With Oasis ’23 right around the corner, the Oasis English Press interviewed the coordinators of the Association of Rock, BITS Pilani (ARBITS), Shubhayu Basu and Anantshree Pandey, to learn more about the contributions ARBITS has made to the fest.

Shubhayu and Anant stated that ARBITS aims at fostering the Indian indie music scene in BITS. One of the main events this year is Indie Nite, featuring The F16s and Parvaaz, with Darzi opening the show. Rocktaves, a kernel event held by the club, is an incubator for semi-professional bands across India. The event will be headlined and judged by Indian Ocean, one of the biggest rock bands in India and the winners of the first-ever Rocktaves. Reproduce Listening Session, a new gig, is also being organised in collaboration with Reproduce Studios. This event will be held in a smaller space and will cater to niche crowds.

The club started its preparatory work over the summer break. The work consisted of a variety of tasks such as preliminary rounds for Rocktaves in different cities and online, talking to judges and vendors for the events, sorting out the travel arrangements for the winners, coordinating with the StuCCA and arranging tech riders and venues. 

When asked about the challenges they faced, Anantshree said that for Rocktaves, the biggest hurdles had been arranging judges, venues, and proper backline equipment at cheaper costs. For Indie Nite, Shubhayu informed that approaching two major bands instead of one and finding a middle ground for the headlining act had been a challenge they successfully overcame. They both agreed that coordinating from a remote place like Pilani had been difficult yet manageable. 

When asked about how they thought the club had changed over the last few years, Shubhayu said that the indie music industry had boomed a lot, which had resulted in a hike in artist prices, eventually resulting in a bigger cash pool for the club to operate with. About working with StuCCA, Shubhayu said that they were very collaborative and they worked together to find the best possible solution.

They concluded by saying that everyone should attend as many events as they could during the fest, especially Reproduce Listening Sessions. They wished that everyone had as much fun as they could and enjoyed themselves to the fullest.