Hindi was the choice from day one in Natti’s mind, luckily all who came by liked the concept. Took a lot of jams for the band for the music to fall in to place. Couple of years went by in the process. Had no place to play but in jam rooms.

A couple of years later the band was ready to go out and play.. Our first gig was in 2001 at ITPL’s Noon-time Binge, which led us to the Freedom Jam, where we left the audience spellbound with one of our hard hitting Hindi rock song. Considering it was 2001, may be we were too early for Hindi rock but it slowly did pick up and we had our own small following. Our shows started increasing and we started playing at some good venues across south India, we learnt through a lot of hardships, Encouragement from fellow artists pepped us a lot in making us realise that our choice was right and it would be well accepted over the years. We have had a lot of influence over the years of playing music, we tried, tabala for a few shows & also had a keyboard in the band for about 2 years. Our music has gone through a lot of changes since we started.

After performing at various corporate and college venues for about 2 years or so, we decided to record our first album. Since we were all working and had different timings we decided to record the album in Bangalore. We were new to the whole idea of recording and needed some help in the whole process. That is when we met Ricky and after he heard a couple of our songs he decided to help us out with the recording and even produce it for us. Thanks a lot buddy!

Our process of recording was very delayed for various reasons, we were new to the studios, we had real problem with time due to our work commitment. We nearly took 3 years to finally finish the recording. It got so delayed from our side some tracks were lost forever, we had to use what we had as we were really late in finishing the album. Should have finished it much earlier…., in-between “Dharti” got selected for the Tsunami relief album “Asha wali dhoop” along with the biggies of the music industry from Ustad Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Ali Azmat, Ustad Sultan khan etc. This was a big thing for us being featured along side with the greats of the music industry. This was our first exposure on a national level.

In between our busy personal work schedules we always loved taking time off to perform at both college and corporate shows. Have the pleasure of performing in about 100 shows across south and sharing stage with well known artists. A lot of jingles and corporate anthems were also composed during this period and is still being done.

What’s VINAPRA’s style?

We are a rock band by heart, but have a lot of other influence as well. Almost every great band across the world and a few Indian bands have influenced us. ( Respect a lot of Indian bands who have made it to the top, takes a lot ) Some of them call our music Rock, some call it Hard Rock, some say it’s too heavy for Hind. Most of the songs in our album are composed keeping rock in mind. The violin in the band gives us a very different sound altogether. Some songs are based on folk and some ragas as well. We’d say that we have a unique sound and it’s very different from anything else that’s come around. We always wanted to be different. We might fit in to a lot of genres. We are a Hindi rock band having an open mind letting in good influence’s which can help our music.

The Album

The album comprises of a total of 9 songs, all written and composed by the band. Some of the themes of the songs are based on real-life events rather than fantasies or fiction, because people can relate to fact. We have kept the commercial value in mind. There is something in it for every listener.

From child labour and the passing away of a friend to politics, war and underprivileged children – everything is reflected in our style of music. The songs in the album show the band’s various sides and our ability to adapt to different styles. ‘Nasha’ is a song which is very folksy and has nothing to do with rock. ‘Aakhon Mein’ is a happy love song. ‘Yaadein’ is very melancholic and describes the emotions of a person who far away from his love, Kya Yeh Pyar hai is a fast paced peppy love song. While songs like “Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu” (video song) is a hard hitting rock numbers, conveying the angst of normal people hoping for a change in the world. “Baatein Banana” & “Suno” are other rock songs in the album, Dharthi is a rock anthem.

Video

We took a lot of time on recording our video too, took a lot of time finalising the song and were hoping to find a sponsor which wasn’t easy. Finally “Lia” the agarbathi brand liked the “Gurur Brahma” song and things started rolling. Took about 4 months for the whole process to fall in to place. Then spent a couple of months finding the right production house, shooting etc. Was a great feeling for us, finally our dream of having a video was coning true. We decided that the shooting would be in Bangalore and “Format productions” was finally frozen on to make the video. Bhaskar from Format an ace film maker and a good friend took it up personally and that was a great relief to us, to add it up Ashok .A.V a big name in the film world for Editing, was kind enough to put personal attention to the post production of the video. That is all we wanted and we knew the video was in safe hands.. When we saw the first cut we were all smiling. It was great fun for us and it was a dream come true.

Shot at various points in Bangalore, the video talk about the way the band met and lots of facts of day to day life.

Record deal

The recording of the album was coming to an end and we just had the final mixing and mastering to be done and so we started to search for a music company to sign up. This turned up to be a long wait, a completely strange new world for us. We never thought it would be so difficult. We had the songs, the video, had 100 odd shows to tell them who we were but we still had a lot of problems…Reaching the right people got difficult. Most of who we met loved the video but still things didn’t come through. Some did but had strange agreements. Met most of the big names in the industry & finally met Crescendo Music Pvt. Ltd. who saw potential in the band and signed us up for the release of our first album. A personal thank you to Mr Suresh and his team.

Thank you

A big thank you for all our parents & families who supported us and had the patience to withstand our tantrums.

The previous members of the band who at different stages contributed to the music in different forms. – Wilson ( Who named us ) Avinash Jagirdar, Vijay Emmanuel, Abhijit Shylnath, ( One of the longest members), Santosh.

Others – Kaustubh Srikanth, Sandeep Karmakar, Kritika, Aditi, Arvind, Karthik Ram, Harris Backer,DJ Wayne, Mr & Mrs Srikanth, Mr & Mrs, Surendras, Murali, Sohail, Bhaskar, Ashok, Bali, Jeeth, Mike, Dinakar, Prashanth, Neo Classe, Total Productions, Format Productions,

The members of the band would like to say, “A very special word of mention to “Lia Agarbathies” for having sponsored the video. Thank you for having had the faith and belief in us. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of our personal and musical lives and who have helped us get this far.