Back in the early 2000s, Skrat was a fledgling band trying to find footing in Chennai, their hometown. They would share a jam room with a couple of other acts, whom they looked up to as mentors. It was a member of one of these bands who taught the youngsters one of their earliest lessons. “He told us how important it was to have fun on stage, and he’d carry this stick around that he’d hit the bassist’s leg with if he wasn’t jumping,” shares drummer Tapass Naresh, adding, “In retrospect, we realised that he was teaching us how to put on a show. He was telling us, ‘A gig is not for yourselves. You are a showman and if you have to jump on stage like a lunatic, so be it. It is what it is.’”

The band at a live gig