BENGALURU: What do you do with the news you read and hear every day? The popular genre-defying band from Thrissur uses information around them to come up with songs that immediately go viral. From writing about the ‘convertible’ bus they perform in and penning down a “tea song” on demonetisation to giving a tribute to Rohit Vemula, the band that began as an off shoot of a theatre collective has composed over 30 songs in the last three years.
As Saji Kadampattil, the guitarist and a vocalist, sits down for an interview with City Express, a cat barges into his kitchen and steals a piece of meat. “This is how we live, as a community with cats, dogs and people. As a single tribe,” he says of his band Oorali.
Formed in 2010, the band emerged out of sheer necessity to give musical accompaniment to theatre performances in a moving bus. The bus, which is a convertible and opens up as a stage to its one side, is integral to their performance.
Theatre, which was a separate act, soon fused with Oorali’s music.
Though majority of their songs are in Malayalam, they believe that music is universal and knows no language. The band draws from Reggae, Blues, Rock and Folk. Since vocalist Martin John C spent some time in Chile, Latin infuences can also be heard. They have also composed English and Spanish songs.
What do they sing about?
They write songs on political realities, social causes and on personal experiences. Martin was humiliated and beat up by a police in March 2016 because he was suspected of being a druggie. Reason? Martin’s long hair. “They believe that any man with a long hair is a drug peddler,” says Saji.
The band protested by singing outside the police station. A crowd soon gathered and the police was obliged to come outside and apologise to Martin.
“If you want to fight with us then you have to sing,” says Saji. Their motto is simple, they protest in the way they can do best- by writing songs and singing it out aloud. “This is more like a strategy for us,” Saji explains. “Everyone has violence inside of them but violence is dissipated in art.”
The band also believes that there is an artiste and a fascist inside everyone. The question is which one do you nurture?