Rock solid

Avial made its foray into the alternative rock music scene nine months back.

Avial made its foray into the alternative rock music scene nine months back. And there8217;s been great excitement among keen followers of the alternative genre for the band that courageously went where few bands had gone before. As Avial prepares to share the platform with 11 of the country8217;s biggest rock-acts for the 8216;Rock On for Humanity Concert8217; in Mumbai on October 31, here8217;s why this Kerala band will stand out in the crowd.

Combining folk influences with the best of alternative rock8217;s experimental sounds, the four-member band sings in its mother-tongue, Malayalam. Their opening song Nada Nada, written by folk-song writer Engadiyur Chandrashekaran, sets the tone for the album, written in an arcane folk form, almost undecipherable to the average Malayali today. But the genre-defying variations in their songs have proved captivating enough to draw listeners from all over the world. 8220;We did 15 years in the English rock scene and it didn8217;t get us anywhere. Besides, in the particular scenario that we find ourselves today, it didn8217;t make sense to express ourselves in any language other than our own,8221; says Tony John, lead singer of the band who fuses turn-table scratching and innovative synthesizers.

Avial8217;s music is a wonderful concoction much like the traditional Malayali dish the band derives its name from with strains of present day bands like Porcupine Tree, Incubus and Audioslave. Chekele, the second track on the album is a sublime old folk song from the Palghat region, which describes the plight of a farming couple who go into the wild when its crop fails. Having lost everything, they cross forests and hills, never losing sight of each other. This idyllic vision of preserving the old and commenting on the schism that comes with forces of change is at the heart of Avial8217;s concerns.

8220;8216;Politically aware and ideologically driven8217; is how we are described now. The truth is we were so weary of politics and what we saw around. The album came out of that weariness,8221; says Tony.

What the band has done by fusing folk and traditional Kerala songs is also a service in resurrecting tunes that were popularly sung by earlier generations in the state. 8220;There is a need to encourage these innovative musicians. They are trying to do something different and break out of the failed old ways,8221; says Anand Sarapur of Phat Phish records, enraged by the hegemony of film songs in mainstream TV channels, and their 8220;ignorance8221; of new voices. Phat Phish, that hit it big with the Punjabi-Sufi singer Rabbi, also produced Avial, and has a range of Bhojpuri folk, Zambezi funk and Sufi and acts up for release soon.