News Feature: Drowning Melancholy from Jaipur, India tells us about their new video

Drowning Melancholy are a goth/progressive metal band from Jaipur. I met singer Komal and drummer Alvin at the Battle of the bands at IIT Jodhpur in 2013 where they were performing with their sister band Fragile Silence. They put a good show and came 2nd. Since then Fragile Silence has been dormant due to few lineup changes. Komal and Alvin have been working on new material for Drowning Melancholy and have released a video for their track “Defenceless”.

I spoke to Komal about the video, being a metal band in Jaipur and also their plans for the coming year.

Transcending Obscurity (Peter): Jaipur is not a city known for metal bands. How did the band get together?

Komal: I think it was when Fragile Silence first went dormant that we came up with an idea for a studio project called Drowning Melancholy. So I can safely say that it was in 2011 when we began creating rough recorded tracks on our own. I fell in love with the way Alvin composed such elaborate tunes, and tried my best to do justice to them. Rohit (Guitarist) and Rohan (Drummer) were new to us, too. But we’re glad that we connected. Prateya plays with us in Fragile Silence, so we’re in a pretty comfortable zone already.

TO (Peter):What made you decide to start a “goth” metal band? What about the style appeals to you?

Komal: As a female vocalist, I always looked up to Amy Lee, Cristina Scabbia and then I discovered Sharon from Within Temptation, Tarja (Nightwish), and honestly, I was blown away. Alvin has experimented with a lot of sounds, and “goth” metal was something different. So it just clicked! Elaborate keyboards, spooky sounds, deep and dark lyrics. Gothic Metal creates a distinct atmosphere altogether.

TO (Peter): Tell us about your track Defenceless.

Komal: When Alvin composed it, he had in mind the story of the game “Alan Wake”. Now, I had never played the game, so I read the story, did my research and wrote down the lyrics. The best part about the lyrics of defenceless is that they are open to interpretation.

There comes a time in life when everything is broken, and there’s no way to fix it. You see no light at the end of the tunnel, and in that moment, you become defenceless.

TO (Peter): The production sounds good. How did you record the track?

Komal: Keshav Dhar! We absolutely admire him for his work. Also our five day trip to Delhi for recording “Defenceless” and “Philomela” was a breeze.

TO (Peter): You have released a video for the track. Tell us a bit about how you went about with the filming/production of the video?

Komal: We’d been pondering over the concept for a long time. We came up with some really good ideas for filming, but we had our budget constraints. Finally we came up with the idea of bring forth a common social issue.

When she is growing up, she has a lot of dreams, but slowly she learns that the world isn’t fair for a woman. She has to often surrender her desires to the society. She has no support and in that moment, she is defenceless.

“Stupid High Arts”, the production company, finally made it happen! They’ve been amazing. They taught us a lot because all of us sucked at facing the camera.

TO (Peter): What are your plans for 2016? New EP/Album?

Komal: Yes! An EP comes out in March 2016!