It is study time at Vardhaman College of Engineering in Shamshabad and Venkat Jagadish Chinthala is all plugged in. He is listening to John Mayer’s hits while studying the complexities of VLSI design. “I am never away from music; it’s always ringing in my ears,” he smiles. A few days ago Jagadish was seen as a bass guitarist and manager for The Crochets band, which sang and gave a special performance at Hard Rock Café.
The Crochets, formerly known as Refugee, was formed at the engineering college where Jagadish met the other members including Joshua Ferdinand (lead guitarist), Naveen (drummer) and Bhavaja (vocalist). Jagadish hails from Khammam and recalls how music brought them together.
Music for the soul “Engineering is for degree and music is for the soul,” he smiles. Now with a few members going out and new members coming in, the band has undergone a change. “Joshua suggested the name ‘Crochet’ and we are slowly stepping into a different league,” he adds. Crochet means ‘a musical note having the time value of 1/4 of a whole note.’
Besides Jagadish, Joshua and Bhavaja, the other band members include Raymond (pianist) Utkarsh Varma (vocalist), Deepak Prasad (vocalist/guitarist) and Vaishak (drummer).
The Crochets regularly plays soft rock and Bollywood at events (Skyfest) and also does mashups; their mash up cover song Samjhawan Jeena Jeena is on YouTube. “We have created a rock version of A.R. Rahman’s number Roja ,” he informs. Mashups are all about modifying old songs into soft rock, to suit the present generation’s tastesDo they enjoy them? “It is a bit compromising but we do it as people like it,” he says and compares it to a situation where a big cricketer has to play gully cricket. “However, there is a lot of fun and we love entertaining. We do not see whether it is a big event or a small one. We enjoy playing and when audiences love our song, we enjoy it even more.”
Jagadish shares how Glen Maxwell of the Kings XI Punjab team enjoyed their gig at Hard Rock Cafe. “He liked our show and even tweeted about it saying how he loved us. It is a big boost for youngsters like us,” he adds.
The group mostly practices on weekends and the band is taking it slow and steady in the field of music. “The goal is to establish a music studio,” he concludes.
