At the forefront of Hyderabad’s buzzing music scene are some wonderful indie bands that do not subscribe to any of the stereotypes — that a band must have a distinct sound, it should perform a lot of non-Indian covers, once in a while, it should cater to high adrenaline guitar riffs and headbanging. One such is The Deccan Project, purveyor of funk and fusion, that often enthrals its audiences with tracks as diverse as ‘Dil Se’ on one end to ‘Narayanate Namo Namo’.
In a scene inundated with bands largely inspired from the rock and metal bands from around the world, The Deccan Project performs Indian songs, be it AR Rahman covers, movie soundtracks, or covers of songs performed by other popular Indian bands like Agam and Motherjane. “While our music has diverse influences, we borrow heavily from rock, progressive music, funk and Carnatic elements in Indian music,” asserts Rahul Nagula, who plays the keyboard.
Apart from Nagula who also sings, the band comprises Nithin Reddy who lends vocals, Kanakaraj Kadimi on the bass guitar, Nikhil Vanam who lends vocals and plays the guitar and Vivek on the drums. The five are alumni from Vallurupalli Nageswara Rao Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering & Technology (VNR VJIET), who found a common passion in music. They have stuck together ever since they were part of a music club called Crescendo. Among them, four are IT professionals while another is a mechanical engineer. “We missed music once we graduated. That stoked the desire when we were catching up one Christmas Eve,” Vivek reminisces. The band was formed on December 24, 2017.
- Band’s age: Two years
- Where: Pubs like Vapour, Tabula Rasa, Hylife, B-Dubs, and Chai Kahaani and other private gigs
- Speciality: Funk and fusion numbers based on Indian songs — filmy and Carnatic
The group manages to pull off a hectic schedule which involves practising during the weekends and late nights and sometimes early mornings before reaching office by 10 am. “We do eight to 10 gigs per month, mostly on Fridays and Saturdays, which allows us to maintain the right balance between our responsibilities at the workplace and our passion and common goal to promote our brand of music,” says Vivek.
The band is now managing at least a dozen gigs a month across various venues in Hyderabad. “We have been lucky with opportunities — being at the right place at the right time — ever since our first gig at Vapour brewpub in May 2018. It helps that the Hyderabad music scene is doing really well, which ensures that we have a good payday,” they say.
Talking about incorporating the local flavour, the band members say, “We are trying to include songs by composers Vivek Sagar and Devi Sri Prasad for a local flavour. Coke Studio tracks, especially Amit Trivedi’s, are our favourites. Harris Jayaraj and Raghu Dixit are other musicians whose compositions figure on our performance lists.” The Deccan Project are working on recording their own EP that should be out in a couple of months. “We are producing the album ourselves, allowing this to be a learning experience rather than a commercial venture. We will be outsourcing the mix and master bit, for higher quality,” says Nithin.
Nikhil adds that they have invested on expensive gear in the last five years and are working on building a studio. While they are serious about their music, their mantra for the coming years seems to continue juggling two careers, taking it one gig at a time.
Right now, the band is focussing on the quality of its music. Their music caters to fusion and funk enthusiasts, especially in the Indian music scene. “We believe that progress will be exponential if we stick to the basics and make sure we tap into the excellent music scene in Hyderabad. In our journey, We have been lucky enough to have a good sound team — Thiru, Sukumar, Clint, Sanjay, Sandeep, Shreya and Seshanka. At the end of the day, we realise that music is an ocean and there is something new to discover each time. Given that we are a reasonably young band (with some members having passed out of engineering college as late as 2016), there are miles to go before we sleep, to quote from Robert Frost’s famous poem,” they sign off.
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