Fresh off the Bangalore scene’s latest charity concert, which featured more than 15 bands raising funds to provide musical instruments to under privileged children, hard rock/blues band Perfect Strangers are quickly chalking out new material and have a plan to enter the studio. With the songs such as ‘Angel from Hell’ and ‘Breaking Away’ being well-received in the last few months. Says the band, comprising vocalist Shaapla Sen, guitarist Debjeet Basu, bassist Chiranjeev Brahma, keyboardist Manu Shrivastava and drummer Savisesh M., “Our biggest priority is to hit the studio and record them one by one. You can expect them to hit the Bangalore Indie music scene very soon via social media.”
The story behind the band
Vocalist Shaapla Sen knew guitarist Debjeet Basu from Kolkata and when they met again in Bangalore, they got together to do some music. Says the band, “Rather than an overdone two-guitar sound, what they were really looking for was a guitar and keyboard driven sound, resulting in a more dynamic soundscape with overdrives, harmonies, riff locks, screaming organ sounds and lush layering. The search for band members began and Manu Shrivastava, the keyboardist, responded to a Facebook ad on a music forum. They were working towards their first show when their drummer decided to go back to his home. Search for drummers began through word of mouth and Savvy was roped in. Just when the first show was around the corner it was the turn for the bassist to quit. He had to go to the US for work. Perplexed, we again looked toward Facebook for help to audition bassists. Unknown to Manu, his college time friend CJ (Chiranjeev Brahma) had just moved to Bangalore and was “bandless”. He lapped up the opportunity when he found out through circle of friends. The group got together at a modest jam pad at Domlur for a jam. We immediately knew they had something special going. That was summer of 2013 and well, the band is still jamming.”
You guys play music because
“Our vision is very simple: we want to make good melodic music that resonates with people. We believe while it’s quite easy to make a complicated 7/4 riff, the actual challenge is to make a song that’s catchy and has all the elements of a good rock song. In short, making people move! As far as our original music is concerned, we don’t want to be bound by any genre. Our music is pure raw melodic rock with a contemporary feel and dashes of progressive ideas. Our songs talk about everything – India, EDM, violence against women, girlfriend issues. Basically, whatever bothers us,” says the band.
You’ll still remember the time when
“Since we have a gorgeous female vocalist, we get the odd request for item numbers …the last one was ‘Babydoll’ and the person making the request offered Rs. 5,000 for it. We were in splits on stage!”
The toughest part about being a young band
While the band laughs off being called young, they do agree they are relatively new to the city’s scene, which they have no complains about. The band says, “The Bangalore gig scene is one of the best in the country right now. The number of venues, appreciation for original music, and a great audience always help young bands climb the popularity charts faster. The only issue we do see is the low pay and the dearth of good sound for live musicians, especially for English original music. This is way better than the previous generation of bands and the scene is getting stronger. Luckily we have some renowned venues in the city curated and owned by real music lovers”
The story behind the name
The band takes its name from rock legends Deep Purple’s song ‘Perfect Strangers’. Perfect Strangers explain, “It was because we were all strangers when we got together and the first song we jammed on was ‘Perfect Strangers’. Maybe all our creativity that time was concentrated on music creation.”
Musicians that inspire you
Says the band, “We could fill this article with just this answer. We love bands like Extreme, Mr. Big, Dream Theater, Pink Floyd, Toto, Deep Purple, Yes, Rush. As with most artists, a lot of musicians from across the globe inspire us to make music though not everyone’s influences can be seen in our work.”
Compositions over covers
“When we do gigs – and we perform almost once a week – the audience mostly wants commercial classic rock and blues covers, music they have grown up listening to and want to have a good time with. No problem with that. Everybody grows up playing covers as that’s the best way to learn… a famous guitarist once said, ‘you play your own leads when you can play other’s leads also.’ But we also like to mix it up with our originals which talk about contemporary issues. So an evening with Perfect Strangers will give you an ideal mix of classic rock covers and progressive originals,” says the band.
Follow Perfect Strangers on Facebook.com/perfectstrangersbangalore
