The viral Buzzfeed list ‘25 rock bands that prove south India has the craziest scene in the country’ features quite a few bands from the city. Top city acts Junkyard Groove, Escher’s Knot, Skrat, The F16’s, Jhanu, Grey Shack, Adam & The Fish Eyed Poets and Blues Conscience have made it to the list.
Joshua Fernandez, vocalist and guitarist of the electro-indie act The F16’s, says Chennai has one of the best rock music scenes in the country. “While Bengaluru is known for its hard-core metal, Chennai is popular for its rock, non-electro, indie scene. South India has way more scope for rock music. When it comes to venues, appreciation for a band or even the way people look at music there has been a sea change. Earlier, bands like Metallica would come to India after retirement but now bands like Alt-J, which is currently a hot band, played in the country.
I think in the next few years, India will feature on the tour schedules of top international bands, and Indian bands will also be on the same wavelength,” he predicts. Skrat’s T.T. Sriram opines that although there are many good rock bands from Chennai, there are very few venues to perform. “There is a lot of good music coming from the city and the crowd is very knowledgeable, but there are very few venues to perform. I think as a band, it is us who create the ‘scene’. So, we need to get out there, play and get our music out to improve the scene,” he says.
Kishore Krishna of Adam & the fish eyed poets says that at the end of the day, the influence of rock is limited. “I still can’t say rock ‘n’ roll has any sort of genuine cultural influence here beyond the usual Bollywood/Kollywood buffoons holding guitars to try and appropriate some cool. The history of artists writing original material that tell Indian stories in English isn’t very deep,” he adds.
