Simple in approach

Simple in style and minimalistic in their approach, as this band takes over the stage, the audience traverses an emotive journey.

The sound resonates a warm, lively feel; resembling a loving embrace and distilling a precise mood in the audience. Devoid of any glitz and glamour yet slowly adding to the largesse and quality of music in the City is ‘D’s Kitchen’, a four-piece rock band comprising Vaibhav Kumar on guitars, Rohit Kamath on vocals, Abhishek Thomas on bass and Madhusudan Raman on the drums.

Discreet in sensibility, the band speaks through their signature, simple lyrics which radiate with meaning. Not letting popularity overshoot purpose, their final product is a collaborative, creative effort as Madhusudhan says that though the initial idea for a song starts with the guitarist, the rest of the members improvise and weave lyrics behind it during their jam sessions. A well-known name in the City, what has always remained a mystery about the band to their audience is how the name was thought out.

“We don’t know ourselves,” says Madhusudan. “Their are too many stories on what ‘D’ stands for in ‘D’s Kitchen’. One story is that we were jamming at a girl’s house, whose name starts with D, and her landlord threw us out since he didn’t like our music. This isn’t true. Others say ‘D’ is for devil but our music isn’t really loud or heavy to be considered diabolic. We just stick with the name since it’s a quirky, decent name.” 

The band formally came together in January 2014, when they found that they leaned towards similar genres while jamming. During the initial days of their inception, it wasn’t a conscious decision for the band to keep their music or line-up simple. As they progressed and jammed together, they found that simple, soul stirring music with a small line-up is quite appealing. Though they did experiment with keys later, the four felt that the sound didn’t quite fit. Their passion soon led to an EP and album release. However, Madhusudan says that their songs are always a ‘work-in-progress’. “We change a few minor aspects of the song even after live shows, based on what worked and what didn’t. This is a huge learning experience,” he adds.

As part of a young, part-time rock band, Madhusudan finds the scene here not very receptive for their genre. “Rock has been hit because of the EDM culture in the independent music space. We have always received a better audience outside, in places like Chennai and Hyderabad. Though there is a lesser number of people attending the concert, they are more receptive to a variety of genres. They come out and listen to bands from different parts of the City, which is very encouraging. Another challenge that I found here is that the scene is more organiser-centric and not artiste-centric. Music is treated commercially rather than as a cultural art form. Most of the times, organisers don’t give bands a show and refuse to pay artistes. They also charge an expensive cover entry when they aren’t paying the band. Obviously, the consumer thinks twice before listening to a new band.” Yet, the band is true to their purpose of music and hope to continue to play rich, masterful tunes throughout.