Meet Animaan Pathak of Analog Party

Today we’d like to introduce you to Animaan Pathak, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist of Analog Party.

Animaan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The foundation of the band has been around for a few years essentially. Charles (bassist, and other half of the band) and I met when we were in our mid-teens — I was playing drums in my first band and recruited him to play bass through a mutual friend. This was almost ten years ago, so we were about 14 years old at the time. In any case, that band didn’t work out, but we developed a friendship based off our musical kinship and stuck by each other. As we continued to grow as people and musicians, we jammed with all sorts as a bass-and-drums duo, but it never quite gelled with anyone else. Drums were my first instrument, but I had started to teach myself guitar when I was 13 years old so I could start writing songs. Charles – as a bassist- obviously knows his way around the guitar, so we started to write instrumental tracks in the hopes of finding the right singer. That person never materialized, and eventually I picked up the singing slack. Around 2016, we decided to truly go for it, writing and recording all our material between just the two of us, and it’s been that way ever since. When we play live, we have outside friends come in and help out with performing guitar and drums, so I can mainly focus on singing.

Over the last few years, we felt as though we’ve really honed in on what we wanted to do with this band, so after demoing lots of songs and releasing a couple of EPs under a different name, we decided to start fresh two years ago as Analog Party. We released our debut EP “Model Youth” last year, have been playing gigs around LA (until COVID hit), and are releasing more singles this year. Actually, we just released the first of three new singles — it’s called “Absolution”, it’s available on all platforms, and it’s an absolute banger.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
In terms of the dynamics within the band, it has been a relatively smooth road. Playing music with other people can be a very intimate thing — you’re sharing so much between each other, it’s almost like a marriage without the sexual aspect. On top of that, a lot can happen when you’ve known someone for close to a decade, but we’ve always remained tight as friends, and are pretty good about communicating openly and honestly. Creatively speaking, both of us as individuals are the type of people who want to push ourselves to, and then beyond, what we think we’re capable of. That all adds up to a highly ambitious, but always respectful, partnership, and I think in that regard, we’re lucky because a lot of bands have issues there.

The coronavirus is obviously a serious roadblock, but we’re taking the time to focus even more on promoting ourselves online and coming up with creative and cool ways to do that because we’re not the type of guys to make a band Snapchat or use TikTok haha! It’s also given us a lot of time to write, so we’ve got probably an album and a half’s worth of material that we’re demoing, and we’re really excited about tackling that sometime next year.

Beyond that, we’re very aware that what we’re doing musically wouldn’t be touched with a ten-foot pole by major labels or mainstream radio right now, but that’s fine with us. We truly believe in what we’re doing and feel like there are lots of people out there who feel the same way we do. It’s just a matter of wading through an oversaturated industry to find what you like. I can definitely tell you it’s very much our goal to be that diamond in the rough for rock fans out there. We don’t subscribe to the “rock is dead” approach — it’s a lazy and misleading statement.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
We’re basically just a heavy rock band influenced by a variety of different music. Some of our all-time favorite artists are bands like Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age, Stone Temple Pilots, Failure, and Alice in Chains, but we love everything from jazz to ambient soundtracks to R&B!

Like I mentioned before, we just released a new single called “Absolution” in June, and we have two more singles to be released through the rest of the year. Actually, the next single, “One” will be out September 18th. We’re stockpiling new tunes for an album down the line, and have a couple of other cool projects in early development for the rest of the year. We can’t wait to get back to playing shows, but in the meantime, people can check out our music and videos on Apple Music, Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube, etc. We’re also active on our Instagram (@analogparty), so people should feel free to reach out to us there and we’ll definitely take the time to chat!

What were you like growing up?
Personally, I got into music at a very early age. My brother and I would watch MTV avidly as little kids (when they still actually broadcast music…), so I got to experience quite a few bands during important record cycles, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers with “Californication” and Linkin Park with “Hybrid Theory.” My love for rock music specifically blossomed when I heard “Use Your Illusion II” by Guns N’ Roses for the first time — I was probably six years old, but I could not get enough of songs like “Get In the Ring” and “Shotgun Blues” haha! I started playing drums when I was nine and that was it — all about buying CDs and listening to music from then on.

Believe it or not, I know the roots of Charles’ love for guitar-based music started when he heard the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme as a little kid. He was also into gaming, but once he discovered bass at 13, it became an immediate obsession and his first priority before anything else. He made progress very fast, probably due to his love for Tool and transcribing Justin Chancellor’s insane bass parts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://analogparty.bandcamp.com/
• Email: analogpartyband@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/analogparty/
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE4ax4iPIs8tnUL60nHr56A

Image Credit:
Live photos by Michael Haight, Promo photo by Jennifer Akerman

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