The Score Magazine - Archive April 2016 issue! | Page 45

SNEHA RAMESH
Out of curiosity, why the name Masala Coffee? Is there an
interesting story attached to it?
That's as creative as we could get with the name. The interesting
story is that, before we could release the first video on YouTube.
Almost everything except the name of the band was sorted.
You guys formed a band very randomly after a performance
at Kappa TV. How did the idea brew?
This happened in Feb 2014 when Varun, our Founder, based out of
Mumbai who is also the percussionist of the band decided to do Music
Mojo sessions with us. The idea wasn't concrete even then. We just
wanted to do this without any plan as such. It just started off as a
session. We met a day before the recording and rehearsed and the
post production took a while. Everything except band’s name was
figured out. We had no intentions in our minds and it was just a
random name. The only logic we had was that Masala tea is available
but coffee isn't and that's how it started. Right after that we released
Munbe Va and within a couple of months, it went viral on YouTube
in India. It got 7-8L views in such a short span and we had to take it
off Kappa TV due to copyright issues. We had to then put it on our
page. AUM-I Artistes! A division of Kappa TV decided to manage
the band and get us shows. And that's how
it all started.
BEST PERFORMANCE EVER
AS A BAND
We're yet to have one
STAGE YOU'D DIE TO
PERFORM IN
As long as we don't die on stage,
any stage is cool ;)
ARTIST/MUSICIAN YOU'D
LOVE TO WORK WITH
Michael League from Snarky
Puppy, In India, ARR we'd love
to perform with him.
What would you consider the genre
of Masala Coffee to be?
Well we Listen to every genre that there is, from lullabies to death metal and
everything in between! We really like to experiment with various genres!
Tell us about each of your musical journey before Masala Coffee?
All of us in the band are still doing sessions in the music industry.
We have worked as individuals with some of the best musicians/
producers in the country. 13AD,Stephen Devassy, Hariharan,
Raghu Dixit, Swarathma, Kavitha Seth, DSP, Ustad Fazal Qureshi,
Vidwan Vikku Vinayakam, Ravi Chary to name a few.
How do you guys Jam? Any fun/interesting instances to share
with us?
Depending on where we play, we jam there. We have performed quite a
lot in Kerala. We usually rent out a Jam room in Cochin and rehearse.
Rehearsing together is the fun bit for us! We make sure that we try and
make best use of the time considering we are all in different parts of
the country and don’t get to jam otherwise. Our 5 minutes break
usually extends upto 60 minutes usually. We sort of experiment
with songs since we have been playing the same set list for a
while now and goof around and try something new.
Which artists/bands inspire you guys the most?
Considering, we have 10 people in band and we all listen to
different artists, that's like a lot of artists put together and
thus, it is a mix of all. We like Snarky Puppy, ARR, Lalah
Hathway, Coldplay, Dream Theater to name a few.
What does the future look like? Any upcoming songs/
album to look forward to?
Music scenario is such that the whole idea of an album doesn’t
really work out these days. We are planning to release some
singles. We have been fortunate enough to work with some
Tamil (Uriyadi) and Malayalam movies(Hello Namaste &
Kunjiramayanam, Salsa Song). We released couple of promo
songs for Malayalam movies. Mazhavil Manorama featured
the band on their cookery show “Dhe Chef” where Masala
Coffee was made and band was invited to taste and review!
What would be your message to upcoming bands?
Does that include us too? (Laughs). On a serious note, just be
sincere to music otherwise music will correct you! I'm sure
people can relate to that better than anything else!
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