Last week, Indiranagar’s BFlat was home to a fun mix of blues and pop-rock: Chennai’s The Shakey Rays hit the city as part of their national tour.
The Shakey Rays’ songs are typified by falsetto vocals and harmonies; they aren’t heavy on the heavy metal. It remains, however, a predominantly guitar-focused band. Dhruva Gautham, vocalist/guitarist for the band, explained that they think of their music as simply “guitar music”. “Our style of music is quite varied,” he explained, adding that the musicians’ individual influences were equally varied. “So we just try to bring it all together rather than battle it out”.
The band has developed a devoted following of its own; they’ve also caught the attention of names from the industry. BBC Radio producer Miti Adhikari, who has worked with bands such as Pearl Jam and Madonna, was recently asked in an interview about which band he’d like to produce; The Shakey Rays figured on his radar.
The Shakey Rays has also put together an album: their debut, Tunes From The Big Belly ,was released online in August last year. The album, initially free, is now available for $5 from the BandCamp website, and the band plans to re-release the album. “It was a promotional thing,” explained lead singer Gautham on why the album was initially free. “It’s a collection of ideas we had that we wanted to put across.” The price tag, he said, was so they could make some money to support themselves.
The band members — Gautham, vocalist/singer Vikram Kannan, bassist Tiburtius Rubin, and drummer Niranjan Swaminathan — are all full-time musicians; they support themselves with side gigs at restaurants and bars. But as a small band they don’t think that people need to support them by buying their music. “They support us by coming to our gigs,” Gautham clarifies.
The band is on a back-to-back tour, hitting Mumbai, Pune and Delhi besides Bangalore. Isn’t it stressful to be touring so much? “No it’s not. It’s what we want to do,” says Gautham, with finality. “We want to tour more. We’re not one of those bands that go ‘Ah, can’t do this anymore!’”. Tiburtius Rubin, who is currently their bassist, adds, “You pick up a guitar, start playing it, form a band – for what? To play, right?”
There’s a refreshing love of a certain old-school style of musicianship; the band is unanimous in favouring touring – not singles or records. “You have to get out there. You have to tour. People do support you, because when they listen to your music and they dig it, they come to your shows,” says Gautham. “A lot of artists, all they do is release singles…They don’t really tour.”
This emphasis on live music means that the band is perfectly all right with peer-to-peer file sharing, which has been the subject of much debate recently. The band doesn’t think free sharing of their music hurt their prospects; in fact, they credit the practice with helping them. “It’s brilliant. If it wasn’t for our music being available to share, I don’t think we’d have gotten anywhere,” Gautham acknowledged.
The Chennai-based band thinks it’s slightly easier to get gigs in Bangalore. But beyond that, they don’t see any major differences in the two cities’ support for independent music. Gautham says, “It’s probably easier to get gigs here – in that sense, Bangalore is closer to Mumbai. But in terms of a ‘scene’ I don’t think there’s much of a difference. It’s one big independent music collective”.
They’re clear about what’s next for the band: “More tours, more records.”
