These band of boys are all under 14. Three are teenagers, while the youngest is a pre teen. And they already have a year-old band to their credit. The name is Symphonic Eternity and they are taking Bengaluru by storm.
They first made their presence felt at the Vodafone Bicycle Marathon earlier this year. The band comprises students of Octaviam’s Music Academy. They specialise in progressive rock metal and compose and play their own songs.
Eleven-year-old Anagh Nayak is a drummer and a student of Sherwood High. “I learnt to play drums from my dad at Octavia, our music school.” Thirteen-year-old Rohan Raveesh of St Pauls High School plays the guitar and vocals too. “I learnt vocals at Octavia and guitar from Bruce Lee Mani. I’ve been training with him for three years now. I have been learning to play the guitar since the age of five and my mum enrolled me in classes.”
Like him both, Anish Mukund and Vijay Ganesan are also 13. The latter two are classmates at Brigade High School. Anish was learning to play the guitar at Octavia. “I recommended my classmate Vijay, as we needed a base performer.” Vijay adds, “Initially I was jealous of Anish as he was part of a band but now we are all good friends.”
Anagh, who is the more vocal of the lot, explains, “It was Octavia’s anniversary where Rohan and I were planning to perform and needed a guitar player. Anish’s teacher put us in touch with him. And soon we realised we needed a bassist and Anish recommended his classmate Vijay.”
Ask them if they ever fight and they respond in chorus, “No never, we have fun together but the fights have never happened.” In fact the boys practice for two hours on Saturdays and daily (after school) if there is a performance coming up. Within a span of a year they have performed at prestigious festivals like Strawberry felds and also at IIT Chennai and IIM Bengaluru.
The boys admit that their schools have been very encouraging although Vijay now concedes that, “It is getting challenging as I am entering class nine.” Anagh pipes in, “I have three more years to go as I am in class six but it will be tougher for me as the band will be more successful by then.”
And yes, they all want to be musicians when they grow up. “We want to perform in many countries. In fact we have just auditioned for the Wacken Open Air metal fest in Germany and hope to get selected.” The boys have just recorded their EP. They quip, “It’s fun as you can hear it for yourself. You even realise the mistakes you have made.”
