BENGALURU: The Mumbai-based band Arjun & the Teenage Men will pay tribute to the pop star Michael Jackson in the city today. The line-up would include all-time favourite classics by MJ including songs such as Dangerous and Thriller. “We would like to appeal to every kind of audience. Sometimes, people come with their parents and hence, the songs should not be limited to any one particular generation,” says Arjun Dhanraj, the vocalist and guitarist from the band.
“MJ has been my all-time favourite artist. I started singing when I was three-years-old. I would try to imitate him. When we do gigs, we do our versions of MJ songs, we would make it a little more Rock,” he says. But, for tributes, the band plays the same songs, striving to bring it as close to the original. “For the MJ tribute, I don’t play the guitar, I just sing. We have backing tracks playing from the laptop and the band performs, keeping the music as close to the original as possible,” he says. His favourite song by MJ is Dirty Diana, he says.
Ask who he would like to collaborate with and he says he has already collaborated with his dream band, Pain of Salvation. “During a concert in Chennai in 2011, the band called me on stage and I sang People Passing By. I got emotional,” he says. Apart from this band, he would have loved to collaborate with MJ. Unfortunately, he’s dead, he says, adding, “I would have given away anything to get on stage and perform with him.” So will he sing his favourite Dirty Diana song with MJ? “If he were there, why would I sing? I would just love to play the guitar for him and he would sing,” he says.
ATM was formed early in 2015. Arjun, who used to play for a Progressive Metal band NerveRek in Chennai, decided to explore other genres. “I was connected with several musicians across the country as I used to meet them often at different national-level college fests. I had shortlisted some musicians I wanted to jam with and I decided to form a western music band in India,” he says. Hence, ATM was formed. Initially, the plan was to do covers of popular songs. “I had three or four songs written. They wouldn’t have fit into the kind of music NerveRek was into. We jammed together and eventually, we released our first EP Shenanigans, with five original tracks last year,” Arjun says.
‘We are a versatile band’
The musician claims that they are the only band perhaps in the country that performs all genres drawing influences from artistes ranging from MJ to Guns N’ Roses, Ed Sheeran and Adele. “We are a versatile band that can perform at weddings and also at a rock show with two different sets of tracks for the occasion. There is no particular genre we follow. If you listen to our originals, you’d also see that we draw influences from Indian music too. I grew up listening to bhajans and classical music at home. So, it reflects in my writing or performances too, though it’s not a conscious effort to add these elements,” he says.
But the market for Indie musicians here in India is bad, he says. Most musicians in India, such as Dhruv Ghanekar, earn their living by either composing music for Bollywood or advertisements. “If you hear him, you would feel he’s such a great performer and wonder why he has to do a job to earn a living,” he says, adding, “If Indie artistes perform abroad and come back, they’d suddenly receive recognition.” The band now plans to come out with an animation series for audiences world over on the challenges faced by Indie artists, with stories revolving around the band and its members. “Each episode will have a different story, but it will be entertaining,” he says. The band will perform today at Hard Rock Cafe, St Mark’s Road.
Band Members
Arjun Dhanraj - Vocals / Guitars
Roop Thomas - Bass / Backing Vocals
Vignesh Venkatraman - Guitars / Backing Vocals
Mayank Sharma - Drums & Percussion