One of the youngest entrants in the city’s live music scene, Moksha, turned a year old just a few days ago. The Carnatic progressive rock band consists of Vinod Sharma (vocals), Pranay Mylapally (keyboard), Thiru Vakkalanka (drums), Akhilesh Vishwanathan (bass), Sathvik Kondepogu (guitars), Swaroop Vyakaranam (flute), and Kushal Raj (sound engineer). We spoke to Akhilesh, a consultant and musician by night, the bassist is heavily inspired by Cliff Burton, Flea, John Myung, Thundercat, and Joe Dart. He speaks about what keeps the band going, original compositions and the kind of music they will play in their upcoming shows. One can expect songs like Akasam Entatidho, Anbe Sivam and Harima Harima. Excerpts:
Tell us about what inspires this unique fusion genre.
We have always tried to do something unique and fun with our music. We blend regional songs along with Carnatic pieces and arrange them in a progressive rock manner. If we had to name the most popular pieces from our setlist, then they would have to be the cover of the KGF title track. We also love doing medleys and the ones that caught the most attention are the medley of Ilaiyaraaja’s songs, a special Kamal Hassan medley, which includes the entire Vikram playlist, and Rayini Maatram from Dasavatharam. We also finish off in style with a Thalaivar medley.
Who are you most inspired by?
Our major influences are Ilaiyaraaja, AR Rahman, Agam, and Vivek Sagar.
Any dream collaborations?
We’d love to collaborate with pan-Indian music platforms like Coke Studio and hopefully have a show like Music Mojo on Kappa TV. It would be a dream come true if we get an opportunity to perform with musicians such as AR Rahman and Amit Trivedi. We have more names on the list but these musicians are our absolute favourites.
The band recently celebrated its one-year anniversary...
We had a fantastic time! We played at The Moonshine Project, the place where we did our first live gig. We performed three of our original compositions and two of our own arrangements for the first time. The response was overwhelming and hearing the audience chant ‘Moksha’ throughout this performance made the moment surreal and emotional for us. And, now we look forward to doing more of these special sets.
There are so many bands in the indie music scene today. Is it tough to roll out new music and covers frequently?
Like I already said, we work hard to be as unique as possible. We try to keep our song selection and arrangements different from the other bands in the city. But, yes, it does get difficult to be consistent. But, one must have that passion and commitment to work on their dreams.
What’s next? Can we expect any more new releases soon?
Yes, you can. We still haven’t released our originals. The songs are in the production stage and we will soon release them on all the music platforms. We are also working on an album, which will be out by next year.
— bsuchitra@newindianexpress.com