Bringing the extremes of music under one roof

Redemption brings together metal, electronic music, and a DJ together

Falah Faisal | NT

Bengaluru: has been known as the metal capital of the country and has produced some of the best-known acts in the country including Inner Sanctum, but over the last decade, that reputation has been waning as people have been more interested in electronic music and far more venues prefer DJs to having Rock music.

Junket is bringing together the best of both worlds for Redemption in a lineup that features metal bands like Inner Sanctum, Goatsmoke, and Mutiny, and pairs them up with electronic acts like Watashi and Chan.

Mikey, who runs Junket, when asked about the lineup says, “We are an agency that sticks to obscure sounds and artist development from scratch who focus on electronic music, but I personally am a metalhead and all our artists have some background in Rock. We felt that we wanted to unite people who listen to extreme styles of music that aren’t exactly commercial. People need to know about different sounds.”

Another reason to do so is to work around the restrictions around live music which does not allow bands to play beyond 10 pm, so instead of ending the gig early, they have chosen to add electronic music. Gaurav Basu has been the vocalist for Inner Sanctum since 2007 and has seen a lot of changes in the scene.

On what have been the major changes he says, “Back in the day there used to be a lot of competitions and battle of the bands that happened in colleges but that has declined. Now, things are a lot more professional, and playing gigs in the city, I am seeing a lot more new faces. Back in the day, I knew the entire front row by name but now more women are coming to metal gigs.”

“In the last two years the event industry has had a lot of challenges and needs to be as innovative as possible to survive,” he says when asked about the decision to mix metal with electronic music.

“We are looking to create a panIndia circuit. There are bands in Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad who can never come to Bangalore because just travel costs would be 50-60k. "But if we make a circuit the fanbase increases which will allow us to bring new acts to the city,” says Mikey.