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The Library Selfie

Abolishing the Obsolete System: Vishal J Singh on “The Library”

By Siddharth V

The freshest collaboration to hit indie shelves, The Library is a brand new project featuring Siddharth Basrur of Goddess Gagged and Vishal J Singh aka Amogh Symphony.

The Library is a new and interesting collaboration with a plethora of influences but mainly around post-rocky motifs. It features Goddess Gagged singer Siddharth Basrur and Vishal J Singh of the monolithic Amogh Symphony. While Basrur is known for his vocals on Janiya, Vishal has recorded some very catchy tracks in Gangs of Wasseypur, including Keh Ke Lunga (feat. Amit Trivedi). What’s really intriguing is the muse behind this new dynamic. As Vishal puts it, “The Library is basically a dormitory of books. You can read about any topic or anything which you never explored before. There are no boundaries, no limitations. It’s like a free bird of free knowledge flying freely and bravely. “

With his debut, Abolishing the Obsolete System in 2009, Vishal, under the Amogh Symphony monicker, represented a new form of one-man driven technical metal. The reach of this record was immense, especially in the metal haven of Bangalore and these revolutionary sounds have now slowly been incorporated into the scene here. His follow up album, with a varied style and darker shades of metal, The Quantum Hack Code was also well received among the metal community in 2010. He also recently put up raw tracks of the unfinished EP, Feathers of Jatinga, with a slower, but equally dark and Doom-like sound. In contrast, The Library, however, sees a confluence of niche sounds that are drastically different – a collaboration featured around post-rock and punk elements. We interviewed Amogh Symphony aka Vishal J Singh, about his future metal prospects, ideas for modern sounds, and the concepts behind The Library.

soundplunge_test:  Amogh Symphony is heck of a solo-project. You have many fans in Bangalore, especially for Cyborg Activation. How is it that you have not put out more similar material of late?

Vishal: When I listen to both the albums now, I get bored. It’s been 4 years so obviously that means there must be an upgrade process happening in between, both personally and musically. I have been constantly working on a lot of commercial projects and also in between I went back to my hometown in Assam to find a homely environment where I read and explored more music and a lot of theory. I was looking forward to making something new and finally it’s been made. In this process, I had to cut off from every other thing for sometime but also keep an eye on every recent music release of all genres and styles. Though I am pretty sure anybody who liked earlier Amogh Symphony albums (Abolishing the Obsolete System, The Quantum Hack Code) will purely dislike the new album, I’m looking forward to connect with more new people via this new sound in the new album.

soundplunge_test: The Library has, if anything, a post-rocky sound. How come the radical change in playing style and genre?

Vishal: Well not really a radical change. Siddharth and I, we both have similar background (ads, jingles, Bollywood songs and OSTs). We both are full time indie artists and session artists who have worked with different styles and genres of music.

soundplunge_test: Do you have any future metal sounds planned or is this a permanent shift?

Vishal: There is never a permanent shift. Well, some actually find their happiness in permanent shift and there is totally nothing wrong with it. But in my own life I believe one has to grow up every day as an artist. It’s like the life of a chef. You can’t make the same dishes all the time, can you? Tastes differ with mood and time.

Also, I don’t really want to sound cool or self obsessed here but will you wait till the new Amogh Symphony album comes out. I will just stop here. I had tough times controlling my excitement with this album. I am sober now.

soundplunge_test: Obviously, as both of you in The Library have a history with metal, how much do you feel it has influenced these new sounds?

Vishal: To be honest, not so much. Just like every musician in this world, we both, initially, didn’t directly start with metal. There was, is and will always be lots of song ideas floating in your head or your 8-track recorder or tapes or DAW’s whatever. Siddharth and I listen to a lot of old school and fresh new music be it punk, post rock or alternative rock. It all started with Feathers of Jatinga. You can say the base is my doom/alternative metal project Feathers of Jatinga (minus the dark sound) meets Siddharth’s solo alternative rock sound. All we know we just wanted to jam. We jammed a lot. We both have written uncountable songs in our music libraries. Hence, it’s called “The Library”.

soundplunge_test: With a very dreamy and visual feel in the sound, are you looking for these songs to be part of a movie/documentary etc?

Vishal: Maybe. We never know.  If any documentary film-maker or feature/short film maker want us to even write new song as The Library, all welcome.

soundplunge_test Tell us how you feel the prospect of scoring metal-based soundtracks is and its feasibility in our current national scene.

Vishal: I think there is no limit when you know what exactly are you doing and stop thinking about results, publicity and promotion. Most importantly, when you think of a great teamwork of film-maker, music composer, cinematographer, sound engineer and scriptwriter gelling with each other on the same platform…. you know the universe is the limit and anything is possible. By the time we are doing this interview, pretty sure somewhere some Film and Music Students must be working on it which neither Google nor News Channels are aware of. Or just wait for some special upcoming soundtracks in 2014.

The Library is already on Bandcamp and SoundCloud. Vishal was also earlier featured on Basrur’s album, Chasing Rain chapter 1, and together, they will be releasing a few more songs also, following the first single, “In the Library”.

Listen to “Come September” here and “In the Library” here.

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