SCOTCH'ers on tape: Acoustic band with mere guitar and voices

Most band stories begin with ‘We decided to jam one evening…’ or, that ‘We were from the same college…’ That’s how this one starts too. They confess that they didn’t even have a name for their band and played as a nameless trio to begin with. But Scotch Tape is steadily creating a fan base for themselves across Bengaluru, thanks to their acoustic project — a smorgasbord of simple sounds with a bout of nostalgia and good vibes.   

The band is made up of Nupur Roy on vocals, Rohann George Mathew on vocals and acoustic guitar and Nandhit Reddy on percussions and occasionally beatboxing people off their feet. All three students of architecture, they tell us that it’s their chosen academia that inspired the name of the band too.

“Every student of architecture knows how dear the scotch tape or sticky tape is to them. We were brainstorming one day, looking around the room for random objects and this is what we stuck to,” says Nandhit, intending a pun.

One look at them and you can tell that they are full of life, stick to being themselves and go by YOLO (you live only once). It started off as an impromptu performance filler at a college fest. “I think the three of us realised that this could be something. Something being a college band,” quips Nupur.

Scotch Tape describes their music as being simple. Their sets are built on massive flashbacks to the 60s and through the 90s because they like to be able to let their audience relive some of the soundtracks from their childhoods – and we aren’t complaining!

“We’re primarily an acoustic project, but we’re in the process of adding more value and layers to our sound. Reggae is another big thing for us and we try adding it to songs that one generally wouldn’t have heard in that light,” say the Pearl Jam fans who love adding their own spin on covers.

“It’s so easy to get caught in a trend or sucked into what we’re led to believe is a norm – uniqueness is a refreshing characteristic to any act.  I think this is relevant to being an individual as well,” adds Nupur, counting the likes of John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, Porcupine Tree, The Doors, Hiatus Kaiyote, Ray LaMontagne and Young The Giant as the band’s inspirations.

“Frankly, we haven’t written songs as a band yet, but we do have some serious lyrical intelligence – Nupur with depth and literature and Nandhit with complexity, next level depth and humour. I too write a couple of songs, but I’m still shy to bring them out. One day!” says Rohann.

Where they also believe that they lucked out as a band is their familia’s good musical choices, supportive families (although they worry about their balance between career and music), being in Bengaluru where the audiences are willing to listen and appreciate talent and their band manager Chirag Suvarna who put them in the spotlight.  

Being a young band hasn’t stopped them from making plans though. They are hoping to collaborate with out-of-the-box musicians, do as many gigs as they can, even as they look forward to their next show on August 11 at Windsor Pub, record a few songs and possibly get in front of the camera, even as they juggle their professional commitments.