Orkut was the way to success in their lives. It was the place where 3 youth became friends and shared their common interest and the only dream to make their name in the world of music. Later followed by the fourth and fifth member they formed a band with the name “Between the covers” , from writing lyrics to music composing and finally the performance every band member is master of their own job.
Recently, India’s reputed news channel NDTV invited these four on their program “Salaam Zindagi” with India’s some top bands like Bodhi Tree, Indian Ocean and Parikrama
About the Band : -
“Atheist Karma” is a Delhi based Hindi rock +pop band with primary focus on original compositions inspired by young lives!
Although a wholesome task in itself, the buck doesn’t stop here for Atheist Karma. Then comes in the task of making the compositions widely available to every individual by mean of performances, media and Internet.
Originals of Atheist Karma are very meaningful, talking about real life stories, drawing every listener to an instant connect the song and the band too.
The band looks at a wide spectrum for inspiration, covering every color of human emotion – from romance in midst of the push and pull of the day to the fire and fights amongst and within us humans.
The common factor in all songs is the sense of motivation, feel n freshness that rides of the band’s music.
Abhinav the lead vocalist and Nipun the lead guitarist of between the covers are invited on Orkut’s Hall of Fame community on orkut.com for an interview, both were pleased to answer some questions about their till now.
The name of the band Between The Covers has been changed to Atheist Karma formally by the band members. So, we are going to use the new name instead of Between The Covers, by which the band started performing.
Welcome to Orkut’s Hall of Fame and OrkutHeroes.com Abhinav and Nipun
Abhinav: Hey zazo it’s My Pleasure to be here. Thanks a lot 
Nipun: thank zazo for taking such an initiative of taking interview’s of people here at orkut….hats off to you brother….. \m/. I am sure this will further reduce d distance b/w ” A.K ” n the audience.
Please tell us the Atheist Karma’s Journey in your own words.
Abhinav: My Journey with Atheist Karma till now is been like a dream come true for me. There were times in my school and College days I dreamt of having my own band which can actually change the scenario of music Industry in India But still our Country audience has a long way to go to prefer music from bands rather than Bollywood numbers like other Countries. We all started Atheist Karma with the same motive to drive the audience move towards bands in India. And till now within a short span of time we have achieved a lot from the audience and expect the same in future too and the credit goes to all my band members who are working so hard along with me. Each and every member in Atheist Karma is a master of his Role.
Nipun Kohli (Lead guitarist )
It’s almost 2 years I am into this band But I still love watching the way he move his fingers while attempting Solo on his guitar like I used when I saw him playing on Day one.
Gourab Basu ( Composer and Rhythm Guitar)
He can be called as the most intelligent guy in this band…….and that’s what which makes him a amazing composer and a writer…….one of the best rhythm guitarist I have ever seen in my life.
Vaibhav Wadhwa ( Composer and drums)
A musician by heart
and a perfectionist through his talent………I mean this guy has a talent to play most of the instruments including guitar , synth, Drums and still deliver the best through all these instruments and guess what Vaibhav Is a amazing vocalist too……..Mann
Abhishek Basu (Bass Guitarist)
I can express Abhishek in three words
Guy with Attitude
He is true Rock star……..\m/
And My vocals would be always incomplete without his Bass tones…..
And when someone is singing with such members in the band the journey would definitely be Fantabulous and we all Promise to remain the cynosure for everyone in the audience.
Nipun: I guess this is the modesty of Abhinav, praising us so much….. but believe me guys he is 1 of the finest vocalist I’ve seen in my life. Abhinav is the guy who knows the magic of inducing life to our compositions…..
Well 4 the journey part : its not like our journey was easy, but I’ll still say it wasn’t that difficult as we thought, we all were together when difficulties came, we faced it, found a solution for it…. thus all obstacles were made easy to go through.
Our struggling days are still on…!! but I am sure “Atheist Karma” will overcome all obstacles, making it to the top, all we need is the support of u guys as we have got it till now.
How does the new name Atheist Karma came up, what’s so different in that?
Nipun: well zazo it was in September of 2007 when Abhinav, me and Gaurab decided to come together and go professional in music. Earlier every one of us was in music but we were not together. To go professional, we needed a name that represents us, and then from among many options we chose “Between The Covers”, proposed by Gaurab. Like no one can judge what’s inside the book from its cover… similarly our each song was like a chapter of that book, the book of life…But unfortunately this name” Between the covers” did not worked well and none of our listeners were able to figure out why we kept this name…. (Everyone has his own way of analyzing things.) We were looking for a new name then one day I proposed ” Karmoksh” it was fine.
It was 2 a.m in morning and Abhinav and me were discussing about the band through phone messages… and he suddenly said..” nipun, how is the name Atheist?”
By that time I had “karmoksh” in my mind…
I don’t know from where it just struck in my mind and I immediately messaged him ” how is Atheist Karma? ”
For 15 minutes he dint reply…. n I was wondering… till that time I was very happy with this name… I again messaged him…
” Abhinav, this is not just a name, its a concept… atheist stands for disbeliever of god and karma stands for the act we do…. our karma is to make music, make good music… ” and that was the moment I received a message back… Abhinav agreed, he was happy, very happy with the name we asked Gaurab and he was happy too…
Thus “Atheist Karma” originated
we are not disbeliever of god, we know blessings of almighty are equally important but as they say “God help those who help themselves…” we are doing justice to our karma
Abhinav: Hahaha! I went to my old days….dreaming
It was a wonderful day, actually that night we decided this name
Atheist karma. While I was wearing a t-shirt with a word atheist and I messaged him the name Atheist’s………..and he responded Atheist Karmaand here it reflects the concept similar to Buddhism that we should believe in doing good karmas and as Nipun stated God help those who help themselves I mean you cant ask God every time to fulfill your wish and you just sitting idle in your room watching TV enjoying the movie and to be one of the great band in the country we have to work hard and our good karmas is our good music. It keeps all of us motivated to work hard.
Woh kehte haina
jis tarah kehte haina ek insaan mein uske naam se milti julti qualities hoti hain……….same here too for our band
anyways even of Philosophical stuff………..
lemme stop here
What type of music you all love to play or have equally interested in?
Abhinav: Well Atheist Karma is a band which is made by the choice of the audience and is now there only for the audience
We stick to our genre which is Hindi rock……..but our compositions are such which our loved by the audience because we aim to deliver what is loved by the audience with changing times………and secondly we love to play what we want………..For example the song Har Kadam is a romantic song which can easily depict the situation of almost everyone who is in love and on the same side “har ghadi Imtehaan” is a song based on Life and whereas Yeh Sheher is a songs which reflects life of a metropolitan cities like Delhi.
Nipun: well I’ll say actually all of us have come from totally different music backgrounds:
Myself , metallica and other heavy metal stuff along with strings n jal
Abhinav, strings, Atif , Indian ocean , some rock stuff too..
Gaurav,selected bollywood and English rock songs.
For the compositions part… our self composed always aim at touching heart of our listeners… Originals of Atheist Karma are quite meaningful, talking about life as we all face it, with which all listeners can connect themselves and actually find their own life reflected in some or the other song by the band.
The band looks at a wide spectrum for inspiration, covering every color of human emotion – from romance in midst of the push and pull of the day to the fire and fights amongst and within us humans and the things that makes it possible to make such music is hours of hard work , motivation by audience n our different musical backgrounds which acts like icing on the cake and gives great variety to our compositions.
How was your first experience on stage? please tell us when and where you did you first Live Show?
Nipun: Well zazo this is one of our favorite questions…. whenever anyone asks me this question, it brings a smile on my face…. well our first performance was at Ahwaan film festival, Delhi…
I still remember it was around just 3 weeks that we were together and we got a gig to perform… we were not much prepared but still Abhinav, me and Gaurab took it as a challenge.
We performed there… 5 songs…. every song was appreciated and applause….
after the gig everyone there appreciated us a lot and that was the moment, we guys came to know that we were meant to perform together.
It was that day and till today we are together and make our each gig as memorable as our first gig..
and believe me I am still smiling while writing all this….
Music has a very old history in an Indian art and culture yet sometimes, it could not acceptable by our society if one took it Music as a career, mostly parents and relatives don’t agree with the children decisions. Did you all both (Abhinav& Nipun) have such problem? How did you solve it?
Nipun: well, a nice and a tough question.. you are right in this regard no matter how much talent anyone has, music and glamour field were and always remain risky… there is always an uncertainty of one’s success. Parents on the other hand want there children to have a nice career, every parent want his child to be a good manager drawing an handsome salary…. same problem came before us also…. but all hails to god ,we were clever, or you can say we had that wisdom…. we first fulfilled our society needs that were necessary for our survival…. if god forbidden our band doesn’t go well…. all of us have a back up….as in…. I am doing my engg. and MBA from a respectable good college , Abhinav is working with a reputed event management firm on a stable position and Gaurab is into his business doing well….. So it’s a very chilled out scene, at least for us…
but god is with us. Till now we have achieved much more than any band of our age our compositions are coming good and we are really looking forward to capture Indian music scenario.
Abhinav: Well Nipun has almost answered the same I want to add more to this that at one side our country is famous for it’s Culture which is attracting tourists and attention from all over the globe but I think it’s useless because majority of the people in our country don’t respect artists and on the same side people are crazy for bollywood, once you are working along with the bollywood you are a star in their eyes else you are just like another “vaila” person unless you make your own distinct identity and same is the case with the bands too. The idea of independent music is not much popular which is actually changing the scenario and it should be appreciated rather than listening to same bollywood numbers people must look out for good music available in the market which is actually much better most of the times than those same kind of bollywood numbers which actually become famous because of publicity and also due to same kind of competitions. The fact is there is a huge number of good artists in the country and everybody don’t get a chance to showcase his talent in a movies which is actually discouraging people say artist has to struggle a lot the question goes to them WHY? When he is ready to give his best shot why he should struggle? And the only answer is that he don’t have opportunities in the country which have a vast culture and it can surely become ocean of opportunities only when it’s starts getting appreciated by people themselves. I think my point is very much clear.
How you got a chance on NDTV? I think that was your first appearance to the whole nation. What was your all reaction when you got this news on coming up on such a respected and India’s one of the most genuine news channel?
Nipun: Well actually it was through a passed out senior and a friend of Abhinav .Actually when Swarlipi (from team NDTV n Abhinav’s senior ) saw us performing at one of our gigs, she was really impressed…. that day she told us ” you guys have the potential, and stand a chance to be one of the finest band of India..” At that gig everyone praised us, so we were kind of normal but we were surprised when after 6-7 months she gave us a call and said… ” guys I want you to invite for a prime time show, Salaam Zindagi... you guys will have to give an interview along with Indian Ocean, Bhoditree and Parikrama…..”
That was the day when we actually realized that yes we have achieved something… and we were really happy, on the day of interview it was very different from our usual life… all hail to NDTV team it was the first time when we felt like a celebrity… again all thanks goes to NDTV team. it was a team of youngsters sharing the same stage as Indian Ocean and Parikrama…it was one day that we will never forget in our lives…
rest everyone saw the interview the whole nation saw it….
the journey of ” Atheist Karma” has just began… we were also called by the Fm 104.8 for an interview just few days back….. and we gave a live interview for Delhi.
Abhinav: Exactly, Nipun said it right, It’s just a beginning and we have lot more in store for our band, we have planned so many things which will be very exciting for the audience and we are adding perfection to our compositions but thanks to NDTV always for that interview. I always think that people get what they actually deserve for their talent and we all are waiting for what more it has to come.
And guess what, we have long lives I think, we were there in CP(Connaught place) at same time and same place a day before the blasts.
From the side of whole band
Atheist Karma prays for the survivors in the hospitals and may god bless the families of one’s who have lost their lives in the blasts………….
May god bless our nation with love all around.
From last some years reality shows are really making a good place on television, also giving so many opportunities for youth, did you ever try to get into it for a way to enter? or do you think that there should be a reality show also for independent and new bands?
Abhinav: Yes the Concept of reality shows are really getting popular these days and artists are getting chance to prove their worth on television and such acts should surely be promoted to encourage talents and for the bands in India yes, there are Competitions for bands but still there’s a reality show to come on television left the idea will be very good like we can say if a interview on NDTV made us so popular than a band on reality show can become much more popular and I think it’ll soon come out and we should have more movies like ROCK ON to create awareness among audience but I still think for new bands it would help if people are aware of using internet options to listen to their music.
Since the trend of Punjabi pop music started we saw many new singers are going for an album, even re-mixing is quite in fashion too. How tough is to get the best place among so many competitors? Are you going to launch an album too?
Abhinav: In my opinion every genre has it’s different identity and space among the audience and at times some genres are very popular and other’s are not as it depends upon the majority of lover’s of that genre, our genre is Hindi rock which is different from all those and rock has it’s own unique place and is getting much popular among the audience. We never considered the others as our competitors as the sole aim is to create good music which should be loved by the audience It can be either our band or any other band or musician if you produce good stuff than others, you’ll definitely be on top so all bands are working towards a same goal which is ‘good music”. And yes we do have a plan of launching our first album very soon by next year.
(Will send you a complimentary copy) so that we can reach more number of audience and music will be available on websites also.
Well thanks Abhinav for the promise I would love to hear from you, coming to my next question, every musician has a teacher or an idol whom he/she follows all his life, who is your idol? And why?
Abhinav: Everybody has their own idol. The statement is true to some extent.
I am inspired by lots of people with their different qualities and strengths there’s no single person whom I admire and I think your idol can be anyone it can either be a 8 year old boy or a 80 year’s old man and others may have different opinion.
What would you suggest to new upcoming band or independent musicians who want to make their career in music, from your experience and journey of struggle till now what best advice you can give to them?
Abhinav: hey this one is difficult for me but I guess there can be two beautiful sentence for any individual in this world.
Live your Dream and make your weakness your only strength.
Love people and be yourself.
Worship your work and you’ll definitely be rewarded.
For Independent musicians: Being a independent musicians it’s just like being another business men, you can create whatever you want and the power lies in your hands when people love your creation that feeling is 10 times better than getting awarded in any bollywood awards…..So put your heart and soul into it …..with the feeling that this creation of music will be like for Example – your own baby……….
Regards
Atheist Karma
Thanks a lot Abhinav and Nipun for giving your time and making it a successful piece of conversation. I wish you all the luck and fame in your coming days and months and years. Hope to get a first music CDs of yours soon
Nipun: It was our pleasure
hey zazo…. this actually has to be our lines….
I want to thank you on behalf of my band from bottom of my heart, not only for taking our interview but for the job of interview’s you are pursuing here at orkut…
I think utilisation of orkut can’t be better than this……
kudos to you brother…!!!
god bless all….!!
thanks again
- Nipun kohli
{ 9 comments }
awsome job man!!!
Very nice post!!
Congratulation for your good post.
Well i need not to speak anything coz good things speak out for themselve.
All i have is …Congratulations
Keep the Good Work up..
Cheers!!
Karamveer
This dude Nipun is in my college !! kamaal hai nipun i didnt know you played that well
I was in one of their Gigs, they totally ROCCCCCKKKKKKKKKED . The “i.awesome” vocals and guitar combination was good enough.. Though i m not a professional ,but i think If you all could put more effort and s**_it_up, Atheist Karma could go international, and who knows, if one worldspace , i might listen ” Atheist Karma ” from india here in .. LIVE !! Best of luck you guys.. And seriously i loved the name *Atheist Karma*. Totally sensed me out. \m/
AKarma’s Fan
THANX A LOT GUYS 4 UR SUPPORT….
V’LL TRY OUR BEST TO SERVE U EVEN BETTER WITH MORE MELO. ,BETTER LYRICS N MORE HEART TOUCHING GUITAR RIFFS…
LUV U OL…
NIPUN KOHLI,
“ATHEIST KARMA..”
ROCK EM….\,,/
Great work dude! Keep rocking!!
I must say..I was there in their gigs in IIT roorkee
This band truly rocks ………it was the best of 5 bands in final……….
and their own composition Har kadam is truly amazing i have heard it on internet about 50 times……
you guys really rock
your fan Ankita,Dehradun
Hey Nipun, I never knew u’ll go so far.
u never told me about this.
keep it up nipun.
- raghav singh
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