A Blitch in the system

Randolph Correia. Pic/Til Van Loosen

Build the following anime series in your head. The world as we know it has ceased to exist. The resultant dystopia is inhabited by zombies. But these aren't the sort of blood-thirsty characters that populate movies such as Resident Evil. Instead, they like to party. They like to shake a leg in the middle of the night, gathering at each other's houses for after-hours shindigs where a DJ plays techno music.

That's the sort of soundscape that prolific musician Randolph Correia has created with his latest avatar, Blitch. He released four albums back-to-back under the moniker over the past two months - Waves, Fukt, Demon Inside and Pharm House. But he tells us that he envisioned these records more as seasons in the afore-mentioned anime series than individual musical offerings, with each song serving as an episode within the album/season. That line of thinking isn't surprising, considering Correia's education as a fine-arts student. He explains, "You can say that both my creative sides crossed over with Blitch, because it gave me the idea to tell a story as an anime series, rather than thinking of hooks, drops and choruses, which can get pretty boring."

He adds that his musical influences for the project came from '90s death-metal bands, which had post-apocalyptic sensibilities. "Even the album names reflected that. Megadeth had one called Countdown to Extinction. Napalm launched Utopia Banished. The album covers were pretty graphic too, and for me, it's like creating a 2021 version of the same concepts," Correia says, adding that creatively, however, he approached Blitch more as an artist than a musician.

But still, listening to the music, you do get a sense of the foreboding that an imminent apocalypse can bring about. There is a darkness to the beats that makes you envision those zombies at the after-party, rather than 20-somethings falling over each other listening to EDM and passing out on the couch eventually. The anime series isn't over, though. Correia, as Blitch, is busy at the moment creating six more albums, or seasons, if you will. Meanwhile, he has moved back to his parents' home in Mumbai after spending six months in Goa. He admits that chilling with his folks helps him relax since they still treat the 44-year-old like a little boy. "I feel like a demon living among normal people, like a demon making peace with humanity," he says. "But, that demon is still unleashing hell through music."

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