JOIN USMagic in their notes
Since their first performance as a band, they have attracted a lot of people and are slowly climbing the ladder to success by carving a niche for themselves in the music scene. With Austyn Goveas on vocals, Krithika Manohar on guitars, Ashwin SM on bass guitar, Sushant Chandra on vocals and guitars and Varun Hemanth on drums, the band ‘MotherRoot’ was started in 2014.
“Most of us know each other since school and the rest we got to know through common friends. Our love for music and a dream to start a band led us to where we are today with our independent group,” says Austyn recalling how they came into the music scene.
He adds that music happened to him because he wanted it to happen. Ashwin looks back and says, “Varun, Sushant and I were together in school and we were part of the school choir and also the school band. That’s when the interest in music started to develop. After that we took it to the next level. And once we got to college it was a different atmosphere altogether.”
Explaining why they chose this name for the band, Sushant, who came up with the name, says, “Though we started the band, we still had no clue as to what kind of music we wanted to play. We just had a list of instruments and a rough framework of the genre we wanted our songs to fit into. That’s when somebody suggested that we take two words that are not often spoken together and put them as one word. During those days, I was reading the Norse mythology, and the mythology revolves around the idea that the whole universe is a big tree which they called the ‘world tree’; where each root is next to a different planet. So, I guess that’s how MotherRoot happened. It is a very mythological thing but at the same time very random.”
They mostly concentrate on playing genres like the garage punk (they like to call it adrenaline rock) and the reason they say is, “the tracks are energetic and really fast”. Some of their originals are ‘Maggie Maggie’, ‘Love on the dance floor’, ‘Ms Jackson’ and ‘Walk on the wild side’.
The band, since its inception, has played at various gigs some of which Varun recalls, “We played at BlueFROG, Phoenix Market City, Bengaluru, Gilly’s, Opus, Big Pitcher and at Phoenix MarketCity, Chennai. I remember the best gig we had was the one at Pheonix MarketCity in Chennai; the response from the crowd was great, they stayed with us from the sound check till the very end.”
Describing the band in five words, the members spontaneously say — “raw, energetic, kinky, catchy and edgy”. Explaining that, they say, “The kind of music that we make is very groovy and one can easily catch up with the words and sing along.”
And if each one of them were a musical instrument, which one would they like to be? Sushant quickly chooses trumpet and says, “If you look at a trumpet, it is a simple looking instrument. That’s how I think about music, I can’t think complicated things. Making simple and to the point music is what I work towards.”
Austyn, on the other hand, says, “Keytar is something I have always admired. It is a beautiful instrument and it is fascinating to see how people play it”. The Hawaiian guitar is what Varun chooses saying that the most soulful tune he has ever heard came from it. Ashwin says he would like to be an accordion as he likes the way it sounds and the kind of music one can make with it.
Krithika, another member chooses to be the white grand piano as she always found pianos to be the most versatile instrument and would want to be the white grand piano in John Lennon’s music video.
David Bowie, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan and Steven Tyler are some of their inspirations and they always look up to these legends to learn more and gain greater experience in music.
As for their future endeavours, Ashwin says, “Within the next three years, we would like to work with some of the international labels, performing abroad and of course, the North East region of our country is always there on the list.”