Keys to success

Diarist-musician

His name may be strange, but his music is not. At the moment though, Redd Alluri is content with both. The Hyderabad-born London-based alternative rock singer and writer is savouring the best of Eastern and Western cultures.

 Alluri, who did his graduation in Music Technology from Staffordshire and Masters in Music, Mind and Technology from Finland, has to his credit the 11-track debut album ‘Man of Truth’ for which he penned the songs during a six-month travel break. In the city to play at The Humming Tree, Alluri Reddy Shriram aka Redd Alluri tells Anupama Ramakrishnan the mystery behind his name, his musical meanderings, and how good a cook he is!

First things first, tell us the story behind the quirky name of yours...

That happened when I was doing my PhD in Finland. I was flying Lufthansa when I noticed my name spelt as Redd Alluri on the boarding pass. ‘Oh this is disgusting’, I thought and dashed off to the counter. I was then made to understand the constraint. Boarding passes can accommodate upto a few letters only. But then I thought this was catchy. Definitely much better than Shriram! (Laughs)

How did music influence you in your growing-up years?

My parents forced me to learn Western classical violin and piano. I was never interested in it. I was interested only in cricket. When I was 12 years old, a cousin of mine, who had come back from IIT Chennai, introduced me to ‘Smoke on the Water’ and ‘Another Brick in the Wall’. It was after that that I started playing the guitar. I went online and learnt all the chords. Then on, I went on to do my Bachelors and Masters. But these were technical courses and my passion lay in writing and playing music. Once I finished my Masters, I started songwriting.

What are your albums essentially about?

I write about the experiences I have had. ‘Man Of Truth’ is filled with travels that I have had around the world — when I went backpacking to Southeast Asia. It is about people; everything has to do with reality. It is not an escape into fantasy. Some of my songs are social-political commentaries and a few are love songs — from an Indian male’s perspective, and not a Western man’s. The Indian perspective in the lyrics is evident, however, there are also a couple of Indian major and minor keys on the chords that I have used rhythmically.

Your thoughts on today’s commercial music in India...

Since you have asked what I think about it...I don’t think about it (laughs). All Bollywood music is subservient to the director’s version. It’s like ‘Hyderabad Biryani’, there are 25 different kinds of it and hardly any difference between each.

How do you stay connected to your roots?

India plays very strongly on my mind. I hold on to every bit of it. For instance, I tend to cook a lot of Indian food in London.

Now that you have talked about it, what do you cook best?

Vegetable rice with coconut milk. Also, chicken curry. The ‘masala’ is ground by my mother and I take it to London. I can flatter anyone in the West with that (Laughs).

What’s the one thing that nobody knows about you?

I used to have recurring dreams. A dream where I suddenly get up from my sleep and I see about 100 Mickey Mouse heads peeping through the door with a body attached to them.