Wednesday, Apr 17, 2024 | Last Update : 04:24 AM IST
Finding the right groove
From being school friends with a common love for music, to a band with over 500 gigs to their name, Marcus Find a Gun has come a long way.
Rohit Samuel and Ashok Varghese were college mates, whose mutual interest in music brought them together. After several years of playing music with each other, they decided that it was time to go commercial and that’s how Marcus Find a Gun, a Hyderabad-based indie band, was formed.
Eventually, another friend of the duo, Jonathan Edward, joined in on the guitar. Lead vocalist Ashok’s brother Alex was brought in on the cajon and vocals despite him being a drummer. Meanwhile, Rohit continued on the bass guitar. From being a small acoustic band formed towards the end of 2015, they have grown into a unit that now has around 500 shows to their credit, mostly on demand from the audience.
“Despite all the music we were working on, somewhere we needed the punch and it was probably necessary to become a bit louder,” shares Eddie (Edward).
Interestingly, all the members of the group are members of other bands too. But what sets this group apart is the fact that they look at it as their primary job. “Our alternate bands are the space where we create original music and work on our sound. But Marcus is our commercial space. From the beginning, we were clear that we’d work on music that would appeal to people. So, even though we might work on cover versions of pop songs, we will stand out. That’s our USP,” states Rohit, who works as a music teacher in a school in Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, Eddie works as a music teacher too while Alex and Ashish are associated with an online advertising agency.
One wonders how they make time for music, with so much going on. “What we do is fun. Alongside working on music that many people seem to like, we also have our own individual scene going on. The only thing I look forward to in the coming year is more shows across the country. That would be a fun prospect,” grins Alex.
So how did they come up with their unique band name? Rohit responds with a laugh, “Eddie and I were listening to the song Lean On
when we were high. There’s a line in the song that goes ‘Blow a kiss. Fire a gun.’ Strangely, we misheard the lyrics, and thought it’s Marcus Find A Gun! We were deciding on a band name and this felt just right.”
