The secret is.: Euphoria drummer Vishal Mehta on why the craze for Indie-pop band continues

When a doctor turned musician Palash Sen formed Euphoria in 1988 and released its debut album ‘Dhoom’, it became an anthem for music lovers. In 33 years, the band has not only given chart-topping tracks including ‘Dhoom Pichak Dhoom’, ‘Maeri’ and ‘Aana Meri Gully’ but is still considered as one of the most successful and highest-selling Indie-pop bands in India. 

So what’s the secret behind this popularity?

“The secret is, the love they get from the audience back, for their passion and honesty towards the work and the way they feel and connected to the audience through their songs. People wanted to hear us again and again whether they are of any age,” said Vishal Mehta, the drummer of the band. 

Before being a member and a drummer of the band, I would say that I’m also a fan of this epic band, he says.

“It’s definitely an emotion to one and all because the era when they had started in the ’90s, we were all like really sweet and small, and the songs they have created were all magical or I would say musical and emotional, which gets connected and stays somewhere as emotion as love in us (sic).

 “Like me being a drummer, I did hear their songs when I was a teenager, so it stood with me that way. And due to all of these reasons, people really want to listen and follow them now even, which is like a payoff to their hard work and honesty,” he said.

In the age and time when most of the popular songs are re-created, Mehta says that songs Euphoria created “tells you the whole journey, the emotions carry, of pure love and faith, hence felt and created once in a lifetime which happened years ago and can’t be repeated again.”

The Delhi based musician started his professional move at the age of 17 with Artist Unlimited (AU) from Delhi and has also started “Vishal Mehta Live” in 2015.

Now in the time when Mehta is focusing both as an independent musician vs mainstream musician, he says that his comfort lies in doing the former as it allows music to flow independently without any bounds. 

“Mainstream has its own benefits like it has more commercial value attached to it. Though It’s been more than 14 years since I have been drumming, I will also have to say that I have started playing with mainstream only because being a drummer you only get to play with a singer or in a band and all the bands majorly follow mainstream music to earn bread and butter so I also owe a lot to the mainstream,” he said.

In 2017, Mehta discovered his independent side as a drummer musician and released his first album ‘Alone’.

Talking about the inspiration behind writing an album being a drummer, he says, “Being a drummer, I would say, the process is driven rhythmically more with the composed melody. The weightage of the rhythm in the songs is as equal as what melody carries, but no one is empowering or dictating to each other. Also, in this way, I want to show and inspire people from my albums or my music that music should not be centered only around vocals or singers but it should be driven content-wise.

 “Here, I want to share that I’m coming with my new Album/EP ‘Only You’ in the coming month which is written, composed, and co-produced by me. I also collaborated with the master drummer Peter Szendőfi from Hungary (Budapest), Ashok Roy who also produced and played bass in the album, Pranab Pahwa on guitars (one song) and last but not least Nilanjana Ghosh Dastidhar on vocals who sang the whole album,” he said. 

Finally, music as a hobby has increased during the lockdown but for Mehta, it has benefited art in total.

“I would say Art has majorly taken its place due to pandemic as people are locked inside their homes due to lockdown and nothing to do majorly. People who are on regular jobs or who all are working from home have actually taken their hobbies seriously due to that. 

“Some of them have even converted into their passion and now doing it part-time or full time accordingly,” he sums up.