It was the craze to have the attention of audience that drove Pruthvi Mallepula to learn the guitar when he was in Class V. It has been about 10 years now since he started playing music.
“After watching my school band’s performance, I convinced my father to buy me a guitar. He bought me a basic one, but good enough to start with,” recalls Pruthvi.
He has been a member of ‘The Tapes’ since 2013 where he plays the guitar. His band mates include bass guitarist Abhay,a student of Gitam Institute of Technology, guitarist Saurav,who works at Infosys, drummer Hari from Vasavi College of Engineering. and vocalist Pranav from Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology. They play old school grunge and Indie rock music.
The band got recognition soon after they got an opportunity to perform at a popular pub in the city. “That performance proved to be a milestone in our career. We were supposed to perform only for 15 minutes, but due to public demand, it had to be extended to 30 minutes.” says the engineer who recently graduated from Vasavi College of Engineering. The judge for the event, Vijay Vadrevou, a well-known musician from the city, also helped produce their first Extended Play ‘Amateur Premature’.
Since then, the band has had an impressive 12 original compositions. It currently tops the ReverbNation charts (a popoular online music chart) and has performed in venues such as Hard Rock Cafe, IIT Hyderabad, IIIT Hyderabad, Rain Pub, Lost Society and has headlined numerous college fests like BITS Pilani’s that was held recently.
But success did not come easily to the computer science graduate who will soon be moving to New Jersey to pursue his masters. Recalling the struggle they had to undergo he says, “We needed equipment for which we had to raise money. Apart from that, we also recorded in ISKCON temple studio due to lack of funds. A major blow came when our drummer, Rico left for Muscat.” However,the 22-year-old feels proud that they are doing quite well now and have gigs lined up almost every week.
Being students, they also made sure that they spent enough time jamming together and playing music individually. “We make sure we jam at least two times a week. I also practise individually at home at least for 15 minutes,” he says.
— pratima@newindianexpress.com
