Hyderabad five-piece band is known for its regional fusion music

Hyderabad-based five-piece boy band Niraval is known for their regional fusion music. The band recently performed at 100 Pipers 'Play for a Cause' event in Hyderabad. On the sidelines of the show, we caught up with the band and got to know how it all started.

The band members inform that it all started off as an open mic band playing at The Moonshine Project's concept Varnam (a platform where regional and folk music is given a stage wherein people go back to their roots and cherish music in their native tongue).

Sweekar Agasthi, bands lead vocalist says: "I am a playback singer and music director in Telugu Film Industry and Niraval is my nightlife. In the night I perform and in the morning I produce music. I met Sagar Ramachandruni, the bass lead in our band, in another concert and we jammed for a few days and later we were not getting time because of our individual careers. At that time, I gave music in the film 'C/O Kancherlapalam' and after the movie needed a break as it was a hectic schedule for me. I travelled and I came back and Sagar called me and said there is a requirement of a vocalist in their band. I actually wanted to try it out and by this time they were performing at Moonshine Project's 'Varnam'. And there I joined and from then it became a habit.

Lead Vocalist and Keyboardist Krishnan Ganesan says, "We have been doing this from three years. We cover a lot of Indian artistes and we are a multilingual band. We play in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil. That is one of our USPs. We have opened for various artists like Agam, Masala Coffee, Thaikkudam Bridge, Guitar Prasanna, and also we have opened up for many legendary musicians in India."

"We are a five-piece band – our drummer Vaishak Menon

is from Kerala. I am from Tamil Nadu. Falak, flautist and classical Hindustani singer, is from Gujrat. Sweekar and Sagar are from here. Sakir from Parikarma reached out to us about the 100 Pipers 'Play for a Cause' event and we are really happy that we are able to contribute to the cause," Krishnan adds.

About getting together Krishnan share: "We are musicians and we were working with other bands. Before Niraval, I was in a pop band and Vaishak was in a metal band…we all just crossed paths and met at different places and venues. And we started jamming. We never started as a multilingual band, we started as a single language band and evolved over a period of time."

The idea behind the name of the band Krishan says, "Niraval means improvisation in Carnatic classical and it also means to jam or fuse. That clicked with us and now we are Niraval."

Vaishak says: "We mix Carnatic music with reggae and vice versa. I have been drumming since I was a kid. I was never genre-specific and I was open to all sorts of music…but I was inclined more towards classic rock…my paternal grandmother was a Carnatic singer and used to perform on Doordarshan. So, the Carnatic influence was always there in the family and as we jammed together it worked out."

The band in unison says that social media gives them a lot of visibility and music bands needs that kind of visibility. They can connect with the audience directly.

About his upcoming projects, Sweekar says: "I am working on Dil Raju's next project titled 'Noota oka jilla lo andagadu' and it is a Avasarala Srinivas film. I am also working Bhavya Creations' film and it stars Anand Deverakonda (Vijay Deverakonda's younger brother). After that, I am doing a Tamil film among other projects…

The band is popular for their cover songs of AR Rahman, Ilayaraja, Keeravani, et al, however, they are working on an album of original songs of Niraval and the band is planning to release it as a summer album in May 2020.