If your idea of a Friday night is all things music, you will love this gig. Peepal Tree is a Bengaluru based band whose original members – Praveen, Tony, Willy and Sujay have been performing for almost 20 years out of which they have spent a great deal of time performing together in different bands as well as performing around the world with some of the country’s finest artists. This apart they have also been working on movie projects, ad jingles, and music of all sorts. “Siddhart, who is considerably younger than the rest of us, but he started performing pretty early also, and he has also played with some of the best musicians in the industry. The band was born out of this long-standing friendship, and the desire to create new music that we could take to a wide audience, but that was still fun for us to write and perform,” says Tony Das, Guitarist.
At the heart of it all, the band loves music that has memorable melodies played on a bed of solid grooves. “Now that means different things to different people, but to us it manifests itself in a variety of sounds. If you listened to the whole album, you would find some pop, some rock, some funkier elements and some of the more modern production stuff. So we try not to restrict ourselves by putting genre tags on anything. I know everyone says that but I think everyone means it from their own perspective,” says Das. Peepal Tree’s debut album Chetana naturally has a very special place in their hearts. “It is the first album that we have officially released and we are proud of the effort that went into it and how it all turned out. While there is a sort of unifying sound on the album, every song is quite different from the others in so many ways. We feel like there is something for every kind of listener on Chetana, and we have received feedback to that effect too,” avers Das. While terms like ‘electronica’ and ‘funky grooves’ are associated with their music there is more. The band’s music is a mix of their influences ranging from ballads to heavy metal and everything in between.
The show on Friday will see the band mixing it up a bit with some originals and some super fun covers thrown in for good measure. “The audience can expect to see us bringing our A-Game, and I think they will find themselves singing along with us for a large part of the evening,” promises Das. The evening will see the band play Kannada and Hindi numbers. As far as Kannada music is concerned Das says that it has been experiencing steady growth in all styles and genres. “It is a great time to be around and watch this evolution taking place while being a part of it.” Looking ahead, the band has already started working on their second album which they plan to release it in much lesser time than they took for their first. “But in the meantime, we are just going to play shows, write more music, and share more of everything we are doing with all of our wonderful friends and supporters who have been so great to us over the last five years,” signs off Tony.
- What: ibis Music in association with Sony Music presents Peepal Tree
- Where: ibis Bengaluru Outer Ring Road; Opposite RMZ Ecospace Business, Park Marathahalli – Sarjapur, Outer Ring Rd, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560103, India
- When: 9th August, Friday 8:00 p.m. onwards
- Note: There is no ticket for attending the gig but guests need to register on https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ibis-music-bengaluru-peepal-tree-live-in-action-tickets-66165078531
This story first appeared in Deccan Chronicle Bengaluru dated Aug 9, 2019 here: