A deep conversation/QnA series with the one-man army — Rijul Victor // Producer / Drummer — The Showrunners exclusive pick of the week
I’ve bumped into Rijul every single time whenever I’m attending any gig in Delhi. He has been completely invested in the music scene since I know him. From organizing DIY gigs to taking over the production duties and getting things done, Rijul has been completely standing apart as an inspiration. I had the opportunity to share the stage with him a few times and the way he likes to work it out is remarkable. Last time when I saw him slamming it out at Magnetic fields, it was a proud moment. No doubt it’s been a long journey and it’s my utmost pleasure to be having a wonderful conversation with the man himself.
Let’s begin!!
1. Tell us about how did you start getting into music and how did you choose drums as your instrument?
I was exposed to a lot of music at a young age in church & see my grandma sing all the time, a few of my elder cousins were really talented instrumentalist or singers. That was having its subconscious impact on me and later has translated to me pursuing music full-time.
I didn’t choose drums,the drums chose me, no matter how cliche’ it sounds. I knew a beat or 2 but during some competition in grade 8 or 9 this fuckall band couldn’t find a drummer so they picked this junior(that was me) who could play literally 2 beats, and that was better than anything available, haha! So thats how it started, then my music teacher in school maybe seeing I had a knack for learning quick, he pushed me towards bettering my skills.
2. How was the experience of several band competitions, the hustle of DIY gigs, and getting your music out there? How did it affect your musicianship?
The concept of competing was engraved in my system since the school band days to later competing at college level, this quite seriously had the biggest positive impact as one pushed themselves to get as good as they could at what they did, the pursuit of winning pushed us to sweat it out on our instruments, at least in my case,haha!
DIY gigs to putting your music out there all sort of went hand in hand, if you’d win a lot, people tend to get curious, and that translates into them knowing you, all of that keeps people curious about your music, so its all interconnected. Do well at something and it trickles down to peoples curiosity of your music. The process to get the music out there makes me super vulnerable still, but its a life long process.
Colossal Figures is Govind Marodia (Vocals), Karan Mehta (Guitar), Saksham Gupta (Guitar), Karsan Chaudhary (Bass), Rijul Victor (Drums)
3. How did colossal figures happened and the entire songwriting process? What were your influences back then?
The boys were looking for drummers in the City, and my name popped up as I had a name through the school circuit. I was basically filling in for a gig and it kinda clicked, i liked the guys, the vocalist (Govind) was fucking dope, that surprised me as most metal vox sucked.
Man entire song writing process will take 2 pages to discuss but in short, in the initial days we went down the classic route of people coming with some riffs at home and then jamming it out in a jampad to cook parts around it to make a song. That eventually changed when technology kicked in, we started writing/recording more complex bits on DAW’s after we learned Meshuggah did so as well. This enabled us to compose complex pieces and review them without all of us having to learn. So this process was adopted entirely whilst writing the album. Basically, I’ll program a fucked up beat and Saksham would be chilling, then I’d pass the baton to him and he’ll be at my studio working on sick riffs on that beat, and then we’ll check it out,edit/fix things and make parts around it and then make sense of it when structuring this.
This may seem extensive but the the results speak louder than words.
Ofcourse, I was listening to a lot of Metal such as Meshuggah, Intronaut, Karnivool as our favourite ones. Periphery, Tesseract, Animals as leaders had also released its debut album around that time but some interesting electronic music had also entered my life too by friends sharing/exchanging music back then, they were some serious pirates. The acts i was listening to were- The Flashbulb, Entheogenic, Carbon based lifeforms, Mythematica, Infected mushroom, Shpongle to name a few.
4. Tell us about how Corridors started off? What is your songwriting approach to it? How did you get into electronic music?
I officially started it post Govind’s death, but around the year 2010-13 I would often dabble with some cheesy “EDM” and later laugh at it, but that skill started to develop at parallel with producing Colossal Figures album which also influenced my tastes during sound design sessions that were the “background” to our heavy chaotic sound. Layering those elements made me and Saksham (Zenguin) dive kinda deeper than ever to understand that this midi and electronic synthesis world was fucking massive and no fucking joke.
Compared to a lot of peeps in the Industry I was exposed to this quite late which i later learnt but whatever, but late than never.
5. What do you promote through your music? How do “YOU” define "Music”?
I don’t think there is anything specific I’m “promoting”, but there seems to be a link to life’s pervasive existentialism and how one feels lost or clueless at deeper levels of retrospection, the music tends to reflect that in most cases, a melancholic state of being, not sad neither happy, slightly tense but also giving hope. I tend to mostly channel these emotions as this is a state I’m kind of perpetually in.
Define Music? ummmm very tricky! I think the answer is absolutely subjective to who perceives it as, For me its my life’s purpose, my calling, my past, present and my future, Music is a soundtrack to life, where Im trying to paint my part of silence to the best of my ability. Music is to me what oxygen is to life, its a metaphor that can be anything or everything and maybe for some, nothing. But for me its what I know life as and from. It’s value in my life is, I don’t know if I can put it in words, maybe I kind of already have! :)
6. Being an independent artist, how difficult is it to survive and earn a living out of it while considering the fact that there are numerous amount of acts walking the same road? A reality check?
Man its tough, its really tough! If I hadn’t had the support of my family I wouldn’t have been able to maybe put food on the table for a long time if that was the case. Its really hard to make a living during the initial years of extreme struggle, now here’s hoping if you’ve done well for yourself at the least to begin with, and can now earn a respectable amount.
Multiple musicians choose different goals in order to do this, some reply on creating “original” content and some make more bucks by playing pop covers, you gotta go what you gotta do to keep the boat sailing.
It used to initially make me nervous and insecure when you know millions are trying to do what you are, but after years of contemplating and looking at everything from a deeper perspective I’ve figured that if a musician’s pursuit is to find his or her sound, now it is in this very pursuit I’m on, so the insecurity don’t bother me whatsoever as my goals are different now.
7. Any 10 albums you would recommend? Tell us about your past and upcoming collaborations?
Karnivool - Sound awake
Colossal Figures - Clockwork Dilation
Tesseract - Concealing Fate
Meshuggah - Nothing
Blackfield - Blackfield
Flashbulb - Kilrlian Selections
Mythematica - Mythematica
Skee mask - Compro
Burial - Untrue
Moderat - Moderat
I’ve Collaborated with a lot of people in the past but have not released any yet so can’t talk about it, but my debut track “April flows” featuring Nisa has done pretty well according to spotify with 160,000 hits. Info on future collaborations is sadly something I can’t talk about as a lot isn’t concrete at the moment.
8. Your favorite Indian artists who you would like recommend?
(In alphabetical order)
Ape Echoes, Cinema of excess, Disco puppet, Drum ani Bass, Echofloat, Flux Vortex, Film, Hedrun, Komorebi, Lacuna, Manikaant Suryan,Mindflew, Monophonik, Moscillator, Oceantied, Oort, Pacifist, Park Circus, Pulpy Shilpy, _rhl, Rounak Maiti, Seedhe Maut, Three Oscillators, Vir RC, Yung Raj.
The list can go on mate
9. What do you think about the current state of the music scene in India? How good or bad is it? What do you think can be improved?
At present we are ALL FUCKED! The scene is still growing. Before the pandemic, We were growing faster than ever, better music, better avenues, they are very few still but growing. We need to be unified against cunning and fake ass “promoters” and shady venues who are basically con men and organisations.
The artists needed to be safeguarded legally, Someone needs to spearhead this keeping the interest of artists at priority.
10. Last question, What advice would you like to give to the upcoming independent musicians in India? How important is honesty with music? What one should do before coming out as an artist?
This path is probably the hardest and there is no overnight success even if you are a prodigy. There are no shortcuts unless your folks are tycoons and you utilise their resources but the world knows and will call you out. Honesty is all you have if you believe in creative expression & everything else falls outside of it and is not of any importance to me.
People consume excellent material and they consume absolute garbage, there are takers for both, the call is always on you, if you can see yourself in the mirror and be proud of what you do, then do what feels right.
Before battle, you train and prep your body and mind, one needs to do the same. Get your shit together to at least some level, DO YOUR HOMEWORK, learn and advance as you go. Since you will learn till the day you die, so die trying. The more you put in, that much you’ll reap, The Universe and God has its ways to make it happen for you. It’s hard af but not impossible. When you go in, go all in and don’t fucking ever look back, don’t quit. And if its getting really hard, don’t be afraid to talk and to rest, you can burnout so take care of your mental health, ITS NOT A FUCKING JOKE!
Rijul victor is a New Delhi based musician, producer, drummer, and multi-instrumentalist. He’s been involved and invested in the Delhi based Metal act — Colossal Figures as a Drummer and Solo Experimental Electronic act — Corridors as a Composer/Producer. He has caught the attention of the alternative music culture in India with his immersive music, leading him to support international legends such as Tel Aviv, RP Boo, The Buttering trio (Tel Aviv) & Mount Kimbie to name a few.
Rijul has performed in many venues and various big festivals such as Bud X Boiler Room Delhi, NH7 weekender Pune, Magnetic fields festival, Control Alt Delete festival.
Follow him on social media by clicking the links mentioned below.
FB — https://www.facebook.com/rijul.victor
IG — https://www.instagram.com/rijul_victor
So that’s it for today. See you next time with another amazing musician in the next edition of the Showrunners exclusive pick of the week.
Mohan Kumar