Excessively driven!

More often than not, taking a leap of faith is all you need to do. And, that is exactly   how Bengaluru band Cinema of Excess came about. This acoustic collab by friends-turned jam-buddies, Anirudh Ravi, Bharath Kashyap and Abheet Anand, recently released their debut EP titled, Bring Back the Sound. The warm response has egged them on to bring forth bigger concepts – ‘secret shows’, an India tour and their second EP. The first single off the EP titled Wide Awake was released by Rolling Stone India, followed by a live video. In a candid chat, we find out more...

“The secret show is all about getting people who are genuinely interested in our music. There won’t be any sort of promotion before these gigs as we are really not in the mood to play at spaces where people are subjected to our music because they are at a so and so called venue. It’s really unnerving and tiring to play before people who are not into our music. The idea is to send our personal invites to genuine followers of our music,” reveals Abheet, the bassist of the band.

Cinema of Excess is best described as a soulful amalgamation of western folk, indie folk and country music.

Having never really met as a band, the trio loves to just have a good time – and rustling up some great music in the process. “All of us have been musicians fir a really long  time. I started performing live at 16, while Anirudh did it in his early 20s. We’ve all been a part of several bands, been active in the (music) scene. So, a coming together of this sort wasn’t hugely unexpected,” shares Bharat, the guitarist. Taking us through the details about how the idea came about, Abheet enthuses, “Ani has written over 20 songs in the past two  to three years. He’s the vocalist and also writes songs for the band. He called me over, and asked me if the plan was on. Given how I didn’t have a lot in my hands, I went ahead and took it up. There was never a strategy and there will never be. This happened solely because we took that leap of faith. I’m glad we did.”

While music takes up much of their time, there’s always time for some downtime as well. Abheet says, “Travel is another thing that really binds us together. We are all intrepid travellers, but off late I haven’t been able to travel a lot owing to — personal commitments but yes, we do wish to invest extensively on our travels.”

Unlike most bands that fret over competition, Cinema of Excess would like their work to do the talking. “I think Bengaluru’s audiences are really well informed. And a well-informed audience leads to growth. By that, I mean there’s absolutely no question of unhealthy competition. Honestly, nobody is trying to compete anymore. There’s enough space for people to co-exist. Everyone’s trying to put out great music, and that’s the focus. As long as we have great music being churned out, it’s really good for the music scene in general.”

On what’s next, Anirudh concludes by stating, “We do have plans to perform across the country from April. Post which, we will start to work on our second EP. There is a lot in line, and we would love to see how everything pans out. Our fingers are crossed.”