rock and so I’m cool’ look. And then, we grew up!

Listening to a band and following a band are two completely different things. A lot of people listen to Indian bands, but only a handful really follows them. I was one of those who only listen, and then INDUS CREED happened!

No matter how much I try to avoid the clichéd, but this band truly needs no introduction. (And if you need one, just google them…I’m not gonna spoon-feed you all the damn time!)

So, I followed them, like literally followed and stalked them till I got Uday Benegal, the vocalist, to do an interview for Whackk. Excerpts :

1.  So what has the band been up to really since re-uniting?

We've been busy working on new material. The idea is do develop the sound more solidly and take this whole thing further.

2. How has the Indus Creed sound changed? Was it a conscious effort?

The sound has changed more organically than consciously. It's been some years since we last played as a band, so time inevitably has worked itself upon us. Each of us—the three original members at least: Zubin, Mahesh and myself—has lived out a bunch of experiences meanwhile, so that necessarily finds its way within. But our core styles still remain; I guess that's part of each of our identities. Rushad and Jai also influence the sound very significantly. They bring a whole new approach and a stack of new ideas.

3. The new album...everyone wants to know about it. When's it coming out? What's it going to be like..the name? Please end the suspense...

We're at the first stage of the album: songwriting. We're taking it one step at a time. First the songs, then we hit the studio, then the release alongside promotion. I can't give you a date writ in stone, but we're working on putting it out in the next few months. It's going to be (hopefully) as I described in the previous answer the kind sound we're aspiring to achieve. The name will emerge from the process, I suspect; no album name yet. 

4. You've seen it all literally. From the 80s to this day, which are your favourite Indian Rock Bands?

I wouldn't say we've seen it all. Life has a shitload more to show us and
we're eager watchers. Of the current bunch of Indian bands a few that pop to
mind are: 

Sridhar/Thayil—I think they're very original and extremely creative.

Avial — I'm still reeling from the amazing energy of their first album, with Anandraj Benjamin Paul on lead vox; he has a superb voice and style, it's a real shame that he left. I hope the altered band can generate the same 
brilliance without him.

Scribe — I haven't heard too much of their stuff but whatever I have has been f**king great. Real slamass energy and hilarious to boot.

5. You still look around for a poly-vinyl lady? :P

The flesh-and-blood ones took over a long time ago :-)

6. Everytime I listen to your songs, the voice in my head says "Why the hell isn't this band bigger Internationally?" Can you please answer the stupid voice...

We don't think of that kind of stuff. We just try and create the music that makes us happy and hope to hell others dig it too. Times have changed... times keep changing. In the 80s and 90s the music industry in the West was controlled by people who narrowed the parameters of what was saleable...or releasable. That's turned turtle. Most of those asswipe record labels are history. The internet has opened it all up and the world is seeing a flood of amazing shit. But it's also gotten a lot more chaotic. So anything's possible these days.

7. Today facebook pages and twitter ids are of utmost importance to most bands for publicity and interaction with the fans.In the era of internet, is Indus Creed taking a little time to be net-savvy? (This question is a direct result of you replying to my mails very late :P , also not much activity on the fb page)

Yeah, we're working on our net presence. We've got the requisite Facebook page and Twitter ID. We're developing our YouTube channel, so will start to upload live stuff and maybe even songs in progress. We deliberately avoid over-posting on FB — we'd rather talk when we have something interesting to say. What Rushad had for breakfast or what Mahesh thought of the last episode of Koffee With Karan doesn't seem relevant to us...actually, I wonder what Mahesh thought...hmm... We've also got our website induscreed.net, which we pointedly kept simple and uncluttered. We're very interactive, though, and respond regularly to fan/friend feedback, opinion or general howdies. But those aforementioned sites, have become the nucleus
off all bands. How to harness the potential of the internet is still a challenge to most. But we're up to the task—it's a great space to delve into.

Reason for the late replies was the tour. I didn't really have the time todo interviews then. As for FB, like I said, constant chatter is not our thing, so we're active and interactive but not forcibly so.