Since its inception last year, this multi-lingual and multi-genre band has grown to achieve immense popularity. The four lakh-plus likes on Facebook are evidence of its reach, fan following and enviable fame. Thaikkudam Bridge is a 14-piece band which recently came to the cyber-city of Bengaluru to lodge its first performance there and is raring to go national, winning hearts of all rockheads, with its unconventional playlist.
The name of the band is a no-brainer and that’s apparent when the members recall the story of how they came together. “Thaikkudam is a place in Kochi and all the hunky, funky, lean, mean, fat, brat members of the band got themselves jam-packed in a room near there and kick-started their journey,” says Siddharth Menon, one of the vocalists.
“Initially, we never intended on forming a band and got together only to be a part of a reality show,” he adds. So they called in their friends from Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi and Calicut to jam along. But after they did it once, they got hooked to it like addicts and then there was no looking back for these full-time musicians. The band comprises seven vocalists, four guitarists, a drummer, keyboardist and a violinist.
“One of the main reasons for having so many vocalists was to give the audience a variety. We play a plethora of genres, from Carnatic to folk rock to reggae to Hindustani music. Each member comes from a different background and that adds to the total sound-effect,” says Govind Menon, the vocalist, violinist and the music producer for the band.
Variety indeed seems to be the ‘spice of their life’ in this case. Their music is simple and easy to relate to, without any added baggage. “We intentionally keep it lucid and uncomplicated. Our repertoire too reflects that. We mostly do English and Hindi covers, alongwith a few originals as well,” adds Siddharth.
Speaking of the music, this band has members as young as 22 and as old as 60, who have sung in various languages like English, Malayalam, Marathi and Tamil. Apart from covers of superhit classics, the band has a few quirky originals to its credit. Songs like Fish Rock (that has names of all the fish available in Kerala), Teevandi (that is about trains) and Chathe (a song about a dead man’s perspective of his life), have been a huge rage with folks of all age-groups.
“Though we have enough content to release an album, we are only going with the singles for now. We actually want to ensure that people give each song the due credit it deserves,” reveals Govind. While his sister Dhanya writes the Malayalam songs, his wife Ranjni and Piyush Kapoor, the vocalist and guitarist, pen the English tracks. “We have a political satire number ready for release soon,” he concludes.
