Usually I just write what I think, but if I had a point-scoring system this new single from Bristol-based indie-pop outfit Chandra would tick every box. It’s called Heaven on Earth; if Belinda Carlise made it, Chandra rocked it!
Punchy, tick. Find that perfect hook, tick. Subtly righteous narrative, tick. Balance pithy narrative with equal amount of carefree fun, tick. Rock out, double-tick! It’s got the no worries in the face of adversity attitude of Three Little Birds, the youthful carefree tenet of Supergrass’s Alright, the drive of Crash by The Primitives, and the punch of The Beastie Boys fighting for their right to party. Yet, it’s august, styled, and definitively Chandra.
We’ve not heard from Chandra since 2024 when we fondly reviewed his debut EP Lifted, so it’s great to feature him again, as there’s nothing to criticise about this cracking single, which means my work here is done! It’s raining outside, who cares, plug this blast of indie-punk-pop onto your playlist and cease your worrying!
Chandra, Hindu God of the Moon, with his own NASA X-ray observatory named after him, and also frontman of a self-named friendly Bristol-based four-piece pop-punk band I’ve recently been introduced to; busy guy, I have to tell you about them…..
This band has been together since April and knocked out five singles already. The latest, Lifted is as the same suggests. It’s feel-good factors and amusing hooks immediately warm to you, but at the same time it’s an intelligently crafted grower, simply infectious! Chandra has put six tracks into an EP, titled Lifted too.
Chandra explained, “I spent a while trying to figure out my sound and what I wanted to write about. So the first few songs are very much me finding my way. Lighters To The Sky was a eureka moment and the song where things suddenly clicked.” You can hear this as this track is on the EP, alongside Pretty, Smile and I’ll Be There, perhaps rawer by nature, prototypes, but this upbeat sound with hints to carefree merriment has been perfected sublimely. Lifted is so commercially viable I’m going tingly, an elevating and uplifting anthem.
“I spent 2023 releasing singles in order to put a band together because literally nobody was interested in being in an originals band when I first started looking for people,” Chandra told us, so band members are from Bristol, Patchway, Trowbridge and Chandra himself is from Berkeley. “We’re a bit all over the place but Bristol is our common ground and where we play the most.”
Only geographically all over the place, I might add, Chandra sounds polished. We chatted about the desire of local circuit venues wanting cover bands, a frustrating reality for bands trying to produce original material. “Bristol is basically a hive of musicians who mostly play for two or three different covers bands,” he expressed, “and that’s fine of course, but playing covers just doesn’t give me that buzz. Originals is a tough slog but I get so much satisfaction from the reactions. It means a thousand times more to me.”
This led me to name-drop Trowbridge’s Pump as a venue dedicated to original music and also promoting upcoming artists too. As I suspected they’re on this, and play there on Friday 4th October with Ben Waller & The Tell Tale Signs. Closer by date, they support Laissez Faire at the Thunderbolt this Thursday.
The elevation to the latest single Lifted is bursting with potential, Smile (No Fox Gibbon) marks a milestone, there’s contemporary pop-punk goodness of Blink 182 or Green Day, yet melded subtly with English charm, whereas Lifted is defined, idiosyncratically melodious and my new favourite thing. I’m unsure where the final song Overload fits chronologically, but it is a moralistic acoustic chicken nugget, a gorgeous committed sound, displaying a more mellifluous side to Chandra.
The scope here is encouraging, but the compelling steadfast template they’ve created is simply irresistible already. If Chandra isn’t headlining by autumn I call for a national inquiry into why not!
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