A project with a twist

When four youngsters come together to make interesting music, a unique collaboration is bound to happen. ‘The Sahej Project’, which comprises of four youngsters — Hreedish Kakoty (vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist), Nukul Mehra (lead guitarist), Varun Ramachandra (bass guitarist and backing vocals) and Nikhil Kotibhaskar (drummer and vocals), works with variants of rock music. In a candid chat with Tini Sara Anien, the band members talk about their journey.

How did the band come together?

Nukul: Hreedish and I used to be in the same music school and then we started playing together. One-and-a-half-years back, we took up this project. We felt a need to start playing for ourselves. The whole band slowly came together.

Hreedish: We’ve known each other for a while. He played the guitar and I played the piano. At some point we started jamming and writing songs together and now we are a happy band which plays alternative rock with influences of post-rock, ambient and progressive rock.

Why is the band named ‘The Sahej Project’?

Nukul: ‘Sahej’ means something natural and with patience. When anyone listens to our songs, they will be able to relate to this. We are also trying to say that the world needs a little more of ‘sahej’ to go on, and this is how our songs are crafted. Hreedish: ‘Sahej’ also means immaculate. Some of our songs have come up very organically, and that is also what the name signifies. We liked the word and added the word ‘project’ as the idea was to collaborate with varied musicians.

Self-compositions by the band...

Nukul: We have five compositions and all of them have been varied experiences. While ‘Mirrors’ is about questioning our existence, the dilemma of life and where it’s headed, ‘Noah’ is about a post-apocalyptic scenario, where a single person is trying to figure out how to live alone and his wish to be one with the stars. The other three works are ‘Parachutes’, which is a fantasy/fairy tale song; ‘Lullaby’, a piece about reminiscence and nostalgia of the fairy world that we created with our childhood bedtime stories and lullabies; and ‘Little things’ is a love song, about someone missing the old days spent with his loved one and how goodbyes hurt.

Experiences working together...

Hreedish: We have a home studio and we record our songs there. The space has been witness to many happy moments together.  Nikhil: I love the midnight practice sessions and the way we jam together. Our schedules and our music has worked out really well. There is so much to experiment with. I have started to feel at home with this band. I gelled with the band members and clicked instantly. I’m one of the latest additions to the band, though I’ve played drums for other bands.

How different is your music?

Varun: I play music for another Indian fusion band and when I came here, it was a different ball game. I play post-rock here and it’s a different genre altogether. There is no common grounds. In the other band, I play peppy numbers while here it is more  on the ambience and sound. There is a lot of importance on lyrics in this band.