The Birth of Billy Munro: Road to nowhere

Express News Service

Delhi-based indie act Mocaine’s newest challenge, The Birth of Billy Munro, is an formidable endeavor—the full-length idea album is accompanied by a 13,000-word novella and an upcoming brief movie.

“Around the beginning of 2020, I found myself in the midst of a world of change and inspiration. I had a narrative about a fictional author called Billy, his mental illnesses and his writing process. And I worked on a soundtrack for it,” says Amrit Mohan, the person behind the outfit.

​The 11-track album was launched earlier this month and is darkish and introspective. The album options drummer Varun Sood, producer Aman Arakh, and bassist Kabir Agarwal, who every carry their flavours to the challenge.

The album artwork by Neeti BanerjiWhat sparked the concept for the idea was Australian musician Nick Cave’s novel The Death of Bunny Munro, “Nick’s work was the first and biggest source of inspiration that accelerated the creation of Billy. After that, the story pretty much wrote itself,” says Mohan, whose earlier work consists of the 2018 EP Portrait of Dali. 

The artiste says that his music is impressed by rock and blues, and attracts closely from the sound of Seattle within the early ’90s. The album tells the story of the protagonist, Billy, combating together with his interior demons and eventually embracing who he’s. It begins with the track Billy, and takes us on a journey with tracks like Pistol Envy, Narcissus, Did You Kill All Those People, Mister? and Daylight Sheen.

The languid drawls, rock-adjacent drums, and heavy guitar riffs seize the Americana spirit that Mohan is impressed by. The ambiance created by the album is certainly one of thriller, chaos, violence and finally bleak acceptance.

Up subsequent, Mohan has huge plans: “This is just the first part of the Billy Munro universe. Aman and I are working on wrapping up the second part.”  Available on on-line streaming platforms