The Rabbits’ Return

Produced by Mumbai-based musician and producer Ayan De,the band has been working on the material for this EP for some time now. “The songwriting has been going on for a couple of years,” says vocalist Raxit Tewari. “We started putting actual recordings down around the end of last year,” he says. A couple of songs — Where and Maybe is Open Tonight — have been regulars at gigs.

In true Sky Rabbit fashion,the music is fairly simple but compelling in equal measure. Tewari’s trademark melodious drawl takes you through the songs,from album opener In Dance,through to In Our Times,Maybe is Open Tonight,Over the Rise and Where. Like much of their other work,the tracks on this EP too — with the exception of Over the Rise — could lend themselves equally to some jumping and dancing,or foot-tapping and head-bobbing.

Over the Rise,however,might well be the slowest Sky Rabbit song yet. “At first,it was a bit of a face palm,god-not-another-slow-song kind of thing,” says Tewari. “Then,I think it grew on us,especially with sampling and other layers,to become something we felt we could put out,where we weren’t just being sloppy,” he says.

Lyrics have once again been written by the vocalist and continue to be rather abstract; a putting-together of assorted thoughts,perhaps. In Our Times,for instance,sounds on occasion like a lament about our times,or time in general,with the lines,‘In our times/ we breed fathers/ in silence we speak our minds/ and then watch time/ while it takes us along’. Closing the slow Over the Rise,Tewari croons,‘Yea I feel worthless/ despite your claims/ Yea I feel run down/ by all your stains’,in perhaps his least deadpan tone yet.

Tewari usually refrains from talking about what the songs mean but explains that the songwriting process this time differed from that of their first record. “This EP was written mostly in the jam room,” he says. “We fed off each other,danced and jumped around and had a bit of a rock out,”says Tewari. The latter might especially refer to Maybe is Open Tonight — the loudest,or most fast-paced,track off the record and Where,a close second.

While the band hasn’t announced plans for gigs to promote the EP yet,Tewari says those discussions are underway and something might be worked out for later this month or early August.