KOCHI: Many youngsters often migrate to other cities and states in search of better opportunities in art and music. But 23-year-old music aspirant Aquilas Eipe Kovoor brought the party to his hometown. ‘The Locals Live’, his initiative, brings together local talent and is a community for art lovers in Thiruvalla.
“I think it’s time to build platforms for the local youth in every town to exhibit their talents. No talent should go unnoticed in the absence of a suitable platform. Being from Thiruvalla, the need to build an artistic community here was important to me. Many youngsters were confined to the limited opportunities which institutions and schools could provide, they needed to understand that their talents should get greater audience and recognition,” says Aquilas.
The Locals Live was put to the fore with the support of his like-minded friends. “Kerala, in general, goes by the notion that only professionals and academicians can prosper, this is an endeavour to change the mindset of Keralites and build communities that encourage local artists and their artforms said Suraj Varghese John, a law student part of The Locals Live.
“Through the first event of Locals Live, I was able to discover a music culture in Thiruvalla — be it vocals, musical instrument, rap, poetry, a huge number of talent buzzed into the community. The town that shuts before 9:30pm saw the most lit night ever,” quips Aquilas.
Seeing the overwhelming response ‘The Locals Live’ was driven to take up its vision to dig the art mine. As the group was all prepared to kickstart the next series of events, Covid happened, but that didn’t stop the community from going forward. When the world was in the throes of a raging pandemic The Locals Live gained momentum on Instagram through their Quarantino and Locals on Live series featuring local artists from anywhere in Kerala, the latter is still ongoing.
The Quarantino series encouraged people to perform their own composition or covers, instrumental, beatboxing, poetry, rap in less than 1 min 30 seconds addressing the pandemic and as a tribute to the Covid warriors. The series went on for 3 months.
Virtual Choir
When the Quarantino series got over, Aquilas lead The Locals Live came with a virtual choir featuring 100 passed out students of Believers Church Residential School, Thiruvalla. Though they have never seen each other, recorded ‘We are the world’ by Michael Jackson on their smartphones in the comforts of their home worldwide as a tribute to the Covid warriors, contributing to a generous cause of feeding 20 poor families. As a result of two months of hard work of Aquilas along with his associates including, Ashwin Syam, Jeswin Cherian, Cyril Sajan, Aieysha Ann and Sanny Samson, the six-minute video was shared by Stephen Devassy, Keba Jeremiah, Sanah Moidutty and Esther Anil
A community movement
The Locals Live was a breakthrough for many. Artists with immense potential who were undiscovered for years werebrought to the forefront. “The Locals Live got me my first open stage live performance. The initiative brought a fresh lease of hope to artists who were deprived of a suitable platform to showcase their talent, and also enabled like-minded people to come under one fold, said Rufus Johns, BSW final year student, .
Another beneficiary of this initiative was the band ‘Organized Madness’. “We used to do gigs before Covid, but it was The Locals Live that resonated and transpired into video content creation, expanding our horizon to float a Youtube channel, says Jithin Kuruvilla Philip, the lead singer of the band.Though the venture had its genesis at Thiruvalla, the team doesn’t wish to limit its possibilities there. With the motive of spreading their wings towards making the best of untapped potential ‘The Locals live’ is planning to launch pan-Kerala.
Find them on Instagram@thelocalsliveofficial