Any story – whether it makes your heart pound or makes you clench your jaw – comes home to you through music. Moreover, when it comes to city-based bands, the excitement is two-fold. So, when your dearest musicians take the stage, you are either bouncing on your toes or repressing your urge to record the concert for your friends – just to show what they are missing out on. You are certain that their music feels personal, and rightly so. You look at your friend or beloved when Jammers plays its renditions of Cheliya Cheliya, Oye Oye, Sada Siva – you are convinced that all the stories about your life are best expressed through the artistry.
Krishna Tejasvi, the vocalist of Jammers, the multi-genre regional band based out of Hyderabad, tells us that music, for them, is the best way to connect with people. “We’ve all learned music for a long time. So, it’s a way to let our emotions flow. Through our songs, we try to tell stories that our audience relates to,” he shares with us. Starting as a college band, they chose to perform at Vasavi College of Engineering first in 2018, inviting Chinna Swamy to play the guitars for them at the time. “That’s how he became a part of us. Jagdish, our bassist, joined last. Almost a year after we started the band, Naren got Jagdish on board,” Krishna says, adding that the band feels complete now. The present lineup is – Shashank (drums), Naren RK Siddhartha (keyboards), Chinna Swamy (guitars), Jagdish Chintala (bass) and Krishna (vocals).
We also catch up with Shashank Bhaskaruni, who started playing the drums as young as a 14-year-old. “I was always attracted to rhythms and sounds that fascinated me since my childhood. So I choose drums as my instrument,” he tells us. Before joining the band, Shashank had been teaching drums for three years, which also included a year of his association with Hyderabad’s Furtados School of Music. “Teaching is something where we learn more than what we learn by ourselves. So, I've always enjoyed teaching,” he adds.
A musician's early days of learning rhythms are always filled with more excitement as they learn new things about music and their instrument. Sharing his experience, Shashank tells us, “Our teacher taught me many grooves and once I learnt them, I used to play along with some instrumental tracks. The happiness I felt when I played along with those audio tracks still excites me and gives me immense high to learn and experience more in music.”
“We jam once in a while,” Krishna says, describing their process. For a cover, it is challenging to take creative leaps, and yet, maintain the true essence and originality of the song. For him, it is a ‘tricky process,’ before he tells us how he approaches it. “We cannot tweak so much, at the same time, cannot keep it the same way. That’s when all of us sit together and put our ideas forward. While creating originals, we all work from home. Each of us has the track with us and we have to record all sorts of ideas. We filter the good ones and put them all together.”
The band primarily performs Telugu music, ranging from timeless pieces by Ilayaraja and AR Rahman to some of the most recent hits. “We majorly play covers in gigs. Though, we’ve worked on some original stuff, they’re up on our YouTube. We would really love to play them at our gigs. But, there’s still time for that. Hopefully, we can create a few more originals and then have exclusive original songs for gigs soon,” Krishna shares.
Jammers will be performing on December 21 at Posh Nosh in Jubilee Hills.
E-mail: chokita@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @PaulChokita