‘The antithesis to Bollywood’

Pentagram’s Vishal Dadlani (of Vishal-Shekhar fame) calls band’s new album Bloodywood, a non-mainstream expression.

Indian electro-rockers, Pentagram is gearing up for the release of their fourth album, Bloodywood. It has been in the making for almost four years since their last, It’s OK, It’s All Good in 2007.

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Answering the obvious query that the album’s title invites, band member Vishal Dadlani says his day job as a Bollywood composer has nothing to do with it: “I’m tired of explaining this. It is not a Bollywood spoof. Bloodywood is the antithesis to mainstream. It represents all the non-mainstream artistic expression that’s silently bringing about a cultural revolution in the way India is seen and heard across the globe. Bloodywood is not Bollywood,” says Dadlani.

The 14-track album is perhaps their biggest sounding record so far. The songs range from their signature jump-around-vibe to even socially relevant topics. Mental zero… and In my head… are already gig favourites and have been played at the Invasion Festival, while opening for The Prodigy, amongst other concerts.

Radolph Correia, guitarist and co-songwriter, explains that Bloodywood was sonically and lyrically born in the band room: “I would just sit and compose a riff and play it to these guys. We’d add a loop and Vishal would pen down the lyrics. It has been a natural flow of composition for us.”

Dadlani calls the song writing process impromptu. “I remember for Nocturne…, which made for an episode of Penta TV, we jammed the riff and melody. A few days later, I penned down lyrics about not having slept the previous night,” says Dadlani, describing the grunge, high-energy track. “Whereas in other industries where we work, we break our head to ideas. Here its an outpour, we write what we feel like,” adds Correia.

Bloodywood tour starts at Hard Rock Café on March 22, before they head to Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and New Delhi.