When Swiss post-rock band Hubris made it down to India the first time in late 2019, they were sowing seeds that would hopefully let them come back, working with local promoters and largely with YouTube channel and platform WherePostRockDwells‘ India-based founder Supratik Sarthak aka Ronnie.
The band’s guitarist-composer (and manager/booking agent) Jonathan Hohl says, “When a show or a tour goes well, you always try to see if there’s a way to make it back – especially when it was financially viable and/or an exciting experience.” As it turns out, they were discussing with Ronnie as well as Pune-based Gaurav Tophakhane (a singer-songwriter and founder of OddPops Media) about coming back “as soon as possible.”
While the Covid-19 pandemic delayed those plans, Hubris are back in India starting November 29th in New Delhi, playing a four-city tour to promote their intense new album The One Above. The band – joined by Indian acts – will perform in New Delhi on November 29th, in Mumbai on November 30th, in Pune on December 1st and in Bengaluru on December 3rd. Hohl is all praise for Ronnie and Tophakhane for putting together these shows. “There’s absolutely no way on earth we would be able to come back to India if it weren’t for them,” he adds.
This time around, their album The One Above brings an even more intense edge to the instrumental act’s live shows. Made during the lockdown period in Switzerland, Hohl says performing the new album poses its own challenges, because it was not an outcome of jams as much as it was an exchange of ideas which then got arranged and recorded together. “What tends to happen is we never play these songs together until they’re actually released so once we release an album we basically have to find the way to play them live but most importantly do them justice by making them sound as good as the actual albums,” he adds.
He points to how “Of Light” is based on guitar loops and it made Hubris “rethink our entire rig.” He terms it a blessing in disguise. “We genuinely feel like our performances sound a lot better now than they did. We loop all the guitars live which adds a little bit of stress to the overall performance but it is so much more rewarding and it feels simply more real,” he adds. Expect those journeying songs that average at about 10 minutes from their albums Metempsychosis (2020), Apocryphal Gravity (2017) and Emersion (2015), plus a good amount of emphasis on The One Above.
Outside of the shows, Hohl is looking forward to feasting on local food, describing the time the band ate their first meal in New Delhi as “eye-opening.” He adds, “I just remember we were all just so shocked at how good something could taste. Tastes that we had never actually experienced before. Definitely hoping to get back to the same restaurant.”
Closing the year with this Asia run of shows, Hubris are plotting European tours in March and September next year, with an eye on making it to regions like China and Japan later next year. Hohl says, “I’m also currently composing the new album as it takes us about two years to produce an album in total. If we want to keep our rhythm of one album every two years, I better get going.”
Hubris India Tour 2023
November 29th – Saket Social, New Delhi w/Moli Gala Recording Co.
November 30th – antiSOCIAL, Mumbai w/Dirge
December 1st – Pune w/Lotus
December 3rd – Fandom at Gilly’s Redefined, Bengaluru w/Ihoera
Get tickets for New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune shows here and Hubris’ Bengaluru show here.
