At home and rocking

When the Kerala-born Delhi boy Anup Kutty performed at Cabral Yard in Fort Kochi on Sunday night, along with Menwhopause, the band that he had founded way back in 2001, a range of emotions coursed through his veins, including excitement and satisfaction. They have performed in many a prestigious venue including South by South West (SxSW) music festival in Austin, in fact the first Indian band to do so, but never before in Kerala. In a way, his life and music had come full circle.

Music was so close to him in his growing up years that he signed up for music classes in school and joined the college band. After college, it was something that he did after office hours as a journalist but realising that this was one passion that would stay with him, he took the initiative to gather like-minded individuals.

“It is not only about the instrument or genre but also about the vibes that you share. For instance, Randeep Singh who now handles bass and vocals was the first to send us a fan mail.”

It was when they took part in SxSW – a huge break for a fledgling band – that they realised people all over the world juggled their day jobs and music just the way they did. “This fest was an eye-opener for us in many ways. We met a lot of musicians and understood how they took their music across to audiences.” Next month, the band is slated to perform again at SxSW.

After that vital exposure in 2007, their album called Easy came out and got picked up by a major record label. Currently, they are promoting their latest album, Neon Delhi. It started as a story written by Anup and then got transformed into an album. “It is seamless and not as though one song ends and then the next begins. We also wanted to collaborate with as many musicians as possible. We have jammed with Rajasthani folk musicians, jazz pianists and Hindi rappers. So we decided to get those collaborations in. We looked at ourselves more as producers than as musicians doing everything from cover designing to distribution.”

Anup observes that Delhi has changed a lot including its politics and economics but especially in its sounds. “All these old buildings have been broken down and are being replaced by flats. All you can hear now in Delhi is the incessant grinding of tiles,” he says. Living in a barsathi, a room made on the terrace, and watching all those buildings collapse around him, he feels it is a dystopian experience that gets translated to the lyrics. As for the genre, it is close to progressive or psychedelic but he describes it naughtily as ‘post office rock’.

As for Kochi, he says it has the potential to be a world class city but he wonders where all the youngsters have gone. When told that many, including budding musicians, leave for Bangalore, he rues it as an unwise move as the cyber capital is too crowded and polluted.