Parvaaz’s Khalid Ahamed on the rise of rock music in Indian languages

Bengaluru-based rock band Parvaaz was formed in 2010. Photo courtesy: Independence Rock

Bengaluru-based rock band Parvaaz has been extremely busy with live gigs ever since the Covid-19 pandemic waned in the last one-and-a-half year. They are not only performing in their home city but also Mumbai, Delhi and Pune. The number of performances in India's major metros have been increasing by the day, and it is a testament to how the crowd is coming back to attend live gigs, which they missed during the pandemic-induced lockdown. It is no different for musicians, who have missed playing for a live audience leaving them spellbound with their tunes.

More than anything else, they are coming to listen to original music - a gradual shift over the last 30 years since dedicated music festivals like Independence Rock, I-Rock as it is fondly called or gigs have taken place in different parts of India. In fact, more musicians this writer spoke to reveal how they used to combine originals with other popular songs by classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Deep Purple.

Rise of rock music in Indian languages
While covers are still played depending on the crowd, there are more original songs visibly being written and performed than ever before and the four-member Bengaluru band is part of that new age sound that celebrates it. It is also the reason why lead guitarist Bharath Kashyap is happy. Kashyap, who joined the band in 2021, shares, "It's heartwarming to see that a lot of musicians want to do their own thing. I think we also realised that we do best in our music and a lot of other bands are also realising that and that is great." Today, the Bengaluru band will be performing at AntiSocial in Mumbai as part of ‘The Songs We Love To Hate' tour, with an original set that includes songs like Colour White, Ghaib, Beparwah, Gul Gulshan and 11 other songs that have become popular ever since they came into existence more than a decade ago. They will be joined on stage by Tajdar Junaid and Rohan Rajadhyaksha.

The band's music and lyrics are poetic and hold the audience in a trance. With such music, they are one among many Indian bands in the last decade who have changed the notion that Indian rock bands only sing in English. "I feel like a lot of regional bands are coming out in India. Usually, the first thing you think of when you think of bands in India is that they are going to sing in English and I think that's not necessary," shares Khalid Ahamed, who co-founded the band with Kashif Iqbal in 2010.

They have come a long way since then. "At the end, it's music and in the times, we are living in India, it's evolving. India has a lot of languages and everyone has their own language and can emote best in their own languages. Singing in your regional languages like Urdu, English, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada is great," he adds.

The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic
Over the years, the band has also seen many changes in its members. Currently, apart from Kashyap and Ahamed, it also has Sachin Banandur on drums and percussion, as well as Fidel Dsouza on bass and percussion; both are also on backing vocals and co-composers.

Over the years, Parvaaz has released their five-track EP 'Behosh' in 2012, followed by debut album 'Baran' in 2014, followed by 'Transitions' in 2016, with singles 'Shaad' and 'Colour White' in 2017, and finally 'Kun' in 2019. They even plan to release more music this year, which is encouragingly a lot in a decade.

Luckily, when one talks about original music, the process to discover has now become easier. While earlier you had to borrow a cassette, CD or burn a new one, now, it is all available online. So, it is no surprise that people indulged in them during the Covid-19 pandemic. "People had a lot of time at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. That being said, bands singing in regional languages have been there way before that. I'm sure when people got more time during the pandemic, they started appreciating more music in other languages," adds Ahamed, who spend the pandemic with his family.

It was no different for Kashyap, who said he was simply waiting for live performances to start so that he could perform on stage. "We were just planning for when the scene comes back because we all knew it was going to come back but didn't know how strong it was going to come back so we had to be prepared. It was also great because we got some different ideas. Like Ahamed said, when you're busy vs when you're not - the kind of ideas you get are very different and I think that was necessary."

While they weren't together during pandemic, when they returned, Banandur says, the whole song writing process was completely different for the band. "It did impact the way we did our music and now we are back and happy to be making music together."

Ahamed adds that while many musicians opted to share notes and music and make songs from wherever they were, Parvaaz didn't do any of it. "Different musicians are in different places and send ideas and create music to each other, but that didn't work for us and we had to be in the same room to create music. You can still make music like that by fiddling on the computer and send samples, but I think organic music comes when you have four or five people and making music together," adds Ahamed.

Need for rock music in college
It is simply something that Parvaaz has done since its inception. Unlike Mumbai, where rock music isn't encouraged as much as it used to be in college over the last two decades, Banandur says Bengaluru has a thriving scene. Ahamed shares, "We come from Bengaluru and the college music scene there is quite different from Mumbai. They want rock music, they want live bands to play as much as they can."

"I don't see any college festival without battle of the bands in Bengaluru. If you don't have rock in colleges, you will have festivals like Independence Rock," Banandur concludes.

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