Sonic Treat

Learn from the Supersonics how to turn a cliché on its head to come up with a defining philosophy. When the band sang Yeah Whatever on their 2009 album Maby Baking,they appropriated the phrase that a whole generation of youngsters used to signify indifference and used it to talk through the blather of pretension that most music bands spew. “Well,a lot of people go on about what they stand for and what their music is like and our reaction to that is ‘yeah whatever’. We use it defy the genres that music is always classified into,” says Ananda Sen,lead vocalist and guitarist.

The Kolkata-based rock band—formed in 2006 with four members—is in town to perform at the Blue Frog today. It will also be part of an Andy Warhol pop art tribute at Zenzi Mills on Thursday. The Supersonics,with their self-confessed love for campy monster movies and pulp fiction from the era are a perfect fit for the tribute. “We’ll be playing some Velvet Underground covers from that era. We’re very excited about it since pop culture pretty much influences us all,” says Sen. So would they go so far as to call themselves a pop band? “Why not,” laughs Sen,“After all,The Beatles were one of the best music acts of all time and they pretty much defined pop-rock.”

The Mumbai gigs are part of the hectic touring that the band has been doing since Maby Baking’s release in 2009. The album,with its catchy,pop-rock tunes and incisive lyrics was a hit in the Indie music market. It was also the first album by an English language band to be released by a major label like Saregama. “We just got lucky,I suppose. They liked our songs. But I think it was a smart entrepreneurial decision,since record labels have been suffering due to illegal downloads and piracy. There was a huge demand for our kind of music,so Saregama decided to fulfill that,” says Sen.

Work on the next album is still on,with studio time being slotted for whenever the band finds time in between their touring. But Sen promises that it will cover new ground. “There’s so much in music and we don’t want to be stuck in a genre. We believe that each album should be as different as possible from the previous one and we let the music play us,” he says,before clarifying,“but don’t get me wrong,we’re not here to bring a revolution. We just really enjoy what we do.”