CHENNAI: An upcoming duo of virtuoso musicians is set to enthral patrons this Friday at Phoenix MarketCity as they take to the stage in the wake of recent successes on the local circuit. The duo, Hones and Joel, are part of a larger quintet of musicians who broke through onto the scene in 2016, and CE caught up with them for a quick chat.
Both come from a strong musical background, which they picked up very early in childhood. Hones Raj, a student at Madras Christian College, is a talented multi-instrumentalist who plays the drums, guitar, keyboard and bass, among others — with equal felicity. “I come from a family with a musical inclination, so I picked it up naturally from a young age,” he says. “Though he was more into gospel music, his interest led him to try out other genres.” He plays the keyboard for the two-piece.
Joel Prithvi, a BBA student at Loyola College, also took to the keyboard in childhood but switched to the guitar after he found he liked it more. He is the lead guitarist. The two got acquainted through mutual friends who were musicians and eventually found themselves coming together with three others to form the band The Nobodys in 2016. “Our first performance was at CMC Vellore, where we opened a concert for the popular heavy metal act ‘Girish and the Chronicles’. It was our first live gig and probably the most momentous as well,” recalls Joel. For a relatively young band, The Nobodys have had a successful run, winning several awards and prizes at music festivals.
“Joel and I started jamming and innovating and we started to frame some music on our own,” says Hones. “Our music consists of a good mixture of cover songs and original compositions as well.” They sweep music across genres starting from alternative rock and metal grunge to ballads. They even had the fortune of opening for acts such as Junkyard Groove and RJD. Their most recent success was bagging the second prize at the coveted Saarang at IIT Madras. “It was great considering the level of competition and the number of professional bands that turned up,” he adds.
The two even won awards for best keyboardist and best guitarist respectively, which also gave them the impetus to perform as a duo together. As for their expansion plans with the larger band, they’ve even shot a music video for one of their original compositions that will be released later this year.