The popular veena exponent, Rajhesh Vaidhya, and his newly-found group V5 - The Gang, is all set to enthrall Chennaites with their unique composition today at The Music Academy. Formed last October, V5 - The Gang is not a regular band; it is unusual, says Rajhesh.
“Krishnapatnam port is the birthplace of the gang, where all the members met during a concert. We didn’t immediately want to do concerts. We wanted to practice beforehand since all the compositions are new and fresh,” Rajhesh elaborates.
V5 aims to make non-commercial music, which doesn’t have any shadow of mainstream music and songs, and for that, the five members put in about thirty hours each week to create unique tracks.
The group consists of Manjunath N (on drums), Chandrajith (tabla), Vivek (piano) and Sai Hari Ram (on Ghatam). Rajhesh is looking forward to making the five-member music group popular internationally and for him, the only roadmap to getting there is to strive hard and make good music.
Rajhesh also admits that Shakti band — which had iconic musicians like L Shankar and John McLaughlin — was the major inspiration in forming V5 - The Gang.
The etymology of V5 is not just because of five members, but also that everything about the group is in fives, like the number of compositions that will be played in every concert. “But if the audience asks for more, we will go on to play more,” Rajhesh quips.
So far, they have about ten compositions which cover many genres including blues and jazz. Even flavours of Arabic music will have its presence in the ten compositions, according to Rajhesh.
When asked how he sees the modernisation of classical music that is prevalent these days, he says, “Everyone is doing great, and it is enjoyed by people. Also, I won’t call it modernising. It is backing classical music. We are not spoiling Carnatic music in any way here. I don’t differentiate music into classical and modern, it is music as a whole. It is the way you produce music that matters. At the end of the day, the audience should be satisfied, that’s what counts. And they want something new every day.”
(The concert will be held at Music Academy at 7 pm)
