Newbies into the old foray

The whole purpose of the band is to revive the old school musical charm; it is essentially a bunch of passionate musicians who rework classic English tunes right from the 40s till  the 70s. In the terms of musical inspirations, they are vividly inspired by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Neil Diamond, Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves and other warm-voiced maestros.    

In a short span of over two and a half years since inception of Pranav Sehgal’s dream band, they have played over 350 gigs across the globe. They cover genres  ranging from swing, jive to retro. Each and every gig for the members is special. Mostly, a delhi-ite can easily spot the band booked for someone’s wedding, or a corporate gig or a private get-together. They have recently performed in Dubai and have in a couple of ferries in Singapore.

Pranav is leaving his well-settled job in the corporate sector to dedicate more time to the band. His great journey started in 2010 when he walked into a bar that conducted karaoke nights. He realised his love and passion for singing depsite not having a musical background.

Pranav got serious about music when he won the Karaoke World Championship in 2014. It gave him an opportunity to represent India on a global stage. He learnt at lot and it boosted his confidence.

Coming back to India, Pranav started hosting karaoke nights in various pubs in Delhi making a small business out of it. Wanting to take his passion to the next level, he formed his band.  Pranav says, “The priority of the band is to add more retro songs to the list and we are also planning to work on original retro content.”

Soon after, he meet Mustafa Pasha who plays the bass. Mustafa has been associated with Crooner’s Collective from day one. With the grooviest style of playing the bass, he shares “I manage to keep the tunes in check and I am also associated with an Indie funk project. I work as a salesman by day for one of the world’s largest orthodontics organisations.” Pranav and Mustafa then met Ashley Vaz (Keys, backing vocals) and have not looked back since.

After performing in a couple of shows with a few drummers, the band finally welcomed Vipul Malhotra (drummer).

If we talk about individual experience then, Ashley is most experienced having played Kailash Kher too. Apart from being an important member of Crooner’s, he is the HOD of music in a renowned educational institute.

In near future, the band is eager to venture into retro Hindi tunes as well. They wish to explore the foray of b’town oldies holding the hand of music maestro Kishore Kumar. Inspiring, isn’t it?