Delhi folk rock band Indian Ocean's bassist Rahul Ram on giving away mp3s of their sixth album absolutely free

Delhi folk rock band Indian Ocean's bassist Rahul Ram on giving away mp3s of their sixth album absolutely free

ONE song a month. Seven songs in all, starting July. Most Indian Ocean fans, who made it to their sell-out shows in Mumbai last month and to their Baajaa Gaajaa appearance earlier this year know some of their new songs by rote. Bondhu, a Bengali ode about waiting for a friend's return (there's a terrible YouTube link of a mobile video, but the fact that it features the late Asheem Chakravarty's vocals turns the link into cyber gold) and six other tracks make it to the new album.

Named 16/330 Khajoor Road, after the address of the band's rehearsal pad, the new album is also Indian Ocean's voice against the system. "Even today we have hassles with music companies," says Indian Ocean bassist Rahul Ram, in a telephonic interview, "If you look at our income break-up, the royalty that we've received from our albums is maybe 1 to 1.5 per cent of our annual income (a measly 12 lakhs in the last 10 years) and we can dispense with that and give away our album free to our fans. They will only be MP3 downloads, we can't afford to giveaway .wav files, but at least, it's free." It's an album of mixed moods. Some tracks such as Chaand (a track made for a short film by Anurag Kashyap three years ago) have been salvaged from unreleased projects that may never see the light of day and some others like Sone Ki Nagri, the lyrics of which are fired by political activism, have already turned into concert hits.

The Delhi band has also drafted a revenue plan for the new album's release that will draw advertisers to cash in on the traffic on their website. "We have about 16,000 visitors spending an average of 3.5 minutes on our website every month. The figures jumped by four times when the film Leaving Home released," says Ram, adding that 16/330 Khajoor Road will also release in CD format that will include Chakravarty's last track, which was written for the soundtrack of the Aamir Khan production Peepli Live. In typical Indian Ocean character, Ram says: "We'll release this album even if we don't make a dime."

Fans have been ranting for long that they can't find the band's hit albums including Kandisa and Jhini at music stores. Indian Ocean also plans to set up an online store next month where all their albums will be available for sale.

In less than a month since Chakravarty succumbed to a cardiac arrest last December, the band pulled itself together and hit the road again. Soon, vocalist Himanshu Joshi and tabla player Tuhin Chakraborty were roped in as a part of the line-up. The band will leave for its America tour in August.