When we last spoke  to singer-songwriter  Siddharth Basrur about  his solo project, it was in the  middle of summer. Although it  hadn’t started raining in Mumbai  yet, Basrur – who is also the lead  vocalist of progressive metal  band Goddess Gagged – was  already under the influence of  rain, or at least a girl he refers to  as rain. She is also the subject  of his forthcoming album. “It’s  called Chasing Rain because  that’s how I started chasing her,  by writing songs about it,” said  Basrur, adding that that’s when he  realised how he felt about this girl. 

Mumbai audiences can also  get to feel the emotion when they  watch his performance at Blue  Frog this fortnight. He will be joined  on stage by his friend Jishnu Guha  on guitar, Adil Kurwa (of The Colour  Compound) on bass and Zain  Calcuttawala (of Spook) on drums.  If the preview of “Rain” on Basrur’s  Soundcloud page is anything to go  by, it will be a rollicking gig full of  songs with easy lyrics like,  “The thought of rain keeps me  smiling / The thought of rain  gets me high / The thought of rain  keeps me wanting more / The  thought of rain is a treat for  my mind”. 

Basrur plans to release a  limited number of CDs of the  album, complete with lyrics and  artwork that you can hold and  feel. The cover has been designed  by photographer Sukrit Nagaraj.  Basrur liked his watercolour-like  photographs so much that he used  one of Nagaraj’s photos as his  Twitter profile pic. 

The album is being produced  by long-time collaborator and  the much sought-after producer  Ayan De. He has also helped with  shooting the music video for the  song “Stay”. Catching the band  on video is a good thing, because  after this fortnight’s gig, guitarist  Guha and drummer Calcuttawala  will be leaving the country. Basrur  has a few ideas about who he  would like to ask to fill in after  they’re gone, but he wants those  musicians to hear them play first. 

Singer and multi-instrumentalist  Sidd Coutto and Basrur have  been working on some material  together, but Basrur said Coutto  probably won’t be one of the new  band members as he is also  busy with his second solo album.  Incidentally, Coutto’s first solo  effort Sunny Side Up was also  romantically driven, with songs  like “I Need You”, “Aim To Please”  and “Royal Family”. 

A female vocalist, whose name  Basrur had not decided when  we spoke to him, will be part of a  duet on Chasing Rain. “The whole  album is pretty mushy that way,”  he said. “I don’t think there’s  anything wrong with that.” We  don’t think so either, especially  since Basrur’s versatile voice hits  all the right notes, whether it’s on  an aggressive Goddess Gagged  song, a heartbreaking cover of  one of Adele’s hits or a happy ditty  about romancing “Rain”.  

Sid Basrur will perform with other musicians as part of a Tribute to Nirvana at Blue Frog on Tue Sept 18.