Techies craze for Kannada rock

Nee, the first of its kind, Kannada rock band is a group of four enthusiastic music lovers, mor

e of weekend musicians. They’re full time IT professionals who have come together to create an album titled Nee, the Rebirth of Music.

    Excited and enthusiastic, the band comprises Siddeshwar, Sairam Krishna, Sumithra Ponnuranganm and Vikram Joshi, who say music means the world to them.
Siddeshwar, fondly called Sid, the founder of the band told Metrolife, “My friend Tejas Kumar alias Subramani and I were discussing starting a band in 2001. He bet that I couldn’t create an entire album without using any live instruments. I set out to learn all I could about sound engineering, music direction and anything in that line. By 2003 I was ready. I had won the bet. My friend went his way but my desire to make an album stayed.”

The year 2004, was their turning point. Sid met Sai and everything, they say, began falling into place. Sumithra and Joshi soon joined the the band and they were all set to make music. A band made up of IT professionals would obviously use technology to produce music, but what is interesting is that this band does not use any instruments. Everything is created on a computer. “There are thousands of plugins available online. We use these templates and modify them,” says Sai and continues, “I have a Carnatic music background and I used to perform in North India. It was unbelievable for me to see music being made this way.”

It’s great considering that Sid has no musical training and is self-taught. He began downloading manuals off the Internet and thereafter the learning began. If they lack musical education, what they do possess in abundance is determination. “Each of us used the skills we had. We didn’t learn music from any guru. Music is our guru,” says Sumithra. Sid adds, “We did a detailed market study to figure out what kind of music the audiences wanted to listen to and attempted creating it. We wanted to be unique but friendly.” Sai takes over from Sid and says, “Anybody can understand our music and sing it too. We make music for the common man.”

“We do everything ourselves. Sid writes the lyrics and sends it to us. We give our suggestions and then I put it into tune. Then Sid tunes it using various softwares that are available. We finalise and record once everybody is on board,” says Sai.
The band has not only launched an album but has also shot a video which will be on air soon. All of this is self funded and produced. The music video has also been directed by them. The CDs are already available at all popular music stores.