Before indie-pop band Voxtrot reunited in 2022 after a dozen years apart, vocalist and songwriter Ramesh Srivastava had some hesitation about restarting the project.
“Doing a reunion tour had come up many times before, and I was of the opinion that we shouldn’t do it,” Srivastava said on a video call. “It was only worth doing if we were also going to make new music.”
But the Austin-based group reunited for a tour to promote their remastered two albums, “Early Music” and “Cut From The Stone: the B-Sides & Rarities,” which contained never-released material. But it wasn’t exactly new.
That changed last month when Voxtrot released “Dreamers in Exile,” marking its first new album in 18 years. The band is hitting the road once more with stops at the Pacific Electric in Los Angeles on March 26 and The Constellation Room in Santa Ana on March 27.
“I’m looking forward to just being back in that rhythm, because when we did the reunion tour in 2022, I realized how much I actually love being on tour,” Srivastava said. “That’s sort of my preferred existence, and we always look forward to California; it’s just one of the best places for us.”
In the early 2000s, Voxtrot was characterized as blog-rock, a term applied to indie rock bands making waves in online forums and independent blogs. Voxtrot thrived in that era of the internet, its indie-pop melodies tinged with lyrics of hope, romance, and a yearning for a life ready to be lived. Those themes aligned with the early days of the web’s promise of a more connected and unified future.
The group disbanded in 2010, but during the hiatus and reunion tour, new fans were posting videos of the band’s music and showing off their Voxtrot tattoo inspirations, which was enough to motivate Srivastava.
“Something about Covid and having the time to remember things and see those people on the internet and social media showing that they really care about Voxtrot, just flipped something, and then I felt like it was right,” he said.
Some of the hopeful themes from their earlier work are present in “Dreamers in Exile,” in a way that feels both fresh and nostalgic.
When the band first started, Srivastava’s background wasn’t at the forefront of his songwriting. But things have changed.
“Now I feel like it is important to speak to the unique reality of being half-Indian, gay and existing here in Texas in this completely insane time in which we live,” he said. “That actually does have meaning and is worth expressing with my experience.”
The album opens with “Another Fire,” which includes a verse where Srivastava sings, “They judge the brown skin like birth was my sin/A culture on the wire, divided within/The spirit knows why, but the body knows how/Defining our world by who we are now,” evoking a more outspoken lyrical approach.
Other songs on the album, such as “Fighting Back,” in which Srivastava, now in his 40s, two decades after the band’s first run, sings, “I still wrestle with the vices of a teenage punk.”
Musically, Voxtrot continues to incorporate orchestral keyboards, violins and horn ensembles, but it also ventures into new territory. Songs such as “Quiet Noise” offer a somber, heartbreak country ballad, while “My Peace” flexes a Western guitar jingle blended with the anthem-fueled choruses that are part of Voxtrot’s signature sound.
While much has changed in the world in the last 18 years, the positivity in Srivastava’s songwriting remains true and best spotlighted in the lyrics of “New World Romance,” where he belts the chorus, “It’s a beautiful world, can I please stay in it?/Life it goes by in a New York minute/There’s wild roses still blooming in me.” The singer said he wanted this album to be hopeful while acknowledging that reality doesn’t always feel that way.
“I want Voxtrot to be a positive force and to get people to feel their emotions,” he said.
“It’s a fine line when artists are just overly positive without stirring in some reality. For it to really have depth, it has to be truthful about what’s really happening.”
Voxtrot
When: 8 p.m. Thursday, March 26.
Where: Pacific Electric, 1729 Naud St., Los Angeles.
Tickets: $37.15 at Ticketmaster.com.
Also: 8 p.m. Friday, March 27, The Constellation Room, 3503 South Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. $39 at Ticketmaster.com.
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