Desi, with afreakin' beat!

Every once in a while a new band comes along to announce to the world that Indian music doesn’t always have to fall into the classical category. Bengaluru’s Swahaa is one such. Mashing Indian percussion with African and adding a generous helping of Indian folk to it, this band is slowly garnering a much deserved spot on the city’s music circuit.

“Rhythms and grooves form the essence of the band. All of us are close to nature and even the sounds from it inspires us,” says Subhash Gowda, the band’s manager, who was earlier a part of the band too. Swahaa now consists of Arun Sivag on the timbale and handsonic, Sujith Kumar on the dhol, Harish packing powerful vocals, Western drummer Mahesh Kumar, beatboxer Michael Maxwell and Sumukha on the flute. African music, just like their bold-printed wardrobe takes a huge chunk of their music. Why you may ask, “All of us come from different musical backgrounds and have various influences. But African and Indian music are similar. In that, they are earthy,” explains Arun, whose fateful meeting with Subhash at an audition led to the creation of the band.

Named after the Sanskrit term chanted at the end of a mantra or prayer in Hindusim and Buddhism tradition, this band is a potpourri of Latin grooves, samba, reggae and Indian folk. And that’s probably what excites their fans worldwide.

Their love for performances isn’t just limited to the stages. You may have also spotted them drumming up a flash mob at some public venues for free. “It was also a great experience performing on over 17 stages in Sweden. They thought India was all about classical music, but we surprised them,” says the proud band.

They are even set for an all India and a Europe tour next year. But as socially conscious 20 something-year-olds, we must admit that their hearts are in the right place. “We want to be a band that offers support to causes we believe in – we have actively supported LGBT rights, women empowerment projects, child right issues and Save Tibet to name a few, through our music,” says Subhash. Through their music, they dream big – they want to unite all classes of the society. “In Sweden, we even put up an exclusive gig for specially-abled kids. We also performed for and with people battling drug and alcohol abuse. Marikuppam village in Kolar is yet another fond memory. They’d never seen a social event before and we put up a huge stage and performed for them. We wanted to show the youth there that music and sport could make a career too,” says Arun about one of their proudest achievements.

The band has several exciting tunes coming up - some in collaboration with rappers and international artistes even! “All we’d like to tell youngsters getting in to music now is not to look at short term results because music never lets you down. Keep the faith,” they say.