The band was formed in 2001 by guitarist Anup Kutty with an original lineup of
singer/songwriter Sarabjit Chadha and acoustic guitarist Inder Pal Singh (IP). The trio
became a full-fledged band after recruiting bassist Randeep Singh and drummer Rahul
Chatterjee. In a country where popular music is dominated with commercial Bollywood music
and the live rock music scene is generally full of cover bands, Menwhopause stuck to playing
original compositions and were one of the first bands in India to distribute their music for free
over the internet. Their first EP called The story begins... was released online as a free
download in 2003. Ever since its formation, the band has gone through two line-up changes -
the first with original drummer Rahul Chatterjee being replaced by Hemendra Nath "Hemzi" in
2008. The current line-up includes French drummer Paul Schneiter.
In 2006 they released their first full length album Home on their own record label, "The Middle
Earth Company". The album gained the band international recognition, making them the first
Indian rock band to be invited to perform at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. The band's
tour was sponsored by the Indian Centre for Cultural Relations, which made them the first
ever rock band to be supported by the cultural arm of the Government of India. The band also
did a month long tour of the southwestern United States playing in around 10 cities in and
around Texas. In February 2008, the band won an online poll for the Best Band of the Year
2007 conducted by Jack Daniel's in India. This got them a chance to fly to Lynchburg,
Tennessee in April 2008 where they performed at the Legendary Mash Festival and worked
with R.E.M.'s producer David Barbe. The band signed a major record deal with EMI-Virgin
Records (India) in 2008 to release their second full-length album Easy. Instead of
conventional studio recording, the band began work on the album by recording the tracks in a
make-shift studio set up by them in a village in Uttaranchal, a state in the Himalayas, during
September 2006. The album took four years to be produced with the band bringing in mixing
engineer and co-producer Miti Adhikari (BBC London) and Grammy Award winning
mastering engineer Richard Dodd. The album was initially released on digital format
through iTunes and Amazon.com in early-January 2011 followed by physical CD format on
26 January 2011. The album immediately received favorable reviews by critics with The
Times of India calling it "by far, one of the most brilliant works from an Indian rock act." The
album artwork for Easy was done by award-winning art director Abhishek Dey who has been
a regular with the band having designed the layouts for the band's first album.
menwhopause just finished touring India in cities like Mumbai, Chandigarh, Pune,
Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Naukuchiatal and also covering North East part of the
country promoting the album easy covering states like:-Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland,
• The Story Begins... (EP) (2003) The Middle Earth Company
• Home (2006) The Middle Earth Company
• Easy (2011) EMI-Virgin Records (India)
• The name Menwhopause was borrowed from Anup's quiz team in college that went by
the same name. The band has always maintained that the pun was actually unintentional and
they were more interested in the word pause being part of the band's name. In recent
interviews, the band has been quoted giving different origins of the name. Some of them
include a tyre company in Brazil, tattooed fans and an attribution to Randeep's mother.
• Randeep Singh was the band's first official fan who, according to the band mates,
"worked his way in after watching the band play live in Delhi, India in 2001."
• Anup Kutty is also the former editor of Maxim India, the Indian version of the
international men's magazine.
• IP is a puppeteer by profession, having produced puppet shows on Indian news
channel NDTV. He maintains that he put an end to "conformist life" when he burnt all his
educational qualifications after college and decided to be a puppeteer.
• The band's third album is rumored to be titled Haze as a dedication to a Delhi pub they
used to frequently play in.
• The debut album Home, according to the band, is a concept album with a common
thread running through the songs, one of them being the word 'home' which features in every
• The song Brimful from the second album Easy is rumored to be a reference to three of
the biggest sex symbols in classic Indian cinema -Simi Garewal, Parveen Babi and Zeenat
• The only time the band performed a cover version was that of John Cage's 4.33 which
is 4 minutes 33 seconds of silence
Mihir Joshi, better known to his fans as “Musicman” Mihir has beena radio jockey in Mumbai for about 8 years. He started with All India Radio’s FM Rainbow (107.1MHz) where he hosted shows in English and hindi music for 5 years. He then moved on to 94.3 Radio One to host a special weekend show called One Mumbai One Music in which he talked with the best artists, singers and bands in the country.
Along with radio he has kept his passion for sharing music going on by starting the first ever online music show in India on his blogThe show is called The MJ Show and it is an online reproduction of what his shows on air used to be like. The show is supported by Sony Music, EMI Music and Universal Music and has had guests and contests just like an on-air radio show. He has did a special 100th episode of the show with actor and entertainer Luke Kenny. This is the first show that he has shot original video footage for. 
