Sunday 07 / July / 2024
A former resident of Oman has embarked on the next step of achieving superstardom as a rock musician after embarking on a 13-city tour across Asia with his band.
Prateek Rajagopal, an alumnus of Indian School Ghubra, is a composer, guitarist and producer for death metal band Gutslit, which was formed in 2007. Prateek joined the band in 2013 and has been part of the rise of the band.
He performed in Dubai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Kathmandu, Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila, Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, and Bangkok. Speaking exclusively to Times of Oman, Prateek shared his experiences of being on this tour, which began on September 21, and ended on October 7.
“It took a whole year to organise the tour. It was very cumbersome to organise because of so many countries, visas, routes, cost effectiveness and travel costs, making money, carrying merchandise and going very minimal on personal clothing. Everything from pre-planning and visas to the execution of the tour is stressful,” said Prateek.
“This is mainly because it’s a DIY tour with no label or management backing. It’s 98 per cent travelling and running around and stress and 2 per cent having fun, except on off days of course, which aren’t very common. This is pretty much some form of work mode we have to get into. All dates are mostly back-to-back with no time to breathe,” added.
Talking about their schedule Prateek said that the shows would often get over late and they had to catch early morning flights out every morning.
“So we’d been averaging on three hours of sleep. But honestly, it’s worth it. It’s for the future of the band and the feeling of playing cult music to a cult audience is very rewarding, because it’s so underground that people who come for our shows generally know who we are and know our songs,” said Prateek.
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The tour saw him hit 13 cities in 11 countries across 15 days, and Prateek was quick to single out his band mate who organised the tour for Gutslit.
“Our bassist and manager, Gurdip Singh Narang, is fully responsible for this tour,” he revealed. “He did everything while we were in limbo and although he was keeping us informed throughout, we were very skeptical about this tour because it’s completely new territory for a band like us. We’re not very big in Asia either, but there’s a novelty factor about a band like us playing this style of music.”
“A lot of things are about marketing and an ‘image’ these days, so seeing an Indian band with a turbaned bassist playing brutal death grind is always intriguing,” added Prateek.
They were travelling with a band from Germany called Stillbirth, who they had toured with before.
“They’re our great friends and have also worked a lot for this tour,” said Prateek. “We’d done a combination of old and new songs as always. We’re trying to focus on the new stuff because we’re on that touring cycle, but the old albums worked great live because of the grooves. So we can’t ignore those, people seem to love those equally.”
Although the turnout for Gutslit on tour has been great, it was still far short of classic forms of music.
“The turnout was fantastic,” said Prateek. “We were doing only club shows but have been averaging on 200 people every night. We’d sold out and reprinted merchandise already, too. So far so good. When we are on tour, we get to check out new cities, since we barely get to do that properly with our schedule. When on tour, we love to walk around, eat local food, check out the local culture, and hopefully get some sleep.”
“We’re living in an age where you can live your passion if you put your mind and soul to it,” said Prateek, when asked for advice on how to stay grounded and follow your passions. “There’s a market for mostly anything these days if you’re open minded enough and willing to take risks,” he said.
And what does the future hold for Prateek? For starters, he is focusing on his work so that he can support himself financially in the long-run.
“If someone’s passionate, it shows. They’ll go out of their way to get things done and make it work. You’ve got to be obsessed enough to not be afraid of failing or following a norm or being worried about money. I probably sound crazy, but it’s true.”
“Also, having a vision of who you are and where you want to be is very important,” he added.
“I only want to be the best in everything I do, so I work till I get recognised for being something and someone and then move to something else till the cycle repeats. I think I have 100 lifetimes more to be who I want to be, but until then, I’m okay with just working towards it,” he said.
