Dream Out Loud

Formation and early years (1999–2006)

The two key players in the band Suraj Jagan and Chandresh kudwa are from varied backgrounds. Suraj, the lead vocalist of the band started his career with an album with Milestone Entertainment Pvt Ltd, which was a licensee for EMI Music in India. The first solo album ever called Musafir. Musafir was released in 1999 and included songs like "Musafir" (title song), "Baadal", "Phir Aaye Teri Yaad", "Hamesha" and "Dil Se". The album was also compiled in Tamil and did average performance in the market. From here Suraj moved into the more hard core rock scene with important contributions to Bollywood. His popular OST numbers include:

Suraj Jagan has also sung the catchy and popular Hutch (Vodafone) ad jingle.

Chandresh, the lead guitarist of the band, brings a lot of depth to the band with his out and out feel oriented guitar solos. He started out playing with various bands including THOR (the first Indian Rock band interviewed by BBC), Freedom, Nexus (Jazz-Rock outfit), Vedic Chant, and now Dream Out Loud. Chandresh is also the co-founder of Allegro Institute of Music, an institute dedicated towards nurturing future guitar geniuses. His online guitar school, Theguitarthing.com offers lessons to budding guitarists, beginners and advanced acoustic, lead, and rhythm guitarists.

Dream Out Loud came into life in January 2006 with several gigs and one album called Human Race. Most of the songs in the album are influenced by Audioslave, System of a Down, Linkin Park, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani. The band gave a small performance in a concert in MMRDA Grounds, Mumbai, India on 31 October 2008. The concert called "Rock on for Humanity" concert was the brain child of Farhan Aktar and raised funds for relief to Bihar Flood victims. The bands and performers included Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Pentagram, Pindrop Violence, Raghu Dixit Project, Rabbi, and Farhan Akhtar.

Human race (2007–2008)

In June 2007, Dream Out Loud came out with Human Race, which is their first album. With Suraj on Vocals, Chandresh on lead guitar, Bass, and Lindsay on drums, the album’s release was followed by a number of gigs in Mumbai and Delhi including a vibrant performance at Eastwind Music Festival (6 February – New Delhi, India).

The concept of the album is based on several themes but mostly a silent conflict between the mind and one's real self according to the band vocalist Suraj Jagan. According to the band, songs like "Last Days on Earth" and "So Far so Good" are about being alive in a world of chaos where the insanity and logic go hand in hand. "Better Days" and "Prayer in your heart" takes on from there and talks about freedom. "Habit" is probably the soul of the album as the lyrics are romantic in a different way and screams out of possible dreams and lies that make the dream almost surreal. "Human beings" is one of those songs that talks about how the world is breaking apart due to war, religious sacrilege etc. The last four songs, "Jigsaw", "Now", "It's Raining Now", and "Desire" touch the emotional aspect and in spite of the rock overtones, are mildly romantic.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Suraj Jagan.

Album mastered by Bob Katz at Digital DomainTM (Florida) USA.

Musical style

Dream Out Loud’s musical style is a mix of alternative rock, indie music, and hard rock. They believe that the major influences on their music style are that of Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Seal, Sting, and Chris Cornell.