The New Band Stand

Somya Lakhani lists five indie bands to look out for this year

Somya Lakhani lists five indie bands to look out for this year

ADI & SUHAILFor a decade now,Aditya Balani,29,and Suhail Yusuf Khan,24,have been writing music together. There are many original compositions some complete but many left incomplete. A month ago,with the sole purpose of completing their work,the two announced themselves as Adi & Suhail. Their first single Laage Re spells success,with Balani belting out eclectic guitar riffs and Khan joining the song with the sarangi. New age pop,electro-acoustic its a combination of a number of vague influences. I am also the vocalist and play the sarangi at the same time, says Khan,who is also part of the Delhi-based band Advaita. The songs are lyric-heavy,full of meaning and depth,and the influences are varied from Sufi to jazz to electronica,Hindustani and folk sounds. We will have an EP by the end of the year, concludes Khan.

THE CAPTAINS OF HOOK

This Chennai-based band,formed about seven months ago,comprises three good-looking,ill-mannered,crazy punks who play mean guitars,sing cockiness and thrash the drums like its no ones business. Craig Maxworth,29,on bass and vocals,Hudstin Fernandez,24,on drums and Siddharth Srinivasan,25,on guitars and vocals they cuss on stage,act drunk,flirt and create unbeatable energy. At the Escape Festival of Music and Arts this year,they performed Fairytale,Take it Away,Galaxies in Coffeemugs and Preacher man alternative-rock and punk tunes that found many fans. Our sound is a disorganised collection of our musical influences there is no particular genre that we follow, says Srinivasan. Former members of the popular band Junkyard Groove,the three are working on more original compositions and a few gigs.

YOUR CHIN

Within the tiny indie music industry in India,25-year-old Raxit Tewari is a known name. He is part of Sky Rabbit,an electro post-punk rock band from Mumbai,and about seven months ago,he came out with a solo project Your Chin. Still a nascent studio project,Tewari has already come up with a four-track EP by the same name. With no plans of going live for a while,Tewari is busy making more loops and writing. I made a lot of loops first and once I was free from all the work around Sky Rabbits debut album,I polished it and mixed the song, he says. Music connoisseurs need to patiently wait for Tewari to release more electro-pop tunes online. Hes bound to kick up a storm. Its a bet.

PLOK

Plok as a word doesnt exist in any dictionary but Neeraj Aggarwala,vocalist of this Delhi-based band,explains it thus: the sound that comes when a bubble is burst. Though,unofficially,the band is two years old,it was only nine months ago that they went public with their music. Their tracks,Heaven,Like roses and In a sense define the fact that they belong to no particular genre,be it alt-rock,pop or electro. Besides Aggarwala,theres Anirudh Subramaniam and Tushar Rawal on guitars,Yugnak Mishra on bass and Aveleon Giles Vaz on drums. We are about to launch our debut album,tentatively titled The Bubble Burst,and it will have about 10 songs, says Aggarwala.

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