Karma Glider Finds Clarity in the Haze
Photo credit: Yang Shi
Susil Sharma has always had a gift for spinning chaos into melody. With his latest project Karma Glider, the former Heat frontman filters fuzzy, mid-fi rock and roll through the haze of memory and hard-won reflection. On the band’s debut LP From the Haze of a Revved Up Youth, Sharma soundtracks the highs and comedowns of his twenties—romantic misadventures, nights lost to excess, and the clarity that followed—with a dreamlike palette of dub-laced interludes, shoegaze guitars, and tape-warped psychedelia. We caught up with Sharma to talk about the scrapped albums, slow-burn love stories, and the unexpected joy of starring cats.
REVERIE: Your new single “Wait for You” sounds like it’s beaming in from a dream. What were you chasing sonically with that track?
Susil Sharma: Thanks! The song is about getting really overwhelmed by longing and I wanted to capture that druggy all-consuming tension that can come along with that. The layers of feedback and reverb-heavy girl group drums are meant to evoke the psychedelic melancholy and dreaminess of romantic obsession.
REVERIE: The music video stars a couple of cats and it's perfect. How did that idea come together and what kind of vibe were you going for?
Sharma: Well, the song itself is about romantic longing but for the video I was inspired by some recent trips I went on when I would just really long to be with my cat. I used some footage of those trips in the video and it's funny because even as I was taking those vacation videos, driving around crazy places like Peru, Croatia and Nepal, I would just be thinking about how I couldn't wait to get home and hang with my cat. Haha I don't know, maybe I'm becoming sentimental with age.
REVERIE: The album title From the Haze of a Revved Up Youth feels like a memoir, with many songs cataloguing your twenties. Were there any memories tied to this album that stand out to you most?
Sharma: Yeah, the songs are all more or less snapshots from my life at that time so I suppose it is a bit of a memoir. Breakdown brings me back to being 23, which is when I wrote that song actually. I was just so anxious and in the throes of addiction at that time that I guess I was ready for some big catastrophe to change my life. I finally did get sober when I was 27 and I wrote The Breaking Light shortly afterwards. I was kind of scared and optimistic and trying to reckon with my past and future.. I'm almost 10 years sober now so I think it was a good decision. Diamonds is about partying in Montreal in the mid 2000s which brings back some completely unhinged and debaucherous memories… I apologize to anyone whose path I crossed in those days.
REVERIE: You scrapped two versions of the album before starting over—what finally made this one feel “right”?
Sharma: I was really overthinking the record for a while, just getting obsessed with how I wanted it to end up and how it might be perceived. I think that impulse can often come from fear and an attempt to control the uncontrollable. Like, I think you should serve the art, not the other way around. Anyway, at one point there were just so many different songs and layers of guitars and it felt so bloated that I just scrapped most of it and redid everything really quickly. I hope that it feels more alive and honest this way.
REVERIE: There’s a recurring love story across the album, unfolding over decades. Is this a breakup album, a love letter, or something in between?
Sharma: There's a few songs on the record about my girlfriend. We first dated when we were teenagers and then reconnected romantically a few years later but it didn't work out and there was a lot of unrequited longing on my end. That's where the sad boy "breakup album" songs come from. As fate would have it, we got back together a third time and I wrote the "love letter" songs. I guess you’ll have to listen to the next record to see how it all pans out.
REVERIE: You’ve called this record “Britpop meets post-punk meets garage rock.” If those genres were people at a party, who’s doing what?
Sharma: They are definitely all arguing over who gets the aux cable and which band to put on next: Oasis, Joy Division or The Seeds.
REVERIE: You brought in collaborators from your past life in Heat—what was it like reconnecting with your musical past while writing about your personal one?
Sharma: It's really special to collaborate with those guys again. We were pretty young when we were in Heat and the band was really full of excitement and expectations and drama about "making it in the biz" or whatever. We had some cool breaks but it was pretty unhealthy to be honest. When I look back now, I don't really give a shit about any of the music industry side of things, I'm just grateful I got to make music with my friends and I'm super stoked to still have those friendships and still be able to collaborate.
REVERIE: You left in first takes, mistakes, and all. What’s something imperfect on the record that you now love?
Sharma: If I'm honest there's some vocal stuff I wouldn't mind redoing haha. But even those I'm happy are on the record cause it's a more real version of who I am. There's a weird edit in one of the songs ( I won't say which one) that I'm actually into now and I think I kind of ruined Karma Glide In Blue by running it through a cassette tape a bunch of times and destroying the audio fidelity haha. But I'm glad it's on the record too
REVERIE: How has your relationship to “rock and roll” changed since your twenties? Has it softened or sharpened?
Sharma: It means something a lot different to me now. When I was young I thought it was about being free to do whatever you wanted to do whenever you wanted to do it. Chasing a high forever. But now I think it's about the freedom to be yourself and have community. To support others and be supported outside of the confines of the materialistic mainstream. That's rock and roll to me.
REVERIE: What’s the best way to experience this album—on a solo walk at night, lying on the floor, or blasting it in your friend’s car?
Sharma: That's such a good question. Solo walk at night all the way!
Photo credit: Yang Shi