Heavy Mettle: Parikrama is bringing hard rock to younger audiences with their new single

MARCH 17, 2007. Subir Malik can’t forget the date when his band Pari­krama opened for Iron Maiden. “Iron Maiden was like our idols,” he says. “I picked up the bass because of Steve Harris. It was a fanboy moment for us.” Nearly two decades later, Malik, a founding member of Pari­krama where he plays the keyboard, still recounts the memory with the excitement of a teenager.

Much has changed since that evening: India’s music industry has been transformed by stream­ing platforms and social media. Entire genres have risen and faded. Yet Parikrama, one of India’s longest-running rock bands, is still on stage.

Last week, the Delhi-based band celebrated its 35th anniversary with an electrifying performance at The Piano Man. The occasion also marked the launch single, ‘Inside My Skin’, a hard rock num­ber, signalling the many genres the band has mastered. Malik observes that the song is on the “heavier side” of the rock genre and mirrors the sound of their 2023 single, ‘Demons of Time’, beginning with a high-octane guitar riff composed by Saurabh Chaudhry. But what distinguish­es it from other rock tracks is Parikrama’s signature melodic hooks—something that has set the band apart from their peers. With a soaring vocal performance, the result is an energetic piece, contempo­rary for the younger audience yet reflect­ing the band’s roots.

The new release is also a reminder of Parikrama’s philosophy. The band has chased trends, performing live over focusing on albums. “Buddy, you don’t have to ask before recording our conver­sation. We have been telling our fans to pirate our music; what we say is free for all,” Malik tells Open.

Malik explains that songs often emerge from ideas rather than an attempt to fit into a genre. “We just come up with riffs, come up with ideas and just work on it. There is no such plan that you have to make it metal or rock or country.”

OVER THE YEARS, Parikrama has moved between hard rock, blues, progressive in­fluences and even occasional touches of reggae as seen in the song, ‘Rhythm & Blues’ with Usha Uthup. They haven’t focused on purity of styles or genres. For them, what mattered was whether a song felt right.

That willingness to follow instinct rather than fashion may explain why the band has survived generations of change. Parikrama came into existence before streaming and social media. It has outlived the cassette era, the CD boom and the collapse of physical music sales. Through all of it, the band has remained inclined to live performances.

Their reputation was evident at the anniversary concert. The audience knew the older songs, sang along to familiar choruses and greeted the new material with enthusiasm. For a band celebrating 35 years together, that may be the most significant achievement of all: the ability to keep finding new listeners without los­ing the old ones. Abhiprai Nayyar, head of The Piano Man Events, agrees. “They are that rare act whose music seamlessly bridges generations, resonating deeply with fans old and new alike. For the audience, we wanted to offer a genuinely surreal takeaway: the chance to witness the sheer power and masterful musician­ship of a legendary, stadium-sized band within the highly intimate, acoustically refined setting.”

Part of Parikrama’s distinct identity lies in its refusal to treat rock as a strict and uptight genre. Violin, tabla and flute find place alongside electric guitars, keyboards and drums, giving many of the band’s compositions a sound that stands apart from conventional rock performances.

The approach reflects the diversity of the musicians. Alongside Chaudhry and Malik, the current line-up includes bass guitarist Gaurav Balani, vocalist Nitin Malik, drummer Srijan Mahajan, guitarist Abhishek Mittal, Suhail Khan on the violin, Shashank Singhania on the flute and Shambhu Nath on the tabla. Together they represent different genera­tions of the band’s journey, combining the experience of its founders with younger musicians who grew up listening to Parikrama before joining the band.

And since their inception, Parikrama’s relationship with technology has been unusual. Long before streaming, the band encouraged listeners to copy and share its music. The idea then seemed uncon­ventional. Today it appears remarkably prescient. “What we did in the ’90s, today the whole world is anyway doing,” Malik says. The philosophy was simple. The band wanted its music to reach as many people as possible. In the streaming era, where listeners can access catalogues for little or no cost, that approach feels less radical than it once did.

For a generation that came of age in the 1990s, Parikrama occupies a special place in Indian rock. They emerged when the country’s independent music scene was small and fragmented. Access to instruments, lessons and recording equip­ment was limited. Bands travelled long distances for college festivals and relied on word of mouth to build audiences.

But looking back, Malik sees two very different worlds. “In today’s time there are so many things that have changed in terms of accessibility,” he says. Young musicians have access to world-class equipment and platforms to create and release music instantly. “You can make an album, make a single, overnight on a single computer.”

THE CONTRAST WITH the 1990s could not be sharper. There was no internet, no YouTube tutorials and no easy way to obtain equipment from abroad. Most musicians learned on their own. But this also allowed bands to spent long hours together. Rehearsals stretched for entire days. Travel meant buses and second-class train journeys. “The bonding and all that we developed as a band in the ’90s is unparalleled even today,” Malik says.

That sense of continuity is one of the band’s defining strengths. While many of their contemporaries faded away, Parikrama endured and succeeded.

The wider rock scene, meanwhile, has undergone several cycles of popular­ity. For many fans, the 1990s and early 2000s represented a high point. College festivals regularly featured dedicated rock nights. Hostels echoed with the sounds of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, AC/DC and Metallica. By the early 2010s, electronic dance music, or EDM, had be­come the dominant attraction on many campuses, and rock appeared to retreat.

Malik acknowledges this decline but what interests him more is what has happened since. “Rock had its peakest of moments till the ’90s or early 2000s. It went down quite drastically. But it is making a huge comeback today.”

Malik’s optimism is based on what he sees and believes in. Parikrama has returned to college circuits after years of absence. Recent performances have drawn large audiences, and the band has several more college shows lined up.

This young profile was also part of the audience at The Piano Man. Alongside older fans, who have followed the band for decades, were younger listeners who discovered Parikrama through streaming platforms and social media videos.

Malik talks of this younger genera­tion with excitement and admiration. “Today we find great eight-year-olds, seven-year-olds, six-year-olds, 10-year-olds, kids playing guitars, drums, vocals. It’s phenomenal.” He attributes that shift to music schools, internet lessons, better equipment and greater acceptance from parents. In earlier decades, joining a rock band was often viewed with suspicion. Today, it is a legitimate pursuit.

The story of Parikrama over the last few years cannot be told without acknowledging loss. The death of guitarist Sonam Sherpa in 2020 was a devastating moment for the band. Balani speaks about the difficulty of continuing without him. Sherpa was not only a founding member but also a key creative force whose playing shaped many of the band’s best-known songs. “It was hard,” Balani says. “We’re still processing it in our own way.”

Remembering Sherpa, Malik recalls their late-night calls about songs under production. An idea discussed one eve­ning could become a near-complete song by the next morning. Sherpa’s speed and instinct as a musician left a lasting impres­sion on everyone around him.

A touching part of recent perfor­mances has involved Sherpa’s son Nathan, who has begun appearing on stage with Parikrama. At The Piano Man, he sang ‘But It Rained’, the band’s most popular song about the kidnapping of soldiers and tourists in Kashmir in 1995. The gesture reflected the band’s continu­ing relationship with Sherpa’s fam­ily and the determination to keep his memory woven into Parikrama’s story.

As the night at The Piano Man drew to a close, younger fans crowded the front of the stage during the heavier songs. Malik noticed. For someone who had been worrying about the future of rock music, the sight offered reassur­ance. “Rock and roll is here to stay,” he says. “It won’t go anywhere.”