A home video clip shows packed suitcases by the door. The camera rolls through the house for what seems to be the last time. It’s a bittersweet goodbye for a family leaving their home in India for a new one in America.
That clip was taken by the parents of Young the Giant frontman Sameer Gadhia nearly three decades ago. Gadhia’s family history is a focus of the Irvine band’s fifth album, “American Bollywood,” and will be prominently featured in the set list during its performance at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood on Nov. 12. The band is also playing the first day of the Wonderfront Festival in San Diego on Nov. 18.
The “American Bollywood” music video was the first that was shot to support the new record and also served as a bit of a trailer for what the rest of the album’s themes would entail. It’s a montage of home video images from Gadhia’s childhood and beautiful cinematic shots of people dressed in traditional Indian attire making their way along a dreamlike shoreline.
“When I first saw that video, it felt so emotional and scary to share something so personal, but it was also a beautiful experience,” Gadhia said in a phone interview.
The album mixes the sounds of modern indie rock with traditional Indian instrumentation, such as a sitar and tablas. Its overarching themes center on immigration, family, companionship, sacrifice and romantic love.
Gadhia, who grew up in Irvine as a first-generation Indian American, said the record also expresses a yin and yang-like paradox that leaves him existing in a place where he doesn’t feel fully American or fully Indian. Instead, he lives somewhere between the two, a recurring theme in films and television shows such as “Ramy,” “Master of None” and “Never Have I Ever,” where first-generation characters try to assimilate into America. He hopes this album can further add to the media representation of South Asians and other immigrants with similar experiences to his.
While outsiders might see a city like Irvine as a boring suburban hub, it’s where many immigrant families find peace and settle away from the trauma they left behind and pave a path for a new generation, Gadhia said.
“In a way, Irvine was a huge melting pot of different families, and that informed a lot of who we are,” he explained. “A lot of us are first-generation or immigrants, and it’s a big part of who we are.”
Like many who grew up first-generation, Gadhia said he sees immigration as less of a political talking point and more of a lived experience.
“It’s not really just an issue to talk about because it is my life,” Gadhia said. “I am the product of immigrants, a first-generation Indian American, and I can’t separate my identity from my parents.”
The album was broken up and released in four acts containing four songs apiece: “I. Origins,” “II. Exile,” “III. Battle” and “IV. Denouement.” Gadhia said the decision to share the album that way was inspired by the ancient Sanskrit Hindu text of the Mahabharata. The story is about five brothers who are heirs to the throne but are exiled after a rigged game of dice. They later return to claim their birthright.
Gadhia said he fell in love with the story after reading comic books by Mumbai-based publisher Amar Chitra Katha, which serialized the depiction of religious legends, folklore and epic poems.
“The story works on many different levels,” he said. “I also think about it as the story of this band, the multigenerational story of an immigrant in America and the trials and tribulations of generations to get here.”
Some of the band’s biggest supporters have been Gadhia’s parents, and although he was a bit nervous about making their story a focal point of the album, he felt it was important to tell it. He said that although mainstream media has begun telling more Indian American stories, his parents in years past didn’t get to see that reflected as widely, and that may have affected who they thought they could be.
“I think just being able to tell the story has been very cathartic for them, too,” Gadhia said.
He also became more comfortable telling the story of his parents with the album after speaking to a variety of artists on his SiriusXM show, “Point of Origin.” The program aims to change the face of what alternative music looks like by incorporating and spotlighting diverse musicians.
“I learned so much from talking with artists of color from around the world,” he said. “I was emboldened to share this because even though we were from all these different places, there were these unique threads that combined us all together.”
The coronavirus pandemic and his new role as a father also caused Gadhia to search inward and reflect on his identity in a way he couldn’t before, which also drove the album’s thesis.
“I don’t think I quite realized how separate I was from myself,” he said. “I’ve spent a decade touring with sometimes 200 shows a year. It was a time that forced me — and a lot of us — to think of the shadow we cast, what we want to live on and what we want to pass on to the new generation.”