Fighting for indie

By now, he is used to it. By now, he has stopped getting frustrated. It will just have to take its own sweet time for metal music to be understood. Arppan Thejas has been watching people shake their heads and say no for three years now. He is perhaps one of the youngest artiste managers in Kerala, handling on and off more than 30 music bands and independent artistes.

"I was a musician — a drummer with a Coimbatore-based rock band. That's where I went to do my degree," says Arppan, who is in fact a Kozhikode-born-and-raised.  In Coimbatore, he got the idea to begin an event management company, because he had so many contacts. That's when he met Rahul Raj, who was then vocalist of the band Beastial Murder, and manager of the band Vidwan. Arppan worked with Rahul to put together a music tour for Vidwan, and hosted 20 concerts in two months. "It was amazing. One day we had two concerts — at the Vedavyasa College in Kozhikode in the morning, from where we packed off to Perinthalmanna in Malappuram for an evening concert," he says.

But those days of glory did not last long. In October 2015, the Kerala High Court imposed restrictions on campus activities that included professional music shows. It landed the likes of Arppan in a tough spot. "This was a place where at least 200 shows were held in a year, across the different colleges in the state — for cultural and tech fests, college days etc. Suddenly that's not there anymore." He had in fact just asked Live Banned, Bengaluru-based parody rock band, to come and perform at a college in Vagamon when the ban came. Arppan went for an appeal and got a stay order in his favour.

"It is a sorry state, especially for metal bands. I am a metal head and really wish to bring metal bands to Kerala. But there are very few options. Investors are least interested; they say it is not music that everyone could enjoy. But Kerala is a place where we have quite a lot of metal heads. When we did a camp in Kannur for a music video by thrash metal band Chaos, 150 people turned up to be part of it. If we have a show, I can make sure that at least a crowd of 350 would turn up." That's however not enough to please the investors. They are not even aware of the independent music scene. "When I said metal, one person said, but this is not a construction company! A lot of others would ask, will they play Mandara cheppundo (a Malayalam film song)."

Today, he takes around advanced gadgets - Hologram prism and 360 degree posters - to demonstrate what the bands could do. He has become the go-to man for a lot of people who want independent musicians to perform for them, and vice versa - independent musicians looking for venues. Arppan is now busy putting together an electronic fest in Kozhikode, where he hopes to introduce more people to rock, by getting Live Banned to perform in the end.