Chennai’s indie music scene has mushroomed over the last decade, as young bands now have the advantage of choosing accessible equipment and rapidly building an audience through the Internet, instead of relying on hard-to-grab cassettes and expensive CDs.
These young bands are ambitious: no more playing covers and sticking to just one genre of music. Here are four such bands in the city to watch out for.
The Vavval Brothers
Most budding bands see one target: performing for a live audience. The Vavval Brothers, a two-man team, plays the game differently. Anirudh Vijay and Chris Jason have walked away from the stage, towards a more cinematic setting.
“We’re not focusing on gigs at the moment,” Jason said. “Our focus is on making music for cinema, and getting it out there.” The Vavval Brothers have worked on music for three short films, and aim at finishing 10 to 12 by the end of the year. “We want to make our presence felt, instead of hiding in the darkness and waiting for a chance,” Vijay says.
Vijay and Jason have almost completely shied away from performing in public, even though their past performances were met with an enthusiastic reception. Win or lose, their bands — previously The Abhishtoos and Veena Pona Band — always made a memorable splash at fests.
From experimenting with entertainment music to exploring technicalities, Jason and Vijay’s music eventually found its niche. “I found the balance between a band’s tightness and a band’s entertainment,” Vijay says. “We decided to make normal songs and execute them with high energy. And we called ourselves ‘The Vavval Brothers’.”
Nobody
CHENNAI, 15/06/2017; The crew of the band Nobody. Photo: R. Pavithra
“Nobody won.” For a minute in late July 2016, no one at CMC Vellore’s Pegasus cultural festival registered what had happened, and why the judge was saying these words. Then it hit both the audience and the bands that had performed: a band named Nobody had won the competition.
The band went on to win 16 more competitions over the next eight months. ‘Nobody’ has five members — Stevie Joe as lead singer, Joel Prithvi as lead guitarist, Rhenius Hudson as bassist, Hones Heauman Raj on the keyboards and Bishwanth YR on the drums. Most of them are Madras Christian College students and all five entered the music scene with a bang as Nobody.
Nobody’s four original songs mix alternative rock with some electronic elements, and their debut single ‘Burn’ is set to open a few weeks from now. Their secret to success is not cryptic. “We kept winning,” they say, “So our tip is just to be the best in the game.”
The Broadway Addicts
A song w ritten by guitarist Srinivas eventually earned the band its name. “It is a metaphor for drama addicts,” says Srinivas, who says that most of their songs are satires about people. The Broadway Addicts comprises three members — guitarist V Srinivas, bass player Dilip Venkateshwaran and drummer Vijay Sudarshan. Trying to find new ground in music, The Broadway Addicts broadly describes its music as punk, “Musically, we still can’t describe what we are playing,” says Venkateshwaran.
Their first album, No Act , was released on Bandcamp, which led to an increase in the frequency of their gigs. Staying away from publicity, the band has kept a low profile since its launch, especially in Chennai, as their shows are mostly in Bengaluru and Mumbai.
The band was created in 2013, with an original mix that included another drummer. Sudarshan bumped into Srinivas on a train station and joined the band in 2014. With over 25 songs, the indie band focusses more on writing originals than performing covers. Their new album, Super Sucker System , is almost completed.
Wayside
Initially having named themselves PEST, Wayside as a band came together around July 2016, right before the Sarang fest of IIT, Madras. It’s been almost a year since their first show at the Unwind Centre, and the trio, consisting of drummer Pranav KR, bass player Shiv Rekhi and vocalist Elvis Xaviour, is still going strong.
“We played for another metal band, and every time they’d leave the room, Pranav and I would jam in alternate genres. We always wanted to form a rock band,” says Rekhi. Usually, Xaviour comes forth with the lyrics first, which the others then add tunes and a beat to.
“We rarely perform covers, because Elvis can’t remember the lyrics of something he didn’t write,” laughs KR, as they talk about their seven original compositions and four more still pending. With contrasting musical inspirations, ranging from John Mayer and Porcupine Tree to Rage Against the Machine, the band generates music that could fall under funk rock, but is more of a medley of various interests and genres.
Having performed over 15 shows in Chennai, Wayside looks towards a brighter future, as they have just completed the recording of their first song. Keeping their base at Bengaluru and Chennai, they hope to be able to reach other cities soon.
