It was the love for music that led to the formation of the band Souljam by a bunch of medical students from Trivandrum Medical College in 2001. A classic rock band, they played the music of some of the popular bands including Beatles, Eagles, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits and Queen. While these students have since graduated, and most have moved to various places, the band is still going strong.
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“When our jobs took us places the band got new members to replace those who left and has been evolving ever since. Ramesh and I are the remaining members of the original group,” says Abhilash Varkey Jacob.
The current line-up of the troupe has been stable for the past five years and include Reba Paul and Abhilash at the vocals, Jonathan Bruce on the keys, Ramesh Babu and Vinod Ferdinand (aka Flash) at the guitars, Christy on the bass and William Samuel on the drums.
“‘Souls who jam together’ aptly describes our band as the music we play are our own jam versions of original classic rock numbers. Souljam is an eclectic band in terms of our music and of our members. We are a cover band and prefer to remain so. We enjoy the camaraderie we share as a group,” says Abhilash.
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Souljam plays live mostly at venues in and around Kovalam and Varkala. Guest musicians are a regular feature at their performances as they believe in an open band concept with impromptu jam sessions by various artistes. They played for the Earth Hour celebrations at Gandhi Park in March this year and on World Tourism Day in September at Kovalam Beach.
Souljam will be performing in the city as a curtain raiser to a concert by French music troupe FLAGAS’K at Vyloppilly Samskriti Bhavan on December 18 . The concert is organised by Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum. Entry is free.
Meet the artistes
Abhilash is a dentist and runs a private practice with his wife in the city, while Reba is a freelance journalist and Jonathan is a music composer. Jonathan has worked on the music of Malayalam movie, Chewing Gum which was released last week. Ramesh works at Federal Bank, Kazhakuttam branch and Vinod is a session guitarist with some of the prominent names in Mollywood including Jassie Gift. Christy is a social worker, active with Childline, while William works at the Salvation Army School as a member of the office staff.