India prog/post-rock band CELESTIAL TEAPOT join us today for a special premiere and new EP presentation. “Perception” marks the follow-up to their 2015 debut One Big Sky, and revolves around the central theme of perception and how all the meanings we ascribe to things depends on your worldview.
“The songs try to empathise with people with sensory disorders and how they experience the world differently.” – explains the band.
“The 3 songs deal with 3 larger aspects of Perception of the outside world, Introception, the internal response of the outside world and the constant back and forth that someone with such a condition goes through. The broader concepts were established in the start and then the true story lines were inspired by a podcast called Twenty thousand hertz who have done phenomenal work in digging deeper into sound and everything around it. It is a must listen for anyone passionate about sound. The stories of the people there really resonated with us and we hope we can help spread the word and help more people be more aware of people who have a different view of the world.”
Learn more about the concept of ‘Perception’ through the track by track commentary below and our special in-depth story, told by the band themselves!
Misophonia
A disorder where certain sounds can elicit extreme reactions from people where they get angry, irritable and eventually anti social. We ‘try’ to understand the life and struggles of a protagonist suffering from this disorder. How he/she can first obsess over sounds that others around seem to have no problems with. The peace that may come with silence and being alone, and the downward spirals that may come with self sabotage that may come with incorrectly PERCEIVING the world.
Misophonia is an auditory processing disorder where certain trigger sounds can invoke very overwhelming , debilitating feelings. It is still being researched and the reasons are unknown. The song tries to follow a protagonist who suffers from this rare , mostly unknown disorder. Try to follow along and imagine what someone with this condition could be feeling when reacting to sounds that are mostly ignorable for the majority of people. The distress … the peace in silence and downward spirals from being disconnected to how others explain the world.
Defgain
The song follows a the contrast of the importance of sound and music for people who can hear versus those who cannot. Deaf people feel threatened by the technology that may allow them to start hearing. While a normal hearing person might think it’s ridiculous to reject a ‘life boost’ and functioning ‘normally’ , it actually threatens their way of life and communicating. Try to follow along and imagine a protagonist who is in tussle between hearing and not hearing. Hearing loss is actually deaf gain. Maybe they are used to the silence that ‘we’ can never PERCEIVE. We can never know.. We can just speculate…
Resolution
Sensory disorders generally put a dent in how we classify normalcy. People going through this generally have to keep having an inner dialogue of how to learn to live without it dictating their life. They eventually need to pick sides and come to a resolution in this internal debate. Try to understand how this dialogue would be extremely difficult and turbulent and what achieving clarity might feel like .
You’ve left a scar in me, your cheap triumphs
Trying to bring me down
Yes, this fight is all I can think about
Will it end with resolve or strike up an endless conflict?
I can’t find my rest
I’m on my wayI’m keeping up with the pace old friend
This mindset is deep rooted in me
Will this end with resolve or strike up an endless conflict?
I’m on my way to meet you again…and I can’t wait
Resolve or endless conflict
Celestial Teapot is a five-piece instrumental rock act from Pune, India.
“We released our debut album in December 2015 called ‘One Big Sky’ wherein we had the pleasure of collaborating with Marjana Semkina, vocalist of Russian Prog/Chamber duo ‘Iamthemorning’ on one of our songs called ‘Nacreous’. One Big Sky has received acclaim not only from the locals but a great deal from the overseas audience as well.” – comments the band.
“We were incredibly fortunate to have ‘One Big Sky’ featured & recommended by Ben Sharp (Cloudkicker) himself, on his Bandcamp page.”
“CT has been fortunate to have earned a spot and to have shared the stage with some stellar Indian and International acts such as Megadeth, The Wailers, Indus Creed, Skrat etc. at the 6th edition of Harley Rock Riders at Richardson Cruddas in Mumbai. To promote the album, we had an opportunity to tour with Delhi-based Post-Rock band Ioish, in Feb 2016. The tour comprised of five cities, namely: Pune, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai & Nashik and received tremendous support from crowds all over. CT also had a chance to play with Prog giants Coshish and Rainburn, supporting them at the Pune leg of ‘Progworks on Wheels’. CT did one more tour in February 2017 where we had a chance to play at International Music Festival (Bhubaneswar), Into the Void Festival (Rann of Kutch), Indigo Live (Bangalore), Zero Gravity Festival (Hampi), Blue Frog (Pune) and finishing the tour at Bandstand (Delhi).”
“CT recently had a chance to play alongside Prog/Metal giants Skyharbor at Euriska(Pune) for their last Indian Tour.”
The band released a single called ‘Lumens‘ in September 2017.
“We were really happy that the song was appreciated worldwide.” – they add.
“A lot changed from when we recorded ‘Lumens’ about a year before we started writing and recording this EP.” – says the band.
“The line-up changed with Robin replacing Nishant on guitars and Anubhav coming in on Keys to add a new element to the sound. Compared to OBS, we had a lot more experience and understanding in the field of recording and engineering music, with Tushar and Kartikeya interning at Gray Spark Audio, the studio where all of our material until now has been recorded.”
The inclusion of Robin and Anubhav opened up new avenues not just in terms of an additional instrument, but in paving a more structured direction to writing with their theoretical knowledge of music. “OBS, in comparison, had a free-flowing and simplistic approach.” – comments the band.
Asked to give us some more details behind the conception of the new record and its creative process, CELESTIAL TEAPOT continued: “The EP was recorded on a tight schedule as Tushar was slated to leave for Denmark in August 2018 for his post-grad studies. So from Feb – August, writing and producing went on till the last day, with some final parts for Resolution having been written about 4 hours before the recording. This was a result of a number of late night jams which were juggled with day jobs (normal routine for a musician these days) with some midnight chai and donuts. The EP was recorded in 2 weeks in intensive sessions. We also experimented quite a bit with gear from various sources and tried new ways of recording guitar and drums.”
“This EP was always meant to present a new side of CT with the inclusion of new members and a new sound in general.” – they comtinue. “We also approached this EP as a test bed for a new approach to writing conceptually stronger songs. Although all songs were closet riffs tucked away in the past, Tushar already had a storyline built around the concept of the album and we tried to serve the meaning as much as possible while developing these tracks. We’re definitely loving this approach and consider it as a challenge to deliver more meaningful performances. We’re learning and believe this is a step in the right direction.”
“A lot was planned for this EP e.g. crowdfunding the album, documenting the entire process through video etc. But unfortunately, none of it came to fruition.”
“The EP was recorded at Gray spark Audio, Pune. The recording was engineered by Nitin M. Krishna who has a lot of great new artists and albums under his belt. A lot of experimentation with recording processes was something that we wanted to do and actively spent time on getting the best possible sound. A lot of friends helped us in getting more gear to experiment with and lead us out of our comfort zones.
Mixing duties were handled by Ronak Runwal, who, apart from Harshad Sathe who mixed our debut, has been our go to engineer. He also mixed our single in 2017 ,’Lumens’ and got us the sound we all wanted. A familiar face also added confidence for us after the experimental recording phase. The end result was perfect and we couldn’t be happier.”
Mastering was done by the band’s very own guitar player, Kartikeya Dixit, who has been honing his craft and making waves at Berklee College of music in Valencia and, as the band claims, “did a phenomenal job at it in a very tight timeline.”
Celestial Teapot was fortunate enough to play as a part of BYOH Live, a live studio session experience where an artist perform for an audience while recording inside a studio:
In January 2020, the band played a DIY underground gig alongside two locals bands A Mutual Question & The Reasonable Hope.
“We also had the honour to open for UK Metallers Monuments towards the end of the January being a part of their last Indian Tour.”
The band started with Ashwin , Kartikeya, Nishant and Tushar in 2012 and took substantial time to get in ‘groove’.
“We were mostly new and clueless musicians and we were learning things along the way.” – reveals the band. “The first album was pretty much a stepping stone to making music seriously. It went from just us having fun at jams, to trying vocalists and eventually really knowing each other and bonding over making instrumental songs. There were few if any instrumental acts around and it certainly was a choice that was questioned often. It was a steep jump in learning and experiences as a band. We stopped being a run of the mill battle of the bands participant to making music that people including us could get on board with.”
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑛𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑒𝑤 𝑔𝑖𝑔𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦.
“We made the best of what we got but it was also around the time that a lot of us were graduating and deciding on what would be the thing that puts food on the table. This led to some break time and the departure of Nishant to Europe to study in 2017, ‘Lumens’ being the last song with his creative involvement.”
“Replacing Nishant was no easy task and Robin joined in 2018 and we couldn’t be happier. He swiftly learned all the songs and also understood the essence of composing the CT way, which is albeit random and chaotic. But his calm presence in the room was a big help moving forward. Following this Anubhav, joined us for a few jams with his piano and keys and it was a welcome addition to the sound. With this revamped lineup and a tight schedule (as Tushar was leaving for higher education as well by end of 2018), work on the EP began and within 6 months, the conception based on Ashwin’s design idea of the album formed the core of the album. Jamming back and forth, the composition went up until the night before entering the studio and was recorded. Since then it has taken some time to get to production and acquiring necessary funds and a year and half later we have the EP ready to go.”
“The EP marks a major change in the band philosophy, of making stronger storylines and collaborating online. We are now 6 members strong with Nishant coming back in the fray and also lending some guitar layers on Perception. With the addition of new members , both due to need and circumstance, we have begun working on new songs and hope to release something, perhaps a full album in the coming year or two. We prefer to take our own sweet time and would be still following the slightly old school model of releasing songs with substantial gaps and internal iterations.”
Asked about their take on the live shows situation and the tragic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on music community, the band offered the following:
“The live situation is complicated. We have a lot of friends who are extremely capable musicians in India and will be handling the live duties in India. If post Covid we can plan something in Europe we could possibly see all the 6 members on stage together. It’s a big “If” but also a very inspiring prospect to look forward to.”
“With the current scenario with Covid 19 it is difficult to to plan tours ahead. Although with members being now spread across India and EU, once the world resumes to normal, we would definitely like to delve into a full fledged tour, probably overseas.”
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑐 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔, 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ.
“Music helps, but the lack of concerts and the state of the music industry is disheartening. We can just hope it gets better soon. The artists across the world are suffering and few nations have support for artists in these times. It’s scary to think the suffering might also turn away potentially great artists from picking up instruments and making music. Let’s hope the world can heal from all the deaths and sadness. Its also hoping that people can look at the fragility of life and help each other even though it seems the world is way more polarised than ever.”
𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑦𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑠.
“The protests really exemplify all the voices that have been quashed all over the world throughout history.” – says the band. “It seems like a start of the world waking up following the example in the U.S.A and make the world a better place through long arduous fights. It also breaks the image of America being a perfect land of opportunities that the rest of the world had been sold on. Let’s hope the momentum can help people rise against injustice and bigotry all over the world, without it being used as just a tool for elections and brings about real change.”
To conclude, we asked the band to give us their playlist of most inspiring and influential tracks, and they were so kind to make a deeper dive into what makes each of them make music. Here’s the massive 125+ tracks playlist for your listening pleasure!
“This playlist contains all the songs we grew up on. Each member has added their songs. And each list ends with A CT song. Have a good listen”
