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HOME MADE

Photos: S. Gopakumar.

Rock sensations: (From left) Tony John, Benjamin Issac, Rex Vijayan and Mithun Puthenveetil changed the face of rock music in Kerala.

Take four music-crazy dudes. Add generous slices of hardcore rock. Spice it up with Malayalam lyrics. And garnish with loads of attitude. The result is the delectable Malayalam rock band Avial. And just like its namesake, the nadan (ethnic) mishmash of steamed vegetables, they are Kerala’s first rock band who introduced a nadan Malayali flavour to rock! In this day and age when most Indian rock bands prefer to sing in English, Avial, comprising Tony John (vocals), Rex Vijayan (guitars), Mithun Puthenveetil (drums) and bassist Benjamin Issac (who recently replaced Naresh Kamath, the Mumbai-based bassist of Kailash Kher’s Kailasa and the only non-Malayali in the band), have created a name for themselves by mixing earthy Malayalam lyrics with the tempos of hardcore rock.

Since their debut in 2003, with the catching head-banger ‘Nada, nada, nada…,’ Anandraj Benjamin Paul, the song’s vocalist, has moved on. Nevertheless, armed with a quirky name (which incidentally came to Rex in a dream) and an even quirkier “avial paruvam” (messed up) attitude, these young men unleashed a new genre of rock that they themselves coined as ‘alternative Malayali rock.’

“Alternative rock is a genre that does not follow traditional rules of rock. Unlike glam rock, hard rock or heavy metal, it does not begin with an intro, followed by the song, the chorus, the guitar solo and the likes. Avial swears by the mantra of alternative rock which allows us the freedom to gel rustic Malayalam with funky rock,” says Rex, a native of Kochi who is also one among the handful of guitarists in India to be endorsed by Gibson guitars of the United States. Such is the popularity of this genre now that the band’s awesome self-titled debut album swept the night at this year’s Jack Daniels Annual Rock Awards in February – the closest thing that the Indian rock music scene has to the Grammys. Avial walked away with six of the seven awards including the ones for song of the year, album of the year and band of the year in both the popular and critics’ award categories.

Originally a quintet drawn together from other rock bands singing in English, Avial’s dream of doing something different saw them recording a rock album in Malayalam; something that had hitherto never been done. “It is not as easy as it sounds to fuse Malayalam with rock. In fact, it was the biggest challenge we faced. Malayalam words tend to be longer and have more complex pronunciation than English. To fit each Malayalam word into a Western tune is a painstaking process, to say the least. And imagine the task if the instrumentation is completely Western while all the lyrics are in Malayalam,” grins Tony, a native of the city, as he recollects how the band jammed together for hours on end at his home studio in Palayam until it was perfectly synchronised.

No wonder then that after the incredible success of ‘Nada, nada, nada…,’ which was released on SS Music, the subsequent formation of the band (band-hopping apparently is a common phenomenon) and a sweet recording deal from Phat Phish records, Mumbai, it took Avial almost four years to release their album. And what do you get? Eight tracks that are quite simply ‘kickass’ (according to a review by Rolling Stone India magazine), released on MTV, no less. With a mixture of original lyrics such as in ‘Nada, nada, nada…,’ and ‘Ettam Paattu’ to folk songs such as ‘Chekele’ and even poetry by Kavalam Narayana Panikkar (‘Karukara karmukil’), all the songs in the album focus on contemporary social issues from deforestation to social discrepancy. “This is our way of making Gen X aware of the problems in society. Hopefully it will act as a harbinger of change,” muses Rex, who adds that the bands’ major influences have been rockers like Pink Floyd, Van Halen, The Doors, Led Zepplin, Police and Incubus, “simply because they are all true Rock Gods who were spunky enough to do whatever they wanted. Quite unlike contemporary rock bands that have commercialised rock.”

Steamed up with success, Avial has performed on hundreds of stages across India and abroad and has sold over 45,000 copies of their album not to mention downloads in their thousands. In fact, the album has been sold out in most stores across the country; something that the band members are remarkably blasé about. “We are not in it to sell it. Who ever wants to listen can just go online and hear it for free,” quips Mithun, a Kannur native who resides in the city. “We’re happy if people just hear our music,” adds front-man Tony, who always gets up on stage for concerts dressed in a lungi. “It’s a quirk of his that drives fans wild, Malayali pride and all,” laugh Rex and Mithun who admit that they too once tried it at a stage show in Mauritius but found it awkward. The band, who are currently working on their second album, recently collaborated with Italian band ‘A67’ for ‘Suburb,’ an album that features rock bands from countries like Turkey, Malaysia and South Africa. They’ve also worked out a deal with Converse shoes to promote their music. So next time you pick up a Converse shoe anywhere in the world, you’ll get a CD which features bands from across the world plus Avial’s ‘Ettam Pattu’ from India. And the band promises that the second album won’t take another four years. Rock on Avial!

Avial’s album ‘Avial-The Debut’ features eight tracks. “Despite being in Malayalam, we knew the album would do well because it is good music. And good music always transcends language barriers,” says Rex Vijayan, the guitarist. The quartet will perform at ‘Break on Through,’ the tribute to Jim Morisson along with other bands from Kerala at Taj Residency, 7.30 p.m. on July 19.

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