The Nasha of Sufi rocks the youth

Band Nasha derives its name from its first self-composed song

Rock music has been the favourite genre of city-based youngsters for a while now but a new twist given to this musical style by the band Nasha is fast catching up with the youth. A Delhi-based Sufi rock band, ‘Nasha’ was formed in 2009. In this time span, the band has created a niche for itself and has become popular with the youth for their Sufi rock music. Metrolife tracks the journey of the band with the lead vocalist Akhil Sachdev.

“I participated as a solo artist in a singing competition Dil Ki Awaaz that was held on 23 November 2009 and won. But what's more important is that I met my fellow band mates in that competition. They were all in a different band. But that's where we all started our journey from,” Says Akhil.

Nasha was the title of the band’s first self-composed songs that was written by Akhil and the band members got their big break when they opened for a performance by Bollywood singer Mohit Chauhan.

The Sufi genre was adopted by the band in an attempt to contemporise soulful melodies. On being asked about how the band gravitated by Sufi music, Akhil says, “I have never learnt music but I have grown up listening to Reshma and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and these are the artists that we all look up to. Sufi connects you to God and through our music we try to keep Sufi music alive amongst the youth.”

When enquired about their popularity amongst the female audience, Akhil gives a shy smile, “Well its always good to get the attention of girls. On a serious note, I think our music connects to the people of all age and sexes. Our energy on stage doubles when we see youngsters shouting for more on the top of their voices. Its just amazing.”

So, it would appear that is now Sufi quite popular amongst the youngsters? “It is indeed.

Whenever we perform in colleges, the kids know all about Sufi. In fact they want us to sing Sufi tracks which we sometimes haven’t even heard of. It feels great to see such popularity amongst youth of our country,” says Akhil.

Nasha has performed all over the nation in various concerts, private shows, corporate shows and institutional gigs and has had opportunities to perform alongside renowned artists like Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Atif Aslam, Priyanka Chopra, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan etc.

The band also plays Bollywood’s hit numbers in their own Sufi style. Nasha has been awarded The Best Band from North India and have been winners of Rockothon 2010.
They have also shared the stage with other well-known bands like Parikrama, Bandhish and Indian Ocean among others.

The band has also performed internationally in Europe and Turkey. Their title track is about to be released in an upcoming Bollywood movie. Apart from Akhil on the vocals, the band includes Saurabh on rhythm guitar, Puneet on lead guitar, Jivi on the Bass guitar, and Ankur on the Drums.