Going back to the roots

The world’s music brings many together, no matter how busy one may be in their lives. That’s exactly what happened with the members of ‘Peepal Tree’,  a Bengaluru-based band. The lineup comprises Sujay Harthi on vocals, Tony Das on guitars, Praveen Biligiri on bass and Willy Demoz on drums and percussions.

One of the main reasons these four friends started the band two years ago is that they love hanging out with each other. “We’ve known each other since college and have played in bands together and separately. But we wanted to come together to start playing our own music and produce good music for others,” shares Willy.

At the same time, the members are also part of other bands, but they give ‘Peepal Tree’ as much importance as they do to any other. “It’s actually impossible for any musician to be stuck to one type of music. We have other commitments but we make time for everything that we want to do as a band. We have to plan and mark our calendars accordingly,” explains Willy.

So how did they come up with the name for the band? Willy laughs and says, “It’s actually a funny story. When we finally finished working on our first two songs, we were ready to upload them on our social media page. But we realised that we needed a name for the band.

It took us a while to come up with a name that all of us agreed upon. ‘Peepal Tree’ popped in my head one fine day at 2 am and I immediately told the others. Everyone instantly agreed because the quality that the tree possesses is similar to what we want to produce with our music as well.”

During his research, Willy learnt that every peepal tree emerges from the parent tree from years ago and so does music — every genre has its roots. Just like the tree is beautiful and also produces oxygen, their band too focusses on making fresh music and making others happy at the same time.

Keeping in mind the fresh music is their latest song ‘Magizhchi’ — Tamil phrase for joy or happiness. The track is an ode to superstar Rajinikanth aka ‘Thalaiva’ (Tamil for the boss).

Released recently on social media, the video is already making a buzz with fans. It showcases some endearing snippets of Rajini’s fans, his popularity and cult that encompasses generations of fans who wouldn’t let go of the opportunity to mimic their favourite hero’s moves.

Sharing his thoughts on the song, Willy says, “When we saw the ‘Kabali’ trailer, we were starstruck. When we saw everyone else expressing their love for the actor, we wanted to do it in our own style. It was a lot of fun writing and making the song. The making of the video wasn’t hard as there are many fans. We met a lot of interesting people during the shoot!”

With the video making a buzz, the members are also working on their next music videos which will be released soon. They also have an album releasing in a couple of months.