Rope ‘Us’ In

KOCHI: Anyone venturing into the indie music scene of Kerala would be spoilt for choice. However, the options are limited when you want to be transported to music heaven uninterrupted by a mortal voice and be carried solely by the sweet strum of the guitar or the beat of a drum. The new instrumental band on the block, Us, may well be what you need. Formed a little more than three months ago by guitarist Anil Krishnan and drummer Sandeep Ponnadiyil, the band was earlier part of another instrumental band called Green Folium. Us has already come out with two singles titled ‘Retro Joe_The Bomber Man’ and ‘Infant Virus’. 

The Instagram page of the two-piece act describes Us as a rock band and there is little doubt about it. But the band’s allegiance seems to be primarily with early avatars of rock music. Its music draws heavily from classical rock traditions with peppy beats and catchy riffs that are easy on the ear. “We wanted to create something old-school which sounded vintage. Also, we don’t get into technical aspects too much. We stop composing when we are satisfied with how the song sounds. I had composed ‘Retro Joe’ a long time back and wanted to release it under a new project. That’s how Us was born,” says Anil. 

Retro Joe and Infant Virus are accompanied by videos pertaining to World War 2. Compiled and edited by animator Vishal Vijayan on his phone using public domain footage, the visuals are almost antithetical to the BPM. While Retro Joe shows scenes of the war with soldiers, fighter jets and shell bombing edited in reverse jump cuts, the video of Infant Virus is a disturbing one featuring Russian experiments on dead animals during the Nazi era. The stark juxtaposition for the video and audio creates a heightened viewing and listening experience. 

As self-taught musicians, Anil and Sandeep picked up the instrument of their choice while in school. 
“I have known Sandeep since I was five years old. So, we have been friends for a long time. Around the time I took up guitar, he also decided to learn the drums,” says the 28-year-old. Both he and Sandeep are also partners at an architectural firm based in Kochi. 

It makes sense then that these long time collaborators would name their latest project ‘Us’, a toast to both the exclusivity of their friendship and their combined musical sensibilities.The band hopes to traverse the success achieved by Green Folium which performed in more than 25 concerts over a decade. However, being an instrumental band has its limitations. Apart from a few acts, the instrumental music scene in Kerala is yet to take off. 

“We could say instrumental music is still underground. Many new bands make covers because that is an easy way to gain popularity but there have been few bands like Kaav which paved the way. The music Kaav made greatly inspired budding musicians like me and Sandeep. It’s partly because of them that Green Folium was purely instrumental,” he adds.Us is all set to release its third track within a month. After that, the duo has something truly unique on cards. “Our future tracks will have accompanying virtual reality (VR) videos. It will be something very new, I don’t think anyone has done this before. We already are familiar with the technology through our work in architecture so it would be easy for us,” says Anil.