City band blends classical and contemporary sounds

In Chennai, the cultural capital of our country, music aficionados can see themselves falling under two broad categories — the Carnatic music proponents and others who dabble with all other kinds of music. With an aim to have the younger generation take interest in classical folk and Carnatic band, city band Staccato has been going beyond the definitions of music genres to bring back vintage sounds, while adding their own contemporary touch. The poster of the band, whose name refers to a form of musical articulation in which notes are separated from each other, offers a good glimpse of their work. Veshtis, Carnatic and folk songs, electronic sounds, bass guitar and the massive double bass — all meet to create a one-of-its-kind musical experience.

“The band was formed in 2011 and we started off creating covers of other songs and over time wanted to do our own songs. We began working on Carnatic songs, adding a modern twist to them. Our idea was to take Carnatic and classical folk music to a larger audience. The way we present each of the songs is to make sure that youngsters go back home and look up the Carnatic song and learn a little bit about the original singer,” RH Vikram, who plays the keyboard for the band, tells us. Other band members include Gowtham Bharadwaj (vocal), Niranjana Ramanan, Abhinandan, Shallu Varun, Bala, Manoj Kumar, Saurabh Joshi and Sandip Ramanan.

From the classics of renowned Tamil composer, KV Mahadevan, to the iconic songs by maestro AR Rahman from the 90s, to the ever-popular compositions by composer Ilayaraaja, Staccato mixes these tunes with contemporary, as well as Carnatic sounds. “We use the double bass and a few electronic sounds to these classics. We also perform folk songs, which have been written and composed by us,” he adds.

The music group was among two bands from Asia to have performed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. “When we were performing at a music festival in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil during 2011, a few interactions which we had with global artistes gave us the inspiration to pursue what we’re doing now. Through the conversations with other musicians, we realised that Carnatic music is respected all over the world,” Vikram recalls. The band, which is always working on creating new music, aims to take its contemporary classical music to more people.