From Pink Floyd and Beatles to Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers rock music has come a long way. Music is an art form which brings people from all over the world together. Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock and takes its name from ‘Independent’  which describes both the do-it-yourself attitudes of its bands and the small, lower-budget nature of the labels that release the music. It was originated in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

Indian rock took its place in the 90’s. With the arrival of MTV, Indian rock bands like Indus Creed and Euphoria found its way to fame.

One of the first Kochi based Indian bands to take its place in the list was Motherjane, which was formed in 1996. The number of Indie Rock bands that have emerged in India, especially from Kerala shows how much we have accepted Rock as a music genre.

We have a list of exciting Indie rock bands from Kerala that you need to start listening to right now if you haven’t yet.

Avial

Avial is an alternative rock band formed in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, known for their whacky lyrics and music and they introduced what is called ‘Alternate Malayali Rock’. They had their first breakthrough with 2003 single ‘Nada Nada’. ‘Aana Kallan’ and ‘Chillane’ for the Malayalam movies Salt N Pepper and 22 Female Kottayam respectively were also great hits.

Mother Jane

Motherjane is one of the first Kerala based rock band which was formed in 1996. The Kathakali facepaint on all the members of the band makes it different from the other bands.

Thaikkudam Bridge

Thaikkudam Bridge is a Malayalam Rock band formed in 2013. They hit to fame through Music Mojo, a musical show which is telecasted on Kappa TV.

Black Letters

Black Letter from Cochin and based in Bangalore is a band that you have to check out right now for their soothing and melodic compositions which have brought a new dimension to Indian rock.

Chaos

If you are a diehard metal head and bands like Metallica and Megadeath are your favorites, then you cannot miss out on the Kerala based Thrash Metal band called Chaos.

The post Top 5 Rock bands from Kerala that you need to check out right now! appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.

Text credits: Nikhil Wilson    Image credits: OLAM

Arun S Kumar, Syam N Pai, Ajoy Jose and Manu Ajayan a four-piece band has a friendly chat about their band ‘OLAM’

Q)How did the name OLAM come up?

There wasn’t much of thinking done to come up with a name. I think it was URU the name OLAM came up and we loved it, as we felt some kind of similarity with the names URU and OLAM.

Q)How excited were you about your first gig and your preparations for the show?

We were very excited about our first gig and we have been preparing for the last one year. URU has provided us space and support to work on our music and we think we have some good compositions with us. We have been having a late night and sometimes early morning practice sessions preparing for the gig.

Q)What genre of music do you play?

We are an instrumental band and we have elements of psychedelic rock and progressive rock music in our songs. So when people ask us what kind of music or type of band we are we say “ We are an instrumental band”.

Q)How did you guys meet up?

Myself (Arun) and Syam were bandmates from years back. We used to play in the same band and after a few years, when the band split up, we made sure we never lost contact and kept working on our music. We also knew Manu and Ajoy as we four belonged to the music band field.

Q)How was your entry into URU?

Syam knew Riyas Komu, the curator of URU. One day Syam told Riyas that we were looking for a space to jam, and he offered URU as a space for us wholeheartedly. We never knew it would become our home and we would get this kind of support from the team.

Q)How has URU been a place of support and motivation for you?

Getting a space and technical support is one of the major hurdles every band faces and URU has provided us both. URU has become a home for us, where we meet up and escape into a world of our own with our music. Just 15 days before the inaugural ceremony of the URU art exhibition, we started our jamming sessions. We were given a chance to play at the inaugural ceremony and that gave us a big boost to create more songs and work even harder.

Q)Have you all taken music as your career?

Well, most of us want to take music as a career. Syam is a graphic designer and he has book designing shop. I used to write for Deccan Chronicles for a few years. I also work with films in Sync sound projects and I have also directed some video songs. Ajoy works as a music composer and Manu is a sound engineer.

Q)Tell us about your practice sessions

We usually practice for 3-5 hours and sometimes we practice really late if we are really hooked upon completing a track. There are sometimes when we adjust our timings because URU is also a venue for talks and camps. We adjust our practice sessions according to the crowd for the exhibition at URU.

Q)Has your family’s been full on support from the start, or where there any issues with you guys spending a lot of time at URU?

Well, our families don’t have an issue with us spending a lot of time and they have been supporting us. Even though they are concerned about us, they have never discouraged us.

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