The thriving independent music scene in the city has a new addition – Beyond Strings and Keys. The three-member band is slowly and steadily making inroads on the musical circuit.
The band members are Adithya S.P., his younger brother Devanand S.P. and Lekshman Santhosh.
Music has been a part of their life for Adithya and Devanand, sons of ghazal singer Padmakumar.
“We have been learning Hindustani music from Abhradita Banerjee for seven years now. Obviously, it was our father who suggested that we learn the genre. It was our dream to form a band and it finally happened early this year. Lekshman is our childhood friend and that’s how he became part of the team,” says Adithya, a second year undergraduate student of Economics at Mar Ivanios College.
Adithya is the vocalist and keyboard player of the band; Devanand, a Plus Two student, is the vocalist and plays the acoustic guitar; Lekshman, an engineering student, is on the drums. “We wanted to be different from the regular bands. So our focus is on acoustic techno music. We play ghazals, Sufi songs and soft Western numbers at our programmes,” says Adithya who has been performing regularly with his brother at a hotel in Kovalam.
They include Sufi numbers of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in their shows in addition to rare and popular ghazal numbers. “With so many bands in the fray it is not easy to get noticed. So it is important to stand out from the crowd. Right now we are working on our debut album.
There will be English tracks, one of which we sang at a show in the city recently. The Hindi songs will have a Hindustani flavour,” Adithya says.
