Starcracker is intercontinental indie duo Akhila Ramnarayan and Doug Carraway, friends since 1997 and musical collaborators since 2019, located in Chennai, Tamilnadu (India), and Columbus, Ohio (United  States), respectively. Akhila is a singer, and Doug a multi-instrumentalist and mixing engineer. The two -- who first met in the basement of Denney Hall at Ohio State -- go back and forth writing, performing, tracking, arranging, mixing, and producing music across time zones.

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Written and recorded over an intense 14-month period since November 2022, the ten original songs in Starcracker’s forthcoming album, Day is Night, can loosely be dubbed electropop or indie pop in terms of production, while the lyrics have a literary and philosophical cast.

 

Starcracker’s musical influences are wide-ranging - metal, art rock, grunge, Britpop, singer-songwriters past and present, everything from Fiona Apple to FIZZ, the Beatles to Bjork, Soundgarden to Louis Cole. 

 

Before Starcracker, Akhila and Doug were part of the indie collective Akhila & the Alchemists, under which moniker they have released a full-length album, an EP, and several singles since 2021. They have each worked in a range of musical genres and band projects through the decades.

"poetic sophistication ... simple yet impactful elements ... brilliant alt-pop arrangement"

    - Gigital India Indie Picks