BENGALURU: It’s a weekend afternoon when a group of young, breezy boys are spotted hanging out in different pockets of the concert space of GYLT, Bengaluru. The band in question is The Yellow Diary (TYD), a prominent act in the independent music scene. The band has a song featured in the upcoming Madhuri Dixit-starrer film Maja Ma, and some of the band members have also worked on other movies like Brahmastra and Gully Boy. After the pandemic-ridden years, the band has been touring India, their last show in this city happening only a couple of months ago. “We thought the year-long break due to the pandemic would force us to restart things. On the contrary, when we returned to the stage, things felt even better.
People were also waiting to get out,” says Himonshu Parikh, the keyboardist and co-founder of the band. The band saw a lot of digital success in the lockdown after Roz Roz (2021) became one of their biggest songs with over one crore views on YouTube. As is with hit songs, the single became an instant favourite and is heavily requested to be played at concerts. However, at the band’s last concert here, something unforeseen happened. One of their early songs, Buniyaad, was also requested.
The band believes this was the first time that track got an encore. “When we first came here, we only did so because we knew there was appreciation for independent music. A couple of gigs later, we started seeing people who liked our music. In the last few times, we have found a family of sorts among fans here. Now, some of them attend our shows for various tracks, including Kashmir, which was made for a specific reason,” shares Rajan Batra, the lead singer and co-founder.
Drummer Sahil Shah was also pleasantly taken aback when Buniyaad was requested. Shah feels Bengaluru has always been the city for Indie bands to be in. “This city loves its bands. Some of the best ones in the country have come out of here. And the crowd here has always been a lot more responsive and supportive of us right from our early days,” says Shah.
The band is in tune with the local music scene and has performed numerous times with city-based bands like Parvaaz and known musicians who play with veteran acts like the Carnatic Rock band Agam. Hence, they have no issue giving opening spots to the local musicians. “We’re open to having local artistes perform with us. It just needs to make logistic sense. If the other band has a completely different setup, then it will be tricky to do a show with them. We usually look to push singersongwriters and acts with an easier setup,” says Stuart Da- Costa, the band’s bassist.
Formed in 2015, TYD has been a close-knit group for years until recently, when Vaibhav Pani, the band’s former guitarist, left to pursue other interests. Replacing him is the band’s newest member Harsh, who is now the lead guitarist of the band. “I still freelance with other acts but being a part of a band has been amazing,” says Harsh, who joined the band over a year ago. While adding a new member did change things, the process has been exciting as newer elements of musicality have been added. Like Da- Costa adds, Harsh’s whimsical playing has provided an added flaret ot heir live performances.