If the Canadian Indie Rock band Arcade Fire and Italian composer Ennio Morricone had a musical child, 27-year-old Telugu man Alluri Shriram’s triumphant and euphoric tunes are probably what it would sound like.
Born and brought up in Hyderabad, singer and musician Alluri is keen on raising the bar of Telugu music on the global platform with a mix of Italian and beautiful life experiences. He was in the city with his band of four Italian musicians to perform his Telugu Rock Album Music, Evari Kosam, last month.
“It was an exciting experience to be performing Telugu songs for the first time in Hyderabad, and that too with musicians from Milan,” says the London-based artist, who is among the few independent musicians in Hyderabad. “I’ve always loved India because my parents live here. I have studied here. Being here is a good break from the fast-paced London life.”
Alluri’s music is almost impossible to categorise into a specific genre, thanks to the multiple influences of classical and western beats on his music. The artist says, “I took professional education in music from London that enabled me to take up music as a full-time career.” But it was his deep love for mother tongue Telugu and music that shaped his musical journey through the years.
Released in November 2016, his debut album, The Man of Truth, had received critical acclaim from New Musical Express and Q magazines, the UK. His music was well-received by the audience as well and was played on the BBC Radio. The musical trail led him to perform at Nottingham, Milan, Derby, Sheffield, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad.
But soon after this, Alluri realised his potential in Telugu music. “My first Telugu album, Evari Kosam (for whose sake), was released in 2016. With it, I aimed at becoming a first-of-its-kind rock musician,” says Alluri, who performed his first Telugu rock album at the prestigious Cambridge Folk Festival in the UK in July 2017.
His music has a touch of British and vintage sound reaching a wide range of audience.Experience is the best teacher and the same applies to Alluri. His excellence in performance comes from simple observation and appreciation of life as an event happening to him. Alluri developed a taste for the British music, when his elder cousin returned from a university trip bearing an armful of UK records. “Having digested a diet of classical music as an early teen, and with such new influences available, my real music education began after I was gifted a guitar,” he says. He learnt the guitar but it was his relocation to the UK to study that really fuelled the singer/songwriter within.His second Telugu album titled, O Katha—Alluri’s tales of a Telugu man—is slated for an international release this year.