The term “Sepoy” refers to a solider serving under another sovereign authority, usually in reference to the British colonization of India. In respect to what the word means for the four friends from India seeking to cultivate their musical prowess on American soil, “sepoy” is a fusion of where they’ve been and where they’re going. Sepoy, comprised of Rahul Ratakonda (bass), Amey Rairikar (lead guitar), Anupam Burra (vocal, keys, guitar), and Sriram Raman (drums), now hails from Brooklyn, New York— the perfect petri dish of culture and community for the up-and-coming quartet. The band recently represented their city in the International Music Festival, hosted by Anthem IMF.
In this interview feature, we chat with members of Sepoy about the new project, influences, music, and more.
Q&A, links, and streams can be found below.
What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?
Anupam: From very early on in my life, I got into the good habit of listening to my favorite artists through entire albums they made, and in some cases, entire catalogues. I wanted to write a record that I would want to listen to which, for better or worse, isn’t a lot like the sort of thing you would hear on contemporary radio. We’ve made a few very sticky fans from the New York local music scene. We’ve struck a chord with them, no pun intended. Seeing their enthusiasm in our music show after show propels us to keep pushing our music forward and outward to the world, to discover new fans like them by having them discover us. And we’ll continue doing what we know to do best – writing rock n roll, because we all know it will be worth it for us and our fans, wherever they might be.
Amey: For me, it all began when I first heard and saw Slash play his magnificent guitar solo in November Rain. Rock music, became a way to identify with something bigger than me. It was a channel for me to express and build identity as a teenager. I picked up the guitar and tried to emulate all my music heroes. As I honed my skills through the years, I began to grasp the enormity of the power of this language as a tool for expression. The synergy with the audience when playing live is what I enjoy the most. It’s a connection that’s unparalleled to anything else in my life and is what drives me atleast to push our music out to the public.
Rahul: Unlike the others, I started playing music relatively late. A month or so after grad school I met Amey (lead guitarist) in New York, and he taught me a few chords and with that my journey in music began. My motivations for putting music out have changed over the past few years especially since we started playing live. Initially it was just the sheer joy of being in a band and playing covers with Sriram (drummer) and Amey, but once we met Anupam (singer, keys, rhythm guitar) the focus quickly shifted to writing our own material and playing live. Getting a positive response from the crowd when they hear an original piece live is what really drives me to push our music out to the public.
Sriram: I’ve been playing hand percussion from a very early age. About 7 years ago, I walked in to Guitar Center to pick up my first (electronic) drum kit. Learning to play the drum kit was no easy feat despite my familiarity with rhythms. In my early days of learning to play the kit, I’d patiently learn all the parts of many popular songs and try to replicate it to the best of my ability. Over time, I could see each new song I learned teaching me a fundamental beat pattern that I could later build upon.
Getting our own music out to the public serves 2 purposes for me. First, it’s a validation of a thought or a concept that we’ve envisioned. Second, it helps us make our piece a product by having us draw confines on the structure and the exploration on that piece.
Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?
Anupam: The bands that influence me constantly change over time. From Classic and Progressive rock like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson, Rush, Genesis, Porcupine Tree, Tool on one end of the spectrum to 80s and 90s Alternative Rock bands on the other like Blur, Stone roses, Radiohead, and R.E.M, I’ve obsessed over the music these wonderful bands have created over the years.
I discovered these bands at various points in my life because every time I discovered one of them, I’d devour their records and then start searching for the next band that was tantamount.
On an aside, since the increased access to music on demand online, my tastes have been evolving at an even quicker rate.
Amey: From the lush soundscapes of Pink floyd, Porcupine tree and Radiohead to the raw energy in bands like Slayer, Metallica, Pantera, RATM my playing style has seen influence from a diverse set of artists.
Although the type of music that I listen to has changed over time, I will say It still feels really good to play back what I listened to while I was growing up.
Rahul: Anupam summarized the famous bands we like pretty well I think. One act I personally am enjoying and have taken inspiration from, if not being influenced by, over the past year are Royal Headache, an Australian garage punk band with an eccentric soulful singer.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
Anupam: When we started writing we would joke that we would write an album that transitioned in mood from light to dark as the album progressed, giving little bias to musical style or genre. In all honesty though, this was a very powerful idea and it allowed for greater expression. It also gave us a bigger palette to to express this idea of situational dilemmas. Each song is like a short story that talks about a conflict of interest. Reno is about a Gambler’s Ruin, Hopeless Romantic is set in the victorian era and speaks about a conservative nun who is confronted with the moral dilemma of choosing between her faith and someone she has fallen for. Impasses like these are usually nuanced with many points of view, some of which are layered with martyrdom, cynicism and irony. An Alternative Rock album can be a great conduit for expressing ideas like these.
Amey: Every project/record is a portrait of the band at that time to quote Jimmy Page. This project was a huge undertaking for us both creatively and logistically. We wanted to create something that we would feel proud of. There was a lot of thought given to the composition and implementation of the songs. As four friends hanging out and spending time in New York City, there is a lot that you go through personally as well as in a group. We wanted to put forth and express these emotions and our collective experiences in this Album. This project was a proving ground of sort for our music, our influences, and our creative backgrounds and we wanted it to be a stepping stone towards future projects where we can expand upon the ideas and knowledge that we obtained during this project.
What was the last song you listened to?
Amey: Forty Six & 2 – Tool
Anupam: Present Tense – Radiohead
Rahul: Beautiful Thing – Stone Roses
Sriram: Nil Recurring – Porcupine Tree
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Anupam: While a vinyl record in good condition adds a lot of warmth to the sound somehow, I’d still go with CDs, if I’m being perfectly honest. They’re slightly more practical than vinyls, while having close to lossless audio with 24-bit or 16-bit bounces. Having said that my most preferred option is listening to wav files directly on my computer since CD players are going out of style and out of production. My friend tells me that the only time he has an opportunity to listen to the impasse cd is when he’s driving somewhere far away.
On an aside, did I mention yet that I’m still struggling to backfill the content from what was once my giant cassette collection?
Amey: I prefer CDs since a lot of my music consumption happens in my car and I still like to maintain a CD Case for those long drives. I must however admit that without the surge of MP3 and other such forms of perceptually coded formats, I wouldn’t have discovered many of the amazing bands that are out there.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Anupam: Apple Music. It’s a more intuitive user interface I feel. Offline music management in Spotify has been clunky at best from my personal experience. For example, I find myself moving through too many menus and filters in order to get to an offline album. And although Apple were late to the party, the jury’s still out on which of the two services holds a bigger catalogue – from my standpoint though I see no difference. This coupled with a seamless integration with iTunes makes it a keeper.
Amey : I prefer Spotify, I think the desktop player is really simple and intuitive. They have a decent collection of music from different genres and does the job of music discovery very well for me. I also may be a little biased since our drummer Sriram used to work in Spotify.
Sriram: I’m a big fan of Spotify for having completely revolutionized the music streaming business. As a product, they are still lightning fast to stream music. While I’m a paid subscriber, I’ve also respected their stance on disallowing “windowing” — the policy of giving access to specific catalogues to only paid subscribers. In terms of music discovery, they’ve built great recommendation systems like “Discover” or their automatically curated weekly playlists. I wish that their catalogue was even broader so I could consume all my music in one app but I tend to switch to my personal collection from time to time.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?
Anupam: While there is an abundance of music online, it’s a slightly different story offline. Succumbing to the sustained financial pressures of trying to stay profitable while paying off their ever growing bill’s, Music Venues in central city locations are calling it a day. In Manhattan, Fontana’s a music venue downtown called it quits recently. Trash bar, another great music venue, had to relocate from Williamsburg to bushwick. And a lot of times they move to areas that are far less accessible to the music fans they once used to serve. We play at a regular cadence at some of these venues, and we’re able to see the struggles they have to go through first hand, and yet they fight on, promoting a lot of the amazing local music this city has to offer. This is a challenge for us as it is for many other bands, because these are nurseries for the sort of musical communities that help keep the local music scene alive.
Amey: I second what Anupam has said, It’s also really sad to see a lot of DIY venues shut down in the tri-state area.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?
If you’d like to hear our music we’re available in a number of online streaming services like soundcloud, spotify, itunes, reverbnation.
If you’d like to keep up with the latest news from Sepoy HQ, including tour dates, new recordings, etc you should follow us on Facebook, Twitter, instagram and finally don’t forget to visit our website at www.sepoy.com
- https://soundcloud.com/sepoynyc/
- https://www.reverbnation.com/sepoy
- https://www.facebook.com/0sepoy0/
Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?
Amey: I would like to give a big shout out to all the people who support bands in their local scenes. The support from local audiences is paramount for a healthy local music scene, which in turn benefits the music scene in general.
Rahul: In this mad world of over priced tickets for stadium acts and people going on about the good ole days, I sincerely recommend people check out smaller local venues – I think people will surprised by the gems they find.
