Interview: The Circus

The Circus - With LoveIndia’s premier genre-defying rockers The Circus are back with their third album, With Love.

The New Delhi group have been making waves in their homeland for years with their genuinely unique sound. It’s simultaneously heavy and melodic, technical and accessible, and immersed in an infectious energy. This new record represents something of a coming of age for the band: a more considered release than their previous output, but still one of the most boundary-pushing albums you’ll hear in 2016.

The band are on the road throughout India at the moment, but thanks to email we were able to catch up with them and chat about the tour, the new album, and what it’s like to be part of the thriving Indian rock scene:

First things first: how’s the tour going?! Any standout shows so far?

Hello! The tour is going great so far, kinda tiring but its worth it. All the shows have been great so far because we didn’t know how people would react to the new material but they seemed to enjoy the new music. Really looking forward to the Guwahati and Shillong shows as we have not played there ever.

What’s a Circus live show like? What can those seeing you for the first time expect?

Expect a lot of contagious energy and sing along choruses. We try to have as much fun as we can which leads to a lot of sprained necks and broken stands.

Which member of the band has been causing the most trouble on tour? Any crazy stories yet?

Good question. Honestly, I think Anshul, the drummer is a mad man. We’ve had some stories, but I don’t think we can divulge much…

Tell us about the history of the band: where are you from? How long have you been playing together?

In brief, we’ve been playing together for almost nine years, we are all from New Delhi, India.

Which bands influenced you?

Tool, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Incubus.

Do you take inspiration from other Indian bands? Are there any other Indian groups, which we might not have heard of in Scotland, you could recommend?

We play in other bands with a lot of other Indian musicians who are a source of inspiration namely Ioish, Fuzzculture, Cutrtain Blue, Mosko, Sundog Project. Some other great bands in the country you can check out are Street Stories, Aswekeepsearching, Celestial Teapot and Zokova

We love the new album! How did the process of writing this compare to that of writing your previous releases?

Thank you! This album was completely conceived in the studio over a period of almost three years. Our previous albums were made in the jam room by playing together and making songs in the same room. With this album there was a lot of back and forth and we worked together as well as independently on the sounds and parts.

How would you describe The Circus’ sound in 2016?

This is our most mature sounding record till date and everything is there because it needs to be. Its a weird mix of electronica and rock n roll with catchy hooks.

Any plans for after this tour? Any chance we’ll see you in Europe sometime?!

After this tour we are planning on doing exactly that.. Getting this show to Europe and other parts of Asia.

Special thanks to Ritnika Nayan for setting up this interview.

With Love is available for free streaming over at GQ India now.

The Circus: officialfacebook | twitter | myspace | youtube

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