MUMBAI: On a regular day in August 1996, Bangalore gave birth to an Indie Rock Band ‘Thermal and a Quarter’ which then went on to give birth to some good music. During its journey, the rock band released five albums and hopefully will launch a sixth by February 2015.
Talking about the upcoming, ten-track album, Thermal and a Quarter’s lead vocalist, Bruce Lee Mani said, “The biggest thing for us this year is our album ‘The Scene’. The album is recorded and ready but we are considering various options to release it. We might release it in an independent way as we did for our album ‘Plan B’.”
The band’s third album ‘Plan B’, which was released in 2004, is one of their most successful albums, clocking in around one lakh downloads. The band recently played at Bangalore’s CounterCulture to celebrate the album’s tenth anniversary. Commenting on the gig, drummer Rajeev Rajagopal said, “It was a landmark album and some of our biggest hits are on it. ‘Plan B’ was special and lot of bands turned up, specially to celebrate our existence even after ten years of the album and celebrate our presence in the Indian Independent scene.”
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Songs like ‘Chainese Item’ and ‘Paper Puli’ are some of the tracks from ‘Plan B’ that are usually played by the band. However, on the occasion of completing ten years of the album, Thermal and a Quarter played tracks like ‘Dead Inside’ and ‘I live here’.
The band’s future plans revolve around the new album ‘The Scene’, and chalking down their promotional tour plan. Rajagopal said, “The album is based on the happenings in the Indian Independent Scene. The songs are sung in voices of various characters that run the music scene like the promoters, artiste managers and others.”
Talking about the Indie space, Mani said, “The indie space has really done well in India. Bands and artistes here are writing their own music rather than simply doing covers or tributes.” Adding to it Rajagopal said, “There is not much to complain about in the space because it is getting more and more professional.” The three-member band also hopes that someday Indian music acts will have brand sponsors that will bring them more recognition.
