They're a motley crew of characters brought together by music. A Chennai band with very rooted city connections, Subject To Change is the kind of group of people that have as much personality off stage as they do on stage.
In Hyderabad to perform for the Landmark Rocks series of events held at the bookstore last week, Subject To Change was excited to see the Deccan. “We've played extensively in Chennai and in Bangalore at different venues but this is our first time in Hyderabad,” explained singer Anjana Raghavan. “Unfortunately, our only impressions of it are based on the station and the guesthouse, but maybe we'll manage to see a little more before we're packed off.”
Subject To Change is a predominantly accapella-cum-acoustic band which is wired by voice-work and harmony. The five members came together after constant run-ins at culturals while in college in Chennai. Anjana and Anisha Verghese were both from Stella Maris College, whose western music clubs also perform acappella music, so the choice of genre seems apt.
The same goes for Aakash Jacob and Benny Dayal, both from Madras Christian College. Benny went on to make his mark by singing for films like Pyaar Impossible , Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na and Delhi-6 . However, the group is still very grounded, despite the presence of this rising star, as Anjana puts it. Their final member is guitarist Toby Joseph, a lecturer at the School of Audio Engineering, Chennai.
“We're all very spontaneous and chilled out, so things fell into place with us,” said Anjana. “Based on the kinds of songs we all like, we organically came together.” Subject To Change's music is heavily influenced by the 60s and 70s, with a spattering of folk, blues, hip-hop and film. They're particularly famous for something called the Deadly Medley — a string of over 20 songs by artistes ranging from Tina Turner to Oasis.
According to Anjana, the band operates on a no-leadership basis, which seems to click for them. As for future plans, “we're just looking at travelling a lot now, maybe doing some recording,” she said. “Sadly we don't work too well with deadlines, but we really want to collaborate with other musicians and see how we sound. There will be a lot going on.”
