Scherezaad sings the blues

It must take a post-Grunge era Woodstock of sorts to experience The Doors,Nirvana,Cranberries,U2,Tracy Chapman,and more,together on one stage.

The band Scherezaad Featuring Kappa works its way around multiple genres to create one music

It must take a post-Grunge era Woodstock of sorts to experience The Doors,Nirvana,Cranberries,U2,Tracy Chapman,and more,together on one stage. Welcome to a band that manoeuvers its way through intertwining paths of jazz,funk,hard and classic rock. In the year 2000,Mumbai-based music lover,Scherezaad decided to give her passion the shape of a band. Kappa was formed,and to this day she remains the constant axis point around whom a varied set of musicians have played and continue to play in various cities. “Music is a tight-knit community and alone one can’t make much,especially out of the English music scene. So musicians come play with me whenever they can. I don’t know all of them personally; they get in touch with me and the performance gets confirmed,” says 29-year-old Scherezaad. The current set of musicians with her,Hitesh Dhutia,Jarvis Menezes,Vivaan Kapoor and Rushad Mistry,have set out on a national tour of Mumbai,Bengaluru,Hyderabad and will stop by at Hard Rock Cafe in Pune today.

What Kappa presents is a wide kaleidoscope of songs from varied genres. So at one performance,one could head bang to good ol’ Smells Like Teen Spirit or sway to some of Stevie’s Wonders. And these dramatic tonal shifts are executed by a singer who has “never taken a day of training” in her life. “All I have done is based on what I have heard. It comes from,I don’t know where!” Scherezaad laughs. Her set list featuring mostly male singers had left even her own family confused once. “They thought it was a male vocalist singing! They couldn’t believe that my sweet voice could transform such.”

Because of the dynamic nature of the band,there isn’t much time for rehearsals. “We run through the songs over one or two sessions. It helps that we play the song just as it is,with not many changes,” says drummer Vivaan Kapoor. The vivacious 18-year-old student started playing at the age of five and like most musicians who play with Kappa,is a part of another band – One Track Mind,which is currently working on an album. But Kappa still somewhat surprises Kapoor. “I was asking myself just recently as to how we do it! The process is so quick,” he lets out a chuckle.

Such super groups and the free-spirited embrace of multiple genres by them can help upcoming musicians find a stage before they come into their own. Rushad Mistry,a veteran of many rock outfits and bassist in the present Kappa,agrees. “It all depends on how the band members want to take it forward.”

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories

Tags:
Nirvana