Rock and roll in India isn't going anywhere with bands like Skrat making a mark in the independent music scene with their newest album. This Chennai-based band is a three-piece live act and have been around since 2006. As they will be launching their album in Bengaluru this weekend, in a quick chat with us, the members of the band divulge on the stories they weave through music, the latest album Bison and the reason for sticking it out for over a decade.
The new album got its name when they spotted a bison in the middle of the night on a trip to Kodaikanal. Building a yarn around their music is Skrat's way of telling the world what they think. Sriram, the band's lead vocalist and guitarist, admits that his overactive imagination from when he was a child still lingers and he's often bouncing off ideas on his bandmates. “I keep throwing ideas at Tapass and Jhanu since we anyway hang out a lot, and they ideate too until we are on the main page. When we write to address a social issue it becomes really preachy and it won't hold for too long. We put what we have into say, into characters with a storyline. All our albums have many characters that are interlinked and connected to each other,” he says.
Bison's music takes you through a world that needs a reset. General Bison is an amoral character, who with his army neutralises the troubled population and goes back down once the Queen is reinstated. Sriram adds, “The human race has gone into a tailspin since the last century. There is only a semblance of control but it is comfortably chaotic.”
The fact that TT Sriram, Tapass Naresh and Jhanu Chanthar have been friends for so long prove why they made it to 11 years as a band. These guys attribute their music to live garage rock with influences like The Foo Fighters, The Raconteurs and Royal Blood. “As far as the music and musicality are concerned we've grown, apart from which nothing has changed. Every album has been different but there is also a vibe where you know it's a Skrat song. The main reason we've stuck together is primarily because we've been friends for very long. In a rock and roll band you really have to be around each other, to make it work,” quips Tapass Naresh, the band's drummer.
Writing for them is like a rally in tennis, as Jhanu, the bass guitarist says, “With this album, we would walk in like a blank sheet of paper, plug in and just start.
This time was very different because one of us would usually come up with an idea and show it to the others. We start throwing ideas and just feeling the idea, doing free jams and building the sings. We wrote it with the concept in mind.”
Skrat had to make do with shows at rock competitions when they started out which was never really their thing. Sriram says, “When we started out the independent music scene was non-existent. With avenues supporting music acts, giving them slots to perform to a cult that wants to watch independent bands, it's incredible the amount of music that's coming out of this country right now and they are going unnoticed. But it's definitely better and there are other ways to bring out your music.”
Skrat will be performing at The Humming Tree on October 15 at 8 pm.
