Rockers start anew

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Most colleges teeming with teenagers are evolving into a germinating ground for young musical talent. That familiar huddle of guitar-players practising rock anthems has been a cliche for generations but for the first time, teen rockers are presenting original compositions to their contemporaries and are riding the popularity charts.

With her rumpled hair in her eyes, Pratika Evangeline, 16, may look like your cute chica-next-door but this extreme metal bassist sets the stage alive. The youngest member of the teenage rock band, Chronic Phobia, she is already on her way to college rock glory (it doesn’t matter, she’s still in school). This budding musician believes, “Our kind of music is catching on in India. Starting from played covers, today, we play only our original compositions. When we started as a ‘competition band,’ we were pathetic. We’ve grown from there and had a series of line up changes.”
Chronic Phobia will perform at the pre-party gig for the Lamb of Gods concert in Bengaluru before thousands of rock fans in May. Their lyrics, a heady mix of teenage blues and angst seems to reverberate with their rebellious teenage streak. She adds, “Though we play non-commercial music and were underground till now, our covers have became popular ever since our viral video started circulating online. Facebook has added to the popularity with fan clans mushrooming.”
It’s hard to imagine gawky young Pradyun Rao, a final year B.Sc student of St Mary’s college, as the rage he is onstage with his band. The young bassist with Wreckage explain the band’s origins, “It was a trying start to get like-minded people to jam together. Friends at first, we discovered that we gravitated towards the same genre of music, jamming, playing older covers. Once we started winning competitions, we started playing our own music. But you still get asked to play Sutta or other covers by listeners, which is a bummer." The going hasn’t been that easy; they’ve had to borrow instruments and amplifiers from friends, yet are sticklers for persevering against all odds, “We love our music, as do our followers.”
Rajiv Kumar, 19, drummer of SKRYPT, is keen that the band makes it, even if ‘real life’ gets in the way, “Reactions to our originals have been great, which was a huge booster. Right now, we have four original compositions, once we roll out a few more singles, we will cut an album. But college plays spoilsport, the authorities are not supportive, they don’t even give us leaves.”

N. Kartik Rao