Six non-musicians came together over a decade ago to form a Hindi rock band Vinapra. The Guide finds out if they are rocking enough
Six non-musicians came together over a decade ago to form a Hindi rock band Vinapra. The Guide finds out if they are rocking enough
Talking about musical influences we hear a host of answers from a packed jam room, where we caught the band Vinapra between rehearsals.
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Amidst answers in unison, we manage to hear names like Pink Floyd, Indian Ocean, Parikrama, even Iron Maiden and Deep Purple. But dig deeper and you find out that the band thrives on Kishore Kumar's music too.
With a smorgasbord of such influences, Vinapra, Bangalore's own Hindi rock band started back in 1998-99 out of a bunch of rock lovers (read non musicians). Rock to them is an attitude; best expressed in a language they are comfortable in.
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"We were all in our 20's, and personal aggression drove us to rock music", says Nataraj K, vocalist and lyricist for Vinapra.
The idea of starting a band in Hindi though came out of the need to be different amongst an explosion of English rock bands at that time. "As clich ufffdd as it may sound, we just wanted to be different. Besides we wanted to tell the world that India has much more to offer than snake charmers and classical music," says Nataraj.
The name Vinapra is an acronym of the initial line-up of the band, and was retained due to its Indian sound. The current ensemble consists of Nataraj K on the vocals, Pradeep MR on the guitar, Prasad NM on drums, Vivian Terence on the bass guitar and Manoj George on the violin.
Indian rock conjures up images of Indian instruments and other influences on attire, Vinapra claims to be different. "Our inspiration though lies in bands like Indian Ocean and Euphoria, we don't force a tabla into every composition", says Nataraj.
Being from different professions like those of event management, teaching, advertising and BPOs kept them poles apart in terms of timings and personal influence, musically they all dream of performing together with Irish band U2.
"We started much after college, had no training and most of our learning came after we had formed the band. We trained in instruments and learnt skill sets from each other. Each of us has played music at some point in our lives, even if not professionally", Nataraj tells us.
The band holds an album released in 2007 to its credit and a song titled Dharti, that was part of a compilation album, Asha Waali Dhoop, for Tsunami relief.u00a0 Vinapra has performed 200 odd gigs since its formation and shared stage with artists like Shankar Mahadevan, Euphoria, Strings and Indian Ocean.
With a second album lined up for release next year, a title track for a Bollywood film and collaboration with an Italian artist, their bags seem to be full.
"We have all quit our regular jobs to take up music full time now. We want to take time and spread our music across", says Nataraj.
Gear up for an evening that brings a collection of songs from their first album along with a few unreleased numbers and English covers from bands like Deep Purple and The Doors.
AT Kyra Theatre, Indiranagar
On July 23, 8 pm onwards
Call 96322 03333
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