Band of the month
ANTARIKSH
Answered by
VARUN RAJPUT ( VR ) COMPOSER , VOCALIST , GUITAR PLAYER & FOUNDER
Q 1 . Congratulations on your big win at the start of the year . Tell us how your collaboration with the legendary Marty Friedman happened .
VR : Thank you so much ! Well , now when I can reflect on it I think the collaboration with Marty happened in a really unique , interesting and almost a bizarre way if you will . I was playing with Antariksh on Day 1 of the Bacardi
NH7 Weekender Festival in Shillong in November 2019 . I stayed back on Day
2 of the festival to watch Marty , who was the headliner on the second day . I ’ d been a huge fan of his playing all these years , but when I saw him play live , I was completely blown away and literally in trance hearing his incredibly fierce , intentful and almost magical guitar playing and compositions . Who would have thought , when we ’ d be returning to Delhi the next day , we ’ d find Marty sitting two rows ahead of us in the aircraft . I went up to him and introduced myself when we landed at the Delhi airport and spoke to him about some of his recent music , his collaborations with Skyharbor and how I used to swear by his guitar instructional DVD , ‘ Melodic Control ’ back in the days . After watching him play the previous night , all I could think was about asking him if we could have him play on our song Quest , which we were in the process of recording at that point in time .
The Score Magazine
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Once he got back to Japan , I wrote to Marty and sent him some of our existing music which he found really interesting and unique coming from an Indian act . It was when I sent him a demo of Quest , he agreed to hop in on the project . Coming to think of it , it really is one of those dream-come-true stories for sure . I mean , just watching your heroes play live and meeting them is a big enough thing , let alone have them play on your track - I am just ecstatic