Rohan’s putting on a new set of D’Addario strings on the acoustic, Aditya’s petting the neighbourhood dog and recording him on the Handycam, and Bradley and Adil are setting up their amps & pedals. There’s a mosque nearby, because of which they need to wrap up their sound check before the evening call for prayer. Bradley pips happily about not getting a shock when he touched the mic just before The Colour Compound gets in to action! (He’s had a few bad experiences on stage previously).

The four guys take their seats around a table, sharing a smoke and anda pav. Rohan still has one of his sleeves pulled up till the shoulder. It seems he’s more comfortable on stage in a gunjee as one can see in their YouTube videos.

The Colour Compound is about a year old now, with a varying set list of 23 originals that they have been playing mostly in Mumbai (Blue Frog, The Hanging Gardens, you get the drift). The gig at High Spirits recently, was their second gig in Pune and the only time they’ve travelled out of Maharashtra for a gig was to Goa. Though they don’t regret the Goa gigs, they had to miss out on playing at NH7 because of that booking. However, they did come back with some worthy memories of spending time in the attic and enjoying the ‘view.’

Though the group is influenced by the likes of Incubus, Matchbox Twenty, Mute Math and The Reign of Kindo, when you watch Bradley (Vocals, Guitars) sing, his face contours and voice modulations are reminiscent of John Mayer. Armed with an impressive line-up of pedals and two Fenders, this 22-year-old was earlier with Thrice9. Just like him, the others also have past experience with prominent bands. Rohan (Vocals, Guitars) used to play with Something Relevant, Adil (Bass) played with Mumbai-based The SOS and Aditya still plays the drums for Rosemary on and off.

From being called Hollow Bodies during their college days, to each moving on to a separate band and now back, to a fan, it probably seems that Rohan’s moving out from Something Relevant might be a regretful decision, especially since Something Relevant has an album out and has not only been touring India, but had recently played a few gigs in the UK. “I had moved on long before STR got signed. It had started as a college outfit and almost everyone who could half play an instrument was welcome. When I left, it was 9 members strong. There was a time when we had performed as 13 members! Today, I focus a lot more on song writing. Someone comes up with a riff or a progression and then we take it from there,” shares Rohan.

Going back to the topic of NH7, there have been talks of the next edition’s headlining act. Pertaining to the current rumours of “think animal” with respect to the band’s name, Adil joked about getting Steel Panther and Rohan showed his childhood hip-hop influence by wishing Snoop Dogg be the surprise. Deviating to their favourite Indie bands, they’d love to do a cover version of Indus Creed’s Trapped.

With just one single “By Your Side” recorded till now, the band plans to have an EP out in another six months.