Some bands are of the future, some are of the now and others are of the past. Madràs is most certainly a band of the now, but the catch is that they want to drag you into the past and remind you of the change and heartache that brought them to where they are now.
Jeevan and Mathew Antony are brothers who were born in and named their band after a town that doesn’t even exist anymore. The city of Madras is now called Chennai and has been since 1996, when it was changed as a part of the renaming the cities of India that started after the end of the British Imperial Period in1947 and continues to date.
When asked about the significance of a town they spent so litte time in, Jeevan says, “As with our music, most of our reasons tend to be very personal. Although we’re Indian, we’ve only spent a few years in India. This has often made us feel quite detached from our roots. However, every time we do go back, it is like we never left.”
When the name change happened, Jeevan and Mathew had already left Madras for Dubai, where they spent their formative years. But now, they are young adults living in Fort Worth, TX (a place I know as a layover to Indianapolis, IN) and suffering their first bouts with nostalgia. With a sound that is heavily influenced by folk singer-songwriters such as Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, Madràs adds a tinge of electronic/shoegaze atmosphere by using reverb-drenched guitars, samples, droning bass and hypnotic, yet distant, beats.
In their best effort, “Things Can Change”, you are immediately hit by a flood of reverbed-guitar ambience and a soft voice that doesn’t want to wake “her” up with his thoughts of the mistake he made with the right girl at the wrong time. She is the brightest light in his life, which is currently filled with darkness and self-doubt, not to mention a bleeding liver. But, as is most often the case, she is already wise to the truth as the singer states, “Things can change, I whispered without a smile. She said, ’It already did.’”
Their recent two song EP is nothing revelatory or new, but I’ve probably listened to it twenty times now and am not even close to stopping. You can download both tracks below. According to their PR machine/friend, they are “Working on their debut electronic release,” which is a pretty broad prospect. Hopefully it means the same kind of music with more of an electronic feel, rather than a downtempo response to Skrillex.
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Madràs – ”Older”’
Madràs – ”Things Can Change”
