The band Off The Record was formed in May 2009. The band’s music can be best described as ‘chilled out’ with surrealist lyrical themes, clean guitar work, psychedelic and modern overtones, and a tight drum and bass section.
The band members of Off The Record are Shakthisree Gopalan on vocals/acoustic guitars, Vikram Vivekanand on lead guitar / acoustic guitar / backing vocals, Satish Narayanan on Bass guitar/backing vocals, Tapass Naresh on drums/percussion/backing vocals, Vinay Ramakrishnan on drums.
Off the Record is a collaborative effort by members from different bands. Satish and Tapass are both members of the popular rock band, Skrat, from Chennai, best known for having reached the finals of Saarang at IIT Madras in 2008 and 2009, and for being one of the national finalists at the Hero Honda Campus Rock Idols competition in 2009. Vikram is the lead guitarist from another popular Chennai-based band called Grey Shack.
They came second, among 52 other bands across the country, at the ‘Strawberry Fields 2008’, held at the National Law School in Bangalore, where Vikram also received the best guitarist award.
Shakthisree is a playback singer and has done the vocals for nearly 10 movies so far, and was awarded the Best Female Playback Singer (Debutante) award at the Jaya TV Film Awards. Apart from playback, Shakthi has also recorded a number of songs as individual projects with various artists.
As a band, Off The Record has been gaining popularity lately. The band opened for the Naina Kundu Trio featuring Floyd Fernandes at the Godin and Parker guitars launch in Chennai.They have also played a number of gigs at the Unwind Center, pubs like Blend and Chipstead, at the Taj group of hotels. Currently, they are working on a seven song album. The band also had a very successful show along with Chennai bands Skrat and Subject to Change, at the Russian Cultural Center. Off The Record also won the third place at the Chennai Live Band Hunt which was held in November 2010.