Adding a little something unexpected to a song that is otherwise genre-bound can change its entire flavour. In the debut album of independent rock musician Sai Sanjith S. degenerateA silky saxophone solo comes in the middle of one progressive rock song, while another features some fiery Malayalam dialogue out of nowhere. But these aren’t just novelty elements, but something that’s a natural part of the song.
The list of collaborators on the album may surprise anyone, ranging from music producer Tim Palmer (Pearl Jam, Porcupine Tree, U2) to Rex Vijayan of Avial and Uday Benegal of Indus Creed and singer Sooraj Santosh. Most of the collaborations started with Sanjeet sending them a message with a link to his demo tape, which was apparently impressive enough for him to work with. While Palmer and Vijayan have produced some of the tracks, Benegal and Santosh are co-vocalists on every track.
Sanjit, who started out as a bass guitarist with the grunge rock band Fish in the Sink in 2014, started producing his own music around 2017. But, after trying to present his music for a few years, and when things weren’t really working out, he was about to give up.
Sanjit says, “I see myself as an amateur musician. Whatever I learnt initially, I learnt from YouTube. Meeting my bandmates was a turning point for me. But then, I also started writing my own music. Then, I started approaching some of the best musicians online, whom I have been a fan of for years. They liked my demos and to my surprise, they all agreed to work on the album. I didn’t have the money to pay these people initially, but getting a job as a graphic designer in a company in New Jersey helped me through.”
Although he wrote the vocal melodies, guitar and bass lines as well as the synth score, his bandmate Sujith Valiyaveetil served as co-producer, contributing significantly to the album’s final sound. Riju Andrews Jacob provided powerful vocals for the album, while Suyash Gabriel played the drums.
The most striking feature of the album is its rich and lush soundscape, which opens up new layers every time you listen to it. The six songs and six instrumentals run as a continuum, like a concept album. Disillusionment with modern life, its over-dependence on technology, the world created by the media and the expectation of everyone to follow a set pattern, all run as common themes in the songs. The depth of the compositions marks the arrival of an artist in the independent music scene. The streaming of the album has begun on Spotify and other platforms.
