It will be a blast for classic rock aficionados as The Grooverz come to town this weekend. In their first performance in city,the five-member band comprising musicians Kaustav Banerjee (vocals/guitar), Subha Chakraborty (guitar), Pratick Dey Sarkar (keyboard/backing vocals), Sunny Bhattacharya (bass/backing vocals) and Dipayan Ganguly (drums, percussion) promise to take us to an era when rock was at its best. The range is huge — from Harry Belafonte, Elton John and Elvis Presley to Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi and Guns ‘n’ Roses and the 90s bands Hip-Hop and Blue Note. “We are excited as the rock lovers of Hyderabad will be hearing us for the first time; it feels amazing to sing at a new venue and in front of a different audience,” enthuses Kaustav, the band’s founding member.
The band from Kolkata plays varied genres; from the experimental indie pop that defined them, to classic rock. In fact, initially when they launched the group ‘Rock Baaja’ in 2011, they had played Bollywood music. The line-up has changed over the years and the group wanted a national approach and rechristened themselves as The Grooverz. “We want to have a good time as much as we want our audience to enjoy. We groove along with them so we are Grooverz and the audience is our Groovees,” he laughs.
Apart from their name, their approach to music has also changed. “We are like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly with different colours and form. We are still in the larva stage, trying to gain a foothold and hope our best years are yet to come,”
In these nine long years, their career graph has seen a good rise with shows in Kolkata and across the country. Their Facebook page shows a packed calendar in October with 15 shows. “We don’t want to see the end of graph and hope to keep singing,” says Kaustav quoting Mark Twain: “ I am like a little boy picking pebbles on the shore while the sea is front of me.”
The group plays music for a living as they do not know anything except music! “We do not do any job as we are pathetic in front of a computer. Besides music, we know only to have a good time and poke fun at each other.” The five musicians have similar preferences and connect with each other beyong music and payments. They hangout after shows and visit pubs and friends to enhance their relationship. That personal bonding comes out during their live shows as they crack jokes even during mistakes. “In comparison to other musicians who keep a straight face during live performances so that the crowd doesn’t catch any mistake, we laugh it off . Even If I go wrong with lyrics, the drummer misses a beat or keyboard player plays a wrong note, we try to keep it natural. No one is perfect and we are bound to make mistakes on shows. These small bondings help as we do not get too stressed about it.”
(Saturday Night Live ft The Grooverz perform at Hard Rock Café on October 19 at 8 pm onwards; Tickets: bookmyshow.com)
