The Birth of Billy Munro: Road to nowhere

Express News Service

Delhi-based indie act Mocaine’s latest project, The Birth of Billy Munro, is an ambitious undertaking—the full-length concept album is accompanied by a 13,000-word novella and an upcoming short film.

“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 man behind the outfit.

​The 11-track album was released earlier this month and is dark and introspective. The album features drummer Varun Sood, producer Aman Arakh, and bassist Kabir Agarwal, who each bring their flavours to the project.

What sparked the idea for the concept 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 previous work includes the 2018 EP Portrait of Dali. 

The artiste says that his music is inspired by rock and blues, and draws heavily from the sound of Seattle in the early ’90s. The album tells the story of the protagonist, Billy, fighting with his inner demons and finally embracing who he is. It starts with the song 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 capture the Americana spirit that Mohan is inspired by. The atmosphere created by the album is one of mystery, chaos, violence and ultimately bleak acceptance.

Up next, Mohan has big 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 online streaming platforms