Sanam and friends

Sanam band is unique in more ways than one…

June 10, 2015 07:22 pm | Updated 07:22 pm IST

The four-member team of band Sanam.

The four-member team of band Sanam.

Band Sanam is based in Mumbai yet it reaches out to as many people in two tier cities as in big ones like Delhi and erstwhile Bombay. Its studio is based in Malad, suburbs of Mumbai, but its listeners in large number are from places like Bareilly, Saharanpur and Jamshedpur. It claims to represent independent music and makes singles and downloads them on YouTube. Yet it opens its doors to filmmakers. Fortunately, the band members manage such contradictions yet live with the fact that they joined hands together to provide nice, clean music which entertains and simultaneously sends across a message to the society at large.

As vocalist and the band leader Sanam Puri, is clearly the favourite but the band gives equal prominence to every member – Samar, guitarist, Venky S. on bass and Keshav Dhanraj on drums.

Noting that Bollywood gives carte blanche to musicians, Sanam, who lent voice to films like the Imran Khan starrer Gori Tere Pyaar Mein and Hasee To Phasee , says, “During confabulations with filmmakers, they do make suggestions and alterations are made here and there. But by and large there have been no serious differences. So far, only I have been roped as a singer in films but we perform as a band to the same music in performances. We are open to the idea of performing as a band in a film. We do not see any contradiction in this.”

Muscat was the place where the band members evolved into full fledged musicians and gained expertise in playing guitar, piano and other instruments. Throwing light on this, Samar Puri, brother of Sanam, who gained expertise in playing the guitar as a 15-year-old in Muscat, says, “Sanam, Venky and me formed our first band there. So we started learning and playing songs there. We actually learned to play instruments on our own as there were no good music schools at that time in Muscat.”

These self-styled musicians never had any formal training in music although some of them have musical background.

Corroborating this, Venky S. says, “As a band we grew up with the gift of accessing all kinds of the music in the world via the Internet, which would have been very difficult in the past. Being exposed to different styles and genres inspired us and also pushed us to create our own sound.”

The band, with its unique mixture of Omani roots and Indian musicians, is a breed apart from contemporaries in the country. Describing his music as pop rock, Keshav Dhanraj says, “ Each of us has different musical inspirations so you can call our sound unique. We like to keep our music simple and make sure the mix is clean. We spend our entire day together, creating music together. So the blend of all our styles is evident in the music we create.”

Sanam has carved out a niche for himself in Bollywood but the band so far has not been featured in a film. Venky says, “As a band we are always making music irrespective of how we release it. We have different types of songs apart from the ones on our YouTube page, so there is a possibility of having our compositions featured in films. We are in the process of meeting and working with different producers on upcoming films.”

As far as future projects are concerned, the band is currently working on a single release instead of an album format.

“This is because it is easier to promote singles in the current market. It is definitely more difficult for the audience to find time to listen to a whole album these days. Some times good songs go unheard as not everyone would have listened to the whole album,” says Sanam.

The new single has been tentatively titled “Mukhda” and as the name suggests music will resonate with hummable Punjabi lyrics. For a band to be successful it is important that all members know each other. Fortunately, the band was formed only as a result of the fact that members were friends.

Samar says, “We started off as friends before becoming band mates and that is what keeps us grounded. We make sure that we are all on the same page before each performance and proper communication really helps. Apart from work we chill out together, play video games, cricket, work out, eat and drink together.”

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