By Arushee Sharma, Batch of 2019
“Oh banjare,
Sunni woh manzil, tujhe pukare,
Oh ruk ja re,
Befikre tu hoke mere sang hamare”
Inderpreet Singh is the vocalist of a psychedelic rock band Faridkot, which has been hailed as one of the foremost original Hindi pop-rock bands in the nation. IP Singh, as he’s fondly called, is also a pass-out from the MPAE branch of NSIT. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Q. The music you make is mostly an amalgamation of blues and guitar of harmonic romantic melodies. Why do you call it the ‘Confused Pop’; don’t you want a specific genre?
A. No, we don’t like the concept of sticking to a genre. We hate the “aap aise sangeet banate ho, aap waise banate ho”, and we don’t understand genre. My partner Raj and I are self-sticking; we just want to make every type of music and make it in a pop music form.
Q. Did NSIT help you in honing your skills in any way?
A. Of course! You know, being in MPAE, I had a lot of time to focus on extracurricular. However, more than anything else, the college gave me some lifelong friends and that’ll always be special to me. I met so many different people from so many new places and we had some great teachers like PRK sir and Parmar sir.I was just talking to Parmar sir and he’s such a warm person. I remember, in our last class in 2007, he came up to us and said “Children, this is the last lecture and you should learn two things in life— You should always be faithful to your partner and always brush your teeth before sleeping because you won’t get back either of the two.” I think the campus gave us the space to go out and explore opportunities.
Q. When you’re making music for your audience, what kind of thematic ideas do you have or wish to inculcate in your music?
A. There are no set thematic ideas that we think of other than the idea to sing from the soul. The motive is to say what we want to say in a way that people can receive well because it’s often hard to get to people.
Q. During your initial days at NSIT, did you think you’d take the road less travelled and get into something non-engineering at all?
A. I was always into singing. Nevertheless, my aim was to do engineering and MBA, and start a life. However, in second year of college, while I was doing an internship in core, I joined a singing group. In the group, a bunch of 80 musicians got together and organised a music festival. At that time, all I could think of was, “yeh nahi ho paega.” So, I decided that this (music) is what I want to do. I haven’t looked back since.
Q. What would you tell others like you in college who are not so bent towards engineering and are more inclined towards pursuing their passion?
A. Don’t fail in any of your exams. If you really are passionate about something, start reading up on it. Start meeting people from that industry and get a ground reality check because it’s a tough world out there. Be absolutely sure about your decision. The journey to your passion is an enriching one. Just relax and don’t take things too seriously; enjoy college because this won’t come back.
Q. What are you looking forward to right now, personally?
A. I think I want to lose some weight; the bathroom mirror is a brutal reality. I want to keep making music and I’m also trying to write some scripts. My ultimate plan is to play a getaway driver in a bank-robbing film. I want to start dancing. I want to start painting. Mainly, I just want to keep making music and releasing new stuff.