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News |  07 Oct 2016 13:29 |  By RnMTeam

NCPA's 'Band Baja' winners to perform at Experimental Theatre

MUMBAI: Mumbai-based rock acts 'Euphony' and 'The Yellow Diary' emerged as the winners of National Centre for Performing Arts' live music competition 'Band Baja' 2016. The fourth edition winners, as a result, will be performing at the venue's Experimental Theatre today.

Like every year, the contest received overwhelming response in the form of entries from across the country, however the two young bands will experience the opportunity of performing live at the NCPA. The privileges do not end there, as their respective performances would be recorded live and the members will enjoy the opportunity to meet and greet the performing musicians at the One World Many Musics Festival featuring Shantanu Moitra and more.

The Band Baja Contest Winners’ Performance would take place at the Experimental Theatre on 7 October 2016 at 7 pm. The entry to the concert is free. Saavn is the exclusive streaming partner for the event.

Know the bands:

Euphony – (Sanish Nair - Lead Vocals / Acoustic Guitar;  Joshua Rajan - Bass Guitar / Backing Vocals; Ravikiran Nannaware - Flute / Backing Vocals – Harmony; Rupesh Shirsat - Lead Guitar / Backing Vocals – Harmony; Bhavesh Sharma - Beatbox / Supportive Vocals)

A good start to the band's journey; winning a contest and performing at NCPA in matter of a year. Not many bands enjoy such opportunity. How would you describe it?

First of all we would like to thank the team of N.C.P.A for organizing such a competition. It was like a dream come true for us and we know it’s a big opportunity for us performing at N.C.P.A to express our music on such a tremendous platform, we are working really hard for it.

Tell us more about Euphony - the name, the journey, the music influences and the NCPA contest.

EUPHONY was formed in 2015. We all are friends from same college who just used to participate in college events and the University Youth Festival. Later we thought of working together as a Project but the scene didn't have enough source for getting good gears. Finally we reached a point where we used vocal harmonies and sounds to fill the synth parts and beatbox as percussion. It was difficult at start but it was fun and people started loving it.  Euphony means any sound that sounds good and this is our USP. our major influences are cold play, skrillex, judas priest, system of a down, thaikkudam bridge and the list goes on.

Does music as a profession become the inevitable future for all the members now?

Yes! Being a part of the band, every one of us is wholeheartedly devoted to serve music for the rest of our lives.

It takes a lot of years for a band to finally 'announce' itself. What are the measures taken by the band to ensure it doesn’t take as long?

Being members of the band from various musical backgrounds we are not genre oriented we keep experimenting on our music to make it sound as good and fresh as possible.

What are the Indian bands that you guys look upto ?

Thaikuddam Bridge, Motherjane, Raghu Dixit Project, Indian Ocean, Blackstratblues

Where does Euphony's immediate future lie?

We are looking forward for a music album, we are working on it, waiting for the right time. With the grace of god hopefully we get it out soon.  

The Yellow Diary – (Rajan Batra - Vocalist, Composer and Songwriter; Himonshu Parikh - Keyboardist, Composer and Producer; Vaibhav Pani – Guitarist; Stuart DaCosta – Bassist; Sahil Shah – Drummer)

Compared to fellow winners Euphony, The Yellow Diary is a more recognisable name on the Mumbai scene. Tell us more about the recently concluded NCPA contest.
We came across the contest on Facebook and sent our information to them. And suddenly, out of the blue we were informed that we've won the contest. Every musician dreams of playing at NCPA, and seeing this come true at such an early phase of the band makes us feel honoured.

Where does the immediate future lie for the band after the NCPA performance?

We're extremely excited to be playing at NCPA. Additionally, we have numerous shows lined up till the end of the year (and beyond). We'll be releasing many live videos and we recommend our listeners to watch out for it on our various social media pages. We can't wait to surprise our listeners with what we have in store.

How would you describe the band and its journey so far?
 
It's been quite a beautiful journey so far. It first started with Himonshu (producer, keys, co-composer) and Rajan (songwriter, singer, co-composer). They roped in Vaibhav as the guitarist (and co-composer). Himonshu also roped in his ex-bandmate Sahil Shah (Drums) who further included Stuart on bass. We've come a long way ever since we formed. The bond between us has strengthened and that has reflected in our music as well. The best part about all of us as a unit is how much we respect and love each other. We spent a lot of time rehearsing, writing new songs and stayed underground for a while in order to ensure that people love our music. However, the reaction from people gives us the faith that we're in the right direction and motivates us to continue pushing ourselves to write better music.

Two originals have been released so far, and you carry a good amount of experience among the bandmates. How does the song creation process work out?

Actually it's three. The third song "Sada" was released on 30 September. It's a live video of the track and the reactions have been awesome so far. People like Papon and Vishal Dadlani have appreciated it as well. Coming to the song writing process, Rajan first comes up with the vocal melody and lyrics where he figures out a vocal melody and the lyrics. Using this as a base, Himonshu and Vaibhav work on the music bit. Himonshu is the producer of the band and takes care of the overall arrangement, harmonies, structure, sound etc. Vaibhav is also a part of the composition process and contributes at various stages of the track depending on when it's needed. We then take the songs to the jam room where Stuart and Sahil contribute to the songs from a live performance standpoint and depending on that, we tweak the composition as well.

What measures are taken to endorse the band? Self-promotional activities, tie-ups with streaming services….

Currently we're doing it ourselves. We've been pretty active on social media. We're on Facebook, YouTube, Soundcloud, Instagram. One thing that differentiates the band is that our reach is completely organic. It's a bit tough to get a massive reach without spending a single rupee on social media promotion, but we feel it's worth the effort as we're looking at developing a genuine fan base.

Describe your music for someone looking forward to a new sound…

We're a band which aims at making music which strikes the balance between being experimental and entertaining. We're not limited to any barriers like genre, language etc. Our music is an ode to the various experiences we go through in our lives and looking at them with a fresh perspective combined with a unique sound. The songs are not only based on personal experiences but they also cater to socially relevant topics. We consider our music as our personal “diary” where we can express ourselves and we hope our beloved listeners experience the same emotion as they take in our tunes.

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