The Buggels in 1978 may have rued Video Killed The Radio Star, but the visual format is helping the Gen Now of indie musicians in more ways than one. Bands are self-producing videos to market their music and find a form of expression. Compared to the very many Indipop videos of Lucky Ali, KK, and Colonial Cousins etc, in the 90s, rock and indie videos, like Indus Creed (Trapped and Pretty Child), Agni (Mrityunjaya) or Parikrama  (But it Rained) were a few and far between. But in the recent times, videos high on concept and production seem to be re-emerging. 

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Sample this, Kerala band Thaikkudam Bridge have a video, Navarasam, that’s about the fading art of Kathakali; Delhi’s Hindi rock band, The Local Train, have released Khudi that’s about self-discovery. Kolkata’s dream-pop duo Parekh & Singh have put out a Wes Anderson-like Ghost, while Mumbai-band The Family Cheese’s hilarious The Bawa Rap stop motion video talks about the confusion and pains of a young Parsi boy, vocalist Yohan Marshall, to be precise. Delhi’s electronic/rock duo FuzzCulture’s Gemini Feat. Heather Andrews is popular in the scene and Bangalore-based Hindi rock band Parvaaz’s Colour White, shot in the stark white snowed in climes of Kashmir, has wowed lakhs of viewers. Here, the musicians tell us why music videos are getting their due again after a lull for a while.

To popularise the band

The Family Cheese vocalist, Yohan, says, “If you can describe your music well in a video, it will help you get more gigs, recognition, and following.” The 90,000 odd views to their video on their Facebook page is proof of that. Meanwhile, The Local Train have six million views on their YouTube channel. The band’s bassist, Ramit Mehra, concurs, “People are discovering music on YouTube these days. A music video is also a great way to market the music.” Reaching a wider audience through videos is the way to go, according to Kashif Iqbal, lead guitarist for Parvaaz, too.

The paradigm shift

Srijan Mahajan, who handles mixing, programming, and percussions duties for FuzzCulture, points out that with the advent of music channels in the 90s, Indipop and indie bands had an avenue to popularise their music by releasing videos. However, as channels moved on to reality television, videos took a backseat. Now, with people consuming content online and favouring the visual medium, videos are in again. He says, “It may sound strange, but bands have no choice but to release videos these days. Metallica released a video each for all their tracks on the new album — Hardwired… to Destruct.” Yohan adds, “Album sales drove the music earlier but that’s not the case anymore. Now, video drives the music.” For most bands, videos also serve as a way to introduce music to a wider audience. “It also gives the listeners something to come back to after a live show,” says Kashif. For The Local Train, videos are the only avenue to market songs. “We make radio-friendly songs but the radio is not too friendly to us,” Ramit jokes, “So, videos help.”

A way of expression

Usually encumbered with angst and profundity, lyrics are an indie band’s tool to express their thoughts. This expression is now percolating into videos, too. Like Ramit says, “It’s about the story for us; it’s expressing ourselves through videos.” For The Family Cheese, it was no different. “We wanted to put a visual to the confusion of the Parsi boy in the song. We are happy that we gave our community a product that every Parsi connects with,” Yohan says. For Parvaaz, a video is a way of telling their listeners what their state of mind at that point is.

Shoestring budget

For the bands, a video is not an indulgent production outing but all about a good concept and idea. “Once you have a strong concept, people will appreciate the video even if it’s low budget,” says Srijan, adding, “Though, it’s better if you shoot a good-quality video.” For Kashif, budget constraint breeds more creativity and, “makes you think differently and make optimal use of the little money and time you have. It also makes us focus on the video as ardently as we would on our music.”

A little help from their friends

Producing a video is a whopping investment, so indie bands get their friends to chip in with their expertise. “We pull in favours from people like story board artistes, cinematographers, etc. whom we have worked with before,” says Kashif. Yohan informs that everyone in the Bawa Rap video has worked pro bono, including theatre biggies like Pheroza Modi, Sam Kerawala and Danesh Irani, singer Sarosh Nanavaty, and director Nishant Agrawal who is the bassist Homi Rustomji’s roomie. “If you have a good product, no one in the indie scene is going to think about money but about how much fun you’re going to have creating something,” Yohan says.

No strings attached

The bands are happier being independent of record labels so that they have their freedom of expression. “Earlier, record labels would want to control the videos and represent the bands in a certain way, and when that happens the message often gets construed differently,” says Yohann. Kashif adds, “That’s the biggest advantage indie bands have — there are no external interferences.” Limiting the filters and scrutiny to the band, its management, and a few trustworthy friends also gives Parvaaz better scope for improvisation and creative inputs.  

More videos to come

Looking at the dumbfounding response to their debut vid, The Family Cheese are working on a bigger production now. While other bands would follow suit, Srijan says that on the flip side, the growing popularity of videos will force newbies to gather resources that they do not have and pressure them to release videos in order to do well. Till that happens, a band like The Local train will use videos to get a reality check about how they are as a band. “The comments on videos can be such a big revelation,” Ramit laughs.