Five years ago, Josh Vivian and Varun Parandhaman joined a music school at around the same time for no reason other than to make friends in the musical circle. “We were already performing, but we didn’t really have anyone to connect with when it came to our music,” says Josh. Varun says, “We used to talk a lot and perform in the classes, but we became good friends only after he needed help to record a cover of Coldplay’s Fix You. So he came over to my house, worked on the song all through the night; that was the first time we worked together so we sort of clicked then.”
The two Chennai youngsters, who make up Chennai’s first pop boy band > Namma Ooru Boy Band (NOBB), have created quite a buzz with their first single > Cosmopolitan Kadhali. The stylishly put-together video has got close to 68,000 views on YouTube in three months, taking the fledgling band a long way in the eight months since their inception. The video has also been aired on a Tamil music channel on TV, which is typically not a place where independent artists are featured.
“The composition and lyrics for this song were done in about 30 minutes,” says 23-year-old Josh, who works in an e-commerce company. “I had a very nice feeling about it. I thought it was really catchy, and it was the first time we ever came up with something very commercial. We’re both singers and songwriters, but we weren’t sure if what we normally come up with would sell here,” he says, adding that he wasn’t thinking in terms of a hit single, but he knew that people would like it. The song does have a breezy rhythm to it and easily becomes a earworm.
And so with the help of friends, family and acquaintances, they worked on putting together the song. As a prelude, the band put out a >promo video in which Anirudh Ravichander endorses NOBB. After listening to a scratch of the song and liking it, top musicians like Keba Jeremiah and Joshua Satya collaborated with them. Andrew Arun of June Ponaal July Kaatre fame lent his voice and agreed to produce the video which was directed by Josh. Surya Ganapathy plays the title role, essaying it to perfection.
Varun says that the video is an extension of who they are in real life: “We aren’t actors so we can’t do running on the beach kind of romantic scenes. It’s just not us. This way, we could tell a story. We went for a Billy Joel Uptown Girl kind of feel and incorporated our ode to Michael Jackson and influences from Justin Timberlake. And when it comes to wardrobe, we couldn’t have some director coming in and telling Josh to take off his hat. That’s his signature when he’s performing.” Pointing to how they are dressed for this meeting — Josh in jeans and a plaid shirt, Varun in baggy shorts and polo T-shirt — he says with an infectious laugh, “We are true to our tagline: Konjam Style, Romba Local.”
While Josh is the founder, front man, lyricist, composer and video director, Varun is the music producer. “We have given ourselves clearly defined roles to prevent confusion. How other people perceive it is immaterial. We are a band, one unit,” says Varun, who is a year younger than his band mate. After completing an engineering degree, he is now working on being a full-time musician. “Being from Chennai, it is completely weird that we don’t have an independent Tamil music band. Here, you’re only recognised if you have sung in a film. But we don’t want to be playback singers, we want to be recognised as independent artists,” he says.
This recognition might not be too far off says Josh, who has done backing vocals for the song Un Vizhigalil in the movie Maan Karate . “They were looking for artistes like us to perform. Soon, we too can make inroads into the music industry,” he says. Varun, too, has sung in the yet-to-be-released Vikram Prabhu movie Sigaram Thodu for music director Imaan.
Embarking on such enterprises without the support of family can be quite difficult, concedes Varun, adding that the success of their video has quelled some of the apprehension at home. “Being an independent artiste means having to wake up each morning and wonder what I have to do to further my career that day,” he says.
Their big dream is to be the first pop band to be the music directors for a Tamil film. “There are people now who are music directors jointly, but they aren’t independent artistes. It will be a huge step forward for the music scene in the city and we want to be the first ones off the block,” they say.
