It was on UN World Peace Day, September 21, 2004, that Delhi-based fusion band Advaita took the stage for the very first time — at Venkateswara College. Twenty-one years later, on the same date in 2025, the eight-member band played to a packed house at The Piano Man in New Delhi’s Eldeco Centre, with fans grooving to their signature sound: A powerful blend of psychedelic textures and earthy Indian notes.
“The lineup has changed quite a lot since 2004, and it’s just two of us remaining: me and the keyboardist Anindo Bose,” says lead guitarist Abhishek Mathur. The current lineup also features Hindustani vocalist Ujwal Nagar, Western vocalist and guitarist Chayan Adhikari, bass guitarist Guarav Chintamani, Aman Singh on drums, Rohit Prasanna on flute, and Sarthak Pahwa on tabla and percussion.
A vibrant band culture
Advaita’s inception occurred when India’s band culture was vibrant, with bands such as Indian Ocean, Parikrama, Euphoria, Agam, and Silk Route, among others, enjoying a huge fan following, which they continue to do so, even if some of them have disbanded.
“When we started, there were a lot of avenues to perform, such as college festivals. There were platforms for semi-professional bands to play, kind of like an opening act before a bigger band’s performance,” says Mathur.
Despite performing for the first time in 2004, the group’s first album -- Grounded in Space – released only in 2009. It was followed by a second one – The Silent Sea – in 2012. A major breakthrough happened when Advaita was chosen, among the four bands, for a compilation album by English record producer John Leckie, who is known for his work with legends such as John Lennon, Pink Floyd, and Radiohead. Meanwhile, it kept featuring at Coke Studio and MTV Unplugged, and a song chosen in 2017 Bollywood film Wazir. “Things kept on happening,” says Mathur.
21 and strong
While the band performs fusion, with classical elements working in perfect tandem with the Western ones, such as their song ‘Ghir Ghir’, which had the audiences hooked at their performance at The Piano Man, the themes of the songs also come into play.
“Since we started, we have had a spiritual core. We wanted to create something introspective, almost philosophical. Somehow, that stayed as our core element,” says Mathur.
However, music sensibilities, just like in any art form, evolve during this period. “The way we express changed. While our earlier compositions had almost a romantic idealism, now they’re more realistic,” the artist says.
While the group hadn’t made a political point yet, that also changed in 2019 when it came out with ‘In the Air,’ on a qalam by Bulleh Shah, giving the message that, at the end, what’s inside the soul is what matters, and neither going to a mandir nor a masjid.
While the central theme has remained the same, it’s no small feat working in a group where everyone comes with a different personality and musical sensibilities. “We clicked exactly because of that, because we came with our different personalities. And since the start, we were a brand, and not a group where say the classical singer was restricted to just his part,” Mathur says.
Shrinking stages
It’s been 21 years, but the journey hasn’t been easy—especially now, “when the venues are shrinking. The Piano Man is one of the few who can still host larger bands. We’re constantly being asked if we can perform at smaller setups. Bands are also travelling less to other cities for gigs. Something in economics has changed,” says Mathur.
While these spaces were already shrinking, Covid dealt a major blow, forcing many venues to shut down and pushing several bands to smaller stages. Although social media and streaming platforms have made discovering new music easier, that doesn’t always translate into offline performance opportunities.
“We’ve kept our music careers going in other ways—teaching, performing in studios, and production,” says Mathur, adding, “It’s much tougher for younger bands today. The ones from our generation who have stayed afloat did so because core relationships were already established before all this happened.”
Reflecting on the past, Mathur notes there was a time when the band performed more frequently and the financial situation was better. But what has kept them going, you ask? “We do it for the love of it! There’s no better way to put it.”