Antariksh and Marty Friedman come together for a “Quest”

Antariksh’s first release of 2021 Quest features one of the most iconic guitar players of world, Marty Friedman

One could say that the idea of Antariksh was born out of an experiment etched in desire. At the beginning of the second decade of 2000s the project’s founder and vocalist Varun Rajput along with his friends & former bandmates (Mridul and GT) felt the need to bridge the gap between their two favourite styles: progressive rock and Indian contemporary sounds in their mother tongue – Hindi. Coming from a Progressive Heavy Metal background, back then it was natural for them to want to reach more people with their prog rock musical sensibilities but not get limited by a language barrier.

Cut to the next decade, take it as a sign of the project’s evolution or the indie scenario in India opening up a fair bit, that Antariksh is now set out to embrace the multi-lingual tag, going forward.

The brainchild of Music composer, singer, and guitar player Varun Rajput, Antariksh is a premier Hindi-Rock act based out of New Delhi, India. Alongside Rajput, the line-up of the project – rated by MTV, as one of the best rock artists in India – includes Joshua Peter (Keyboards & Vocals), Dan Thomas (Drums) and Shrikant Biswakarma (Guitars).

Standing at the crossroad of some tasty melodies and spicy grooves, Antariksh creates a very fresh, and progressive sound borrowing nuances from Rock, Pop, Reggae, Carnatic, and Funk music presented in a cohesive, thematic and powerful manner.

Antariksh’s first release of 2021 Quest features one of the most iconic guitar players of world, Marty Friedman (also well known for his association with the Heavy Metal giants Megadeth). An out and out Progressive-Rock meets Fusion track, Quest is a dark, heavy and intricate song incorporating Carnatic music inspired guitar riffs and breakdowns, a hindustani sitar solo (Dhruv Bedi – Parikrama), and of course a mind blowing guitar solo section by guitar virtuoso Marty Friedman. The US-born, Japan-based artist is known as one of the most influential and respected guitar players of all times. The seed for the collaboration was sown when Rajput got a chance to meet Friedman at the Delhi airport, post the famed guitarist’s performance at Bacardi NH7 Weekender in Shillong, Meghalaya in 2019.

Conceptually, Quest touches on the topic of breaking the illusions of ‘me and mine’ that one lives with and gets attached to. The song has introspective lyrics (Hindi & English), questioning the true cause of our existence as humans, and how our ego, lust for money, power and greed make us feel separate from the world outside, while the world we see is not reality but a projection onto our consciousness.

Audio release: January 20th, 2021 which will be followed by an animated video in February 2021.