Longevity is a rare thing for a band. It is even more so for an eight-member collective. And yet, somehow, against the adage that all bands eventually break up, the Easy Wanderlings have held on to each other.

When the band first came together in Pune in 2015, its members were young, ambitious and — as songwriter, guitarist, and founding member Sanyanth Naroth puts it — “perhaps a little fearless”. They were entering their twenties together, beginning a musical project without quite knowing that they were also beginning a decade-long relationship with one another.

“We spent a really important phase of our lives together— our 20s and 30s,” he says. “When we started, we were young, highly ambitious and perhaps a little fearless. It was easier to make sacrifices, and we were largely unbothered by the challenges that lay ahead.”

The ambition, he says, was straightforward: “The goal was simple: to take our music as far and wide as we possibly could.”

A decade later, that ambition remains unchanged despite the substantial changes in the indie music scene around them.

Easy Wanderlings have played hundreds of shows, travelled together, spent countless hours rehearsing and recording, and grown into one of India’s most distinctive independent musical collectives. Their sound has travelled too, moving from the folk and indie-pop sensibilities of their earlier work towards soul, funk and increasingly expansive arrangements. Their lives have moved forward in parallel. Members have relocated cities, built careers and businesses, fallen in and out of love, and gotten married.

“Whenever a show or a recording brings us back into the same room, we’re still smiling,” Sanyanth says. “Within minutes, the silly banter takes over, the old dynamics return, and it feels like not much has changed after all.”

This year, Easy Wanderlings are taking that history on the road.

Their ongoing ‘Ten Years on the Map’ anniversary tour marks a decade of the band through performances across the country. Moving beyond a conventional circuit of concert venues, the tour takes them through cafés, heritage art spaces, independent music venues, and community settings, while also documenting the landscapes, food, and people they encounter along the way. The itinerary includes stops across Delhi and Gurugram, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Mysore, Goa, Kochi, Angamaly, Kolkata, Pune and Ahmedabad, with more dates expected to follow.

In conversation with Homegrown about the tour, band members Sanyanth Naroth and Nitin Muralikrishna (Keyboardist, Producer) spoke about their musical histories, tastes, temperaments, and the diversity that has shaped the richness of their arrangements.

Eight Voices, One Song

“Disagreements happen all the time,” Sanyanth says. “You can imagine that with an eight-member band, where everybody has their own ideas and suggestions.”

The band navigates those disagreements by maintaining an environment where nobody is afraid to contribute.

“From the beginning, we made sure we were doing this for the music and nothing else,” he says. “If I share an idea and it doesn’t go through, that shouldn’t discourage me from sharing another one later. Everybody is comfortable sharing whatever idea they have — even if it’s the stupidest idea. We can laugh about it and move on.”

Sometimes, the disagreements come down to the smallest details of an arrangement.

“We’ve had to make difficult calls about arrangements: should it be a clarinet here or a guitar solo? Sometimes we vote, and it’s four against four. Then we have to close our eyes, make a choice, and live with it.”

It is a modest philosophy for sustaining a creative collective. No system is perfect, and no one can guarantee everyone will agree. Over time, the band has learned how to keep moving.

“That’s part of making music together and part of life, really,” Sanyanth says. “You make choices and move forward. Over the years, we’ve figured out that dynamic.”

On Growing Up Without Growing Apart

“At the same time, life happened,” Sanyanth says. “Each of us has carved out a space for ourselves in and around the world of music. Some moved to different cities, some started businesses, some found love, some fell out of it, and some got married.”

“Our priorities evolved, as they inevitably do when you move from your 20s into your 30s.”

Easy Wanderlings developed a structure that allowed individual careers to coexist with the collective.

“Financially, no one depends on the band for survival,” Sanyanth says. “Because of the band, many of us have been able to build our own journeys as musicians. Most of us still work primarily in the music industry, and many of our projects came because of Easy Wanderlings.”

This arrangement reflects a broader reality of independent music in India. Streaming and live events have expanded opportunities, but visibility does not necessarily translate into stable incomes. Independent artists often rely on multiple revenue streams, and touring has become increasingly expensive.

“We’ve found a dynamic where the band isn’t responsible for anyone’s livelihood, but it also isn’t a side project,” Sanyanth says. “It’s still one of the main projects in all our lives. That relationship is special.”

This has also shaped their music. “Thankfully, we’ve all stayed in music and have been doing it full-time ever since,” says keyboardist and producer Nitin Muralikrishna. “We’ve always come from diverse musical backgrounds, and over the years, each of us has explored those areas more deeply. That has strongly influenced the music we make and contribute to as a band.”

Easy Wanderlings’ sound has changed accordingly over the years. The folk and indie-pop palette of its early work expanded through the soul and funk influences of 'Caught in a Parade'. Their latest single, 'Mellow', featuring Mali (Maalavika Manoj), introduces the next phase in their journey ahead of a forthcoming album.

For Muralikrishna, the musical changes are inseparable from personal ones.

“As we get older, experience new things, and evolve individually, we shape how we approach music,” he says. “Our individual musical journeys, influences and growth as people have shaped what we bring to the band today. As we make music, we try to stay open-minded, trust our intuition and ultimately ask ourselves, ‘Are we feeling this?’ That instinct continues to guide us and keeps the music honest and true to who we are.”

On Making Music & Sustaining Themselves As Musicians

India’s independent music ecosystem has changed substantially since Easy Wanderlings began. Recording technology is more accessible, distribution is immediate, and social media has reduced the distance between artists and promoters, festivals and audiences.

“The challenge initially wasn’t figuring out how to make and release music,” Sanyanth says. “Luckily for us, two of the eight Wanderlings were already very good recording engineers and producers, so we were well equipped on the technical side.”

“The real challenge has been pushing the music out into the world,” he adds. “As an independent band, we have to do that with whatever resources we have.”

This problem goes beyond India. While the infrastructure for making and distributing music has been democratised globally, but algorithms, marketing budgets, and fragmented audiences increasingly determine platform discovery. Greater access has not necessarily translated to a more attentive audience.

Easy Wanderlings have chosen not to organise their creative process around that competition. “Competition was always there and always will be, but we never took that burden on our shoulders because it would only weigh us down.”

Muralikrishna admits the more immediate problem is economic. “Access to major players in the industry has definitely become easier,” he says. “Gig promoters, organisers, and festivals are much more approachable through social media, which has opened up many opportunities. Recording and releasing music has also become more accessible for new artists.”

“At the same time, rising travel and logistics costs have made independent music increasingly difficult to sustain financially, especially for bands. The independent circuit doesn’t pay as well as the commercial or corporate space, so for artists with a niche sound, it can be challenging to make the numbers work and build a financially stable career.”

For an eight-member band, those margins are narrower still. Easy Wanderlings’ solution has been to maintain independent professional lives while still treating the band as a central commitment.

“Everybody still takes time out of their lives to practise, prioritise the band and show up whenever they’re needed,” Sanyanth says. “They still love the band and its music and consider it an important part of their lives. Without that, it would be impossible to keep the band going.”

Ten Years On The Map

Over the past decade, Easy Wanderlings have moved from Pune’s independent circuit to major Indian festivals and a wider national audience. The ‘Ten Years on the Map’ anniversary tour foregrounds smaller and site-specific spaces. The itinerary includes heritage properties, cafés, art venues and intimate listening spaces. In Pune, the band returns to Gray Spark Audio for a Bring Your Own Headphones concert, returning to a format that encourages attentive listening. The tour will also document the landscapes, food, and communities the band will encounter between shows, making the travel itself part of the project.

“Our ambition is still shining bright,” Sanyanth says. “Everybody is motivated and committed to doing their part—whether that’s recording, mixing, working on their instrument parts or making content. We still believe deeply in the music, and we know there’s so much more to be done in this huge world.”

Easy Wanderlings now wants to expand internationally.

“We haven’t yet played the biggest festivals abroad or performed in some of the most beautiful spaces internationally. We’re excited about that possibility,” Sanyanth says. “We don’t want to compromise on how we record, perform, or the time we dedicate to the music. It’s the music that brought us together, and it’s the music that keeps us together.”

The next decade is still uncertain, but the band is thinking beyond the current release cycle.

“We definitely think that far ahead in life,” Sanyanth says. “We can still see the light, even if the road towards it is sometimes blurred. We keep moving forward by doing whatever we can.”

Ten years on, Easy Wanderlings’ defining achievement is their adaptability — their ability to move, grow, and change with the flow of time. As the band members have grown older, moved apart, and built separate lives, their music has changed with them. While India’s independent music ecosystem has expanded without necessarily becoming easier to navigate, Sanyaynth’s measure of success has remained expansive but simple.

“My main goal for the next ten years is to take the whole band abroad and show the world what we’ve made,” he says. “I hope we’re still healthy, still have the same sense of wonder, are still silly, and are still making music that makes us feel something. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Easy Wanderlings’ ‘Ten Years on the Map’ anniversary tour is currently underway, taking the band across India as they celebrate a decade of making music. Follow @easywanderlings on Instagram to learn more.

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