Playing it Right

Champions,has been selected for the album and they are busy jamming,drumming and rapping in English and Punjabi,in the sound-proof studio.

For the uninitiated,the MoneyGram International’s Cricket for Peace programme was conducted in the three World Cup hosting nations — India,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and the auditions were held across nine cities. From Chandigarh,Driving on Tracks was finalised and the band will now feature,along with nine others,in the music album.

Soon,the boys open the doors of the studio and we are introduced to the five members — aged between 14 and 20,they stand not more than five feet tall and have ruffled hair,dreamy eyes and hold a crumpled sheet of paper with hastily written lyrics on it. “We wrote it in two hours,over SMSes,” says Shashank Dogra. While he is the English rapper on the bass guitar and harmonies,his 14-year-old brother,Karan Dogra,adds punch to the song with Punjabi rap.

The Dogra brothers are as different as chalk and cheese. Shashank,is an engineering student and the digital music whiz behind the band’s sound engineering. He “doesn’t really like cricket”. On the other hand,Karan,a class IX student,is a hardcore metal guy,passionate about Punjabi rap,music and cricket. Pan to the others: keyboardist Shivam Sarin is a cricket buff,pursing his Bachelors,Sumit Kumar is on the drums and Aroun Nathan jams on the electric guitar.

Quiz the seven-month-old band on how it feels to feature alongside bands from Ahmedabad,Bengaluru,Chennai,Delhi,Kolkata,Mumbai,Dhaka and Colombo,and they say,“awesome”. “We just read about the auditions in the paper and tried our luck. Before we knew it,we were selected,” says Shashank.

Learning music since they were young,the five say that their music is different,as it falls in the “hyrbid genre”. “Everyone is doing the punk grunge and alternative rock thing,but we are into electronic,rap rock and combine English and Punjabi sounds. “It’s very desi,” they say in unison. The song also reflects their eclectic taste in music,which is refreshingly new. “Shivam is into death metal and rap,Karan loves Punjabi music,Aroun is a hardcore romantic who also holds guitar tutorials,and I like classical rock,” says Shashank. Aroun adds how he also tried learning classical music. “It was tougher than rocket science,” he quips. The album will release a day before the World Cup final,on April 1,in Mumbai,with live performances by the bands.

For more,log on to http://www.moneygram.com/cricketforpeace.