A live platform for musicians

They brought back life to the live music scene in Mumbai in 2007 and now they are going to take Bengaluru by storm. Church Street is going to resound to soulful beats all this weekend, as blueFROG will give local musicians a platform to put music on the forefront, alongside some stupendous international acts. We meet the three Bengaluru boys — Raksha Ram (29), Sunder Ram (25) and Prashant Clayton (29) who have joined hands with Sumer Vaswani, the MD of the blueFROG group for the city venture.

We ask the boys on what took them so long to come to Bengaluru that thrives on a vibrant musical scene and Raksha Ram, who has a degree from Cardiff University, explains, “We were regular to the blueFROG in Mumbai and loved the vibes of the place and meeting the founding team in Mumbai. Our discussions were on for a while. We began work on the place last year.” Director Byram Holdings, Raksha Ram is a globetrotter who has visited Miami, Amsterdam, Monaco, Lima, Leh, Ankara, Kiev, Rotterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Singapore and Dubai and likes to go yachting to unwind. He has all the reasons to blow a trumpet as his dream to bring the music aficionados, a place they can call home, has come true.

Talking of his plan for the city and his passion for music, Raksha Ram who also runs the Rasta Café, effuses, “We want to give artistes from South India, a platform to showcase their talent. There will also be interesting international artistes every month. We have invited 225 artistes including musicians, drummers, dancers, theatre actors, stand up artistes and other versatile people from the creative field for artist connect night. Dub Pistols, a UK based electronic music group founded by Barry Ashworth will perform on June 19, followed by Hari & Sukhmani and Kutle Khan next and then a series of performances are lined up. I’m personally a big fan of deep house, rock and metal.”

Joining Raksha Ram is his younger brother Sunder Ram with masters in marketing management from University Of Westminster, London, who is into organising sporting events in the city. “I run Game Changers, a multi-sport facility,  and started the first Indian Frisbee team. I love house and tech.”

Clayton has had an equally exciting journey and he and Raksha Ram go a long way back as pals. “We are school and college buddies and connected in UK, while I was there for a project and he was pursuing his Masters. I’m an avid foodie and I try to travel to offbeat destinations every few months. Music relaxes me and like blues, jazz and a little bit of commercial. We got Kapil Thirwani of Munro Acoustics for blueFROG, Bengaluru.” The stage is set for some rocking times ahead!