Indian Ocean back with its seventh album

After four years, one of the biggest rock bands of the country, Indian Ocean, is back with its seventh album, Tandanu. The album, that also marks the band’s 25th anniversary, carries on the tradition of including only seven songs.

After four years, one of the biggest rock bands of the country, Indian Ocean, is back with its seventh album, Tandanu. The album, that also marks the band’s 25th anniversary, carries on the tradition of including only seven songs.

"There’s no superstition to it. When we released our first album, it had seven songs. It was only when Kandisa (third album) was released that we realised all of our albums have seven songs. So this time, too, we thought of going with only seven songs," says Rahul Ram, bassist for the band.

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The band, that lost two of its original members, Asheem (who passed away in 2009) and Sushmit Sen (who quit the band in 2012), has collaborated with seven other artists for the latest album.

It includes ­collaboration with Bollywood ­musicians Shankar Mahadevan and Vishal Dadlani, who loved the idea when the band approached them.

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"The song that I have teamed up for is called Roday, and is about people who have been uprooted from their homes and forced to settle ­elsewhere. It found an immediate resonance ­with me and I knew that this was the perfect song for me. I’ve sung parts of it in Sindhi," says Dadlani.

"It’s been a great ­experience. I’d love to perform with Indian Ocean again," says Mahadevan.

The band is planning to release one song every week. The first song, Gar Ho Sake, will release on April 26, for which they collaborated with singer Shubha Mudgal.