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Rocked by their rhythm

hUsh, the rock band, was the dark horse that romped home. The school and college guys tell SHILPA NAIR ANAND how they were the underdogs who surprised hip rockers from all over the South

JOIE DE VIVRE hUsh members Michael Dias, Prannoy Praveen, Cherian Koshy, Rahul Cherian Ninan and Rahul Narayanan

Spit, Wreckage, Pindrop Violence... are the names of some of the rock bands that participated at the Zonal Campus Rock Idols Inter-Collegiate Competition in Bangalore last week. But hUsh... and no, this is not an attempt at shushing the music, hUsh is the rock band from nammude Kochi that rocked, really rocked. They were the runners-up at the competition. And that is not all, they will compete against some of India's best college rock bands. The competition will be held in Goa on December 16.

There is some more info on the band, Rahul Narayanan, the band's guitarist and the oldest member on the band is around 20 and Prannoy Praveen, the drummer is... .hold your breath... all of 14! The other members of the band are Michael Dias, the band's guitarist, Rahul Cherian Ninan, lead vocalist and Cherian Koshy, bass guitarist, also plays the keyboard. hUsh is the youngest rock band to participate in the Campus Rock Idols competition. Before images of archetypal anti-establishment rockers takes over, they are anything but it. They are `clean,' they chorus, and no tattered jeans, unkempt and unwashed long hair/beards for them. However, one of the members did get a tattoo, but that is just an aside. "We did not want to make loud statements, for us participating in the competition is just about music," chorus the band.

Prejudices

Although, age was not an issue there were certain prejudices that they band encountered. Says Rahul Narayanan, "There was this guy at Manipal who came up to us and asked `You Mallus are going to rock?' We did not react, but after we won, I went upto the guy and told him, `We Mallus do rock.'" Rock they did. They were the winners at the zonal semi-finals of the competition there, which qualified them for the next leg - the zonal finals at Bangalore.

Rahul Narayanan is a third year engineering student of MES Engineering College, Kuttipuram; Michael Dias is a second year engineering student of Rajagiri Engineering College; Rahul Cherian is a first year student of medicine at the Kozhenchery Medical College; Cherian Koshy and Prannoy Praveen are students of Bhavan's Girinagar. Cherian is in class XII and Prannoy, Class IX. Getting time, or rather squeezing in time for practice was difficult. With the band members studying at different places and exam schedules, it has been hard work, getting together and practising.

Winning at Manipal was totally unexpected, or rather they did not expect to win. "We went in as the underdogs, winning the competition was the furthest thing on our minds. We were serious about our music, but we also had fun. The feeling on winning was great," says Cherian. They let their music do the talking, or rather the singing.

The band was `formed' barely 10 days before the competition at Manipal, with each member almost stumbling on to the next. It helped that most of them had jammed or had played on the same band together at some point or the other. Added to that was the lesser time for practice, with the boys' academic schedules interfering or vice versa. In fact, the band was christened on the bus to Manipal.

Own composition

The band played songs by Metallica, Scorpions and Deep Purple there. At Bangalore for the Zonal finals, they added their own composition, `Love on Deathrow,' probably the only, remotely violent thing about the band. "The song is not as violent as it sounds. It is really a love song," clarifies the songwriter Rahul Cherian. Michael, with inputs from the other members, composed the music. "I wanted the song to sound different, so I Indianised it, set it to the raga scale, then the guys added their inputs and we were ready with the song." And this was the toughest song , say the band.

Although music-wise hUsh had nothing to be intimidated by, `rock star' looks, hoary voices... . Michael and Cherian narrate an incident, "There was this rock band from Hyderabad, who were in the adjacent room in the hotel. These were huge towering guys, 6 ft plus, long hair and then there was this bald guy who compensated with a very long frizzy beard, we were tiny compared to them. It was really strange."

The punch line is, after the competition hUsh were the ones swaggering. Musing on the factors that might have worked to their advantage, hUsh say, "We improvised on the originals, there were bands with singers who tried to sound hoary and hoarse. We added our inputs into the songs rather than attempting to sound exactly like the original."

Like pros, the band guys say that they were really excited with the crowd in Manipal which was very interactive. And then, the equipment: "At Manipal, the mikes were wireless. And that was awesome. There was so much of freedom to move on the stage. But in Bangalore, the mike was the regular kind, not wireless, so I kept moving around it like a tethered cow!" laughs Rahul Narayanan.

A word about Prannoy, a boy of very few words, who lets his drumming do the talking. The other band members talk of how wonderstruck drummers from other bands (read - Older Guys) came up to him, asking who or where he got his lessons from. Hearing Prannoy is believing just how good he is.

On a more serious note, according to a rock music journal, of 356 college bands in India, hUsh is among the best eight. Looking beyond the finals at Goa, long-term plans for the band include trying to strike a balance between academics and rocking. Hope they find that balance, for now just winning at the finals at Goa would do.

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