Chepang is an “immigrindcore” band from Queens that plays obnoxious music which will be unpalatable to most people, but is right up the alley of many grindcore fans. The band has a new album coming out called Jhyappa that fits this description. There’s a few music videos below that promote the new album and they’ll give you a good idea of what we’re in for with Jhyappa.
“Parichaya 2.0/Shakti (Force)” music video:
“Gatichad” visualizer video:
“Nirnaya” music video:
I spoke to guitarist Kshitiz Moktan over video chat to discuss the lyrical content of the new album. Chepang is a working-class band and Moktan had a lot to say about what the group is dealing with, which feeds into the lyrics.
“The constant grind in the city where you are hustling every day not only [keep] you and your family well-off financially, but the sacrifices you have to make to do it,” he explained.
Moktan and the rest of the band express a kind of solidarity with their fellow workers in New York, “where you see yourself among these people working these long hours to get to put food on their table. You can see it in their eyes” when people are on the subway on their way to work in the middle of the night. “The street and subway-station vendors, artists performing in the streets and train station, the lady [on the] next block selling tamales, your neighborhood friend who works in a bar” on the graveyard shift.
“This constant struggle can be defeating and put a toll on your head psychologically and question your existence.”
Jhyappa is “a really personal record,” said Moktan. When crafting it, the guys in the band decided that they wanted to express “the ups and downs of living the life of an immigrant where you are trying to find yourself, trying to survive with the day to day of life, be it financially or psychologically,” he said.
Still, there can be a light at the end of the tunnel. Those lyrical themes include “finding the positive and motivation to keep going” and fighting inner negativity, he said.
Jhyappa is up for preorder on CD, LP, cassette, and digital from Relapse Records and is coming out on May 23, 2025.
Hat tip: this conversation wouldn’t have taken place without Relapse Records’ involvement. Band photo courtesy Relapse too.
Further reading:
I interviewed Moktan about his guitar gear for clrvynt.com.
Here’s my video of Chepang playing in Baltimore in 2017.
