Alter Egoz is not one of those bands, which will promise you pyrotechnics, laser or glamorous stage acts. “All we care about is music and how well we connect with our audience. We believe good music will create that sort of energy amongst the crowd,” Vijay says summing up their philosophy.
Formed in 2001, Alter Egoz is probably one of the very few bands from Hyderabad to have a high success rate. Catering to a wide range of audience, the band members call their act a classic progressive rock band, while on the same side, experimenting with Funk when they are attempting Beatles or any other pure classic Rock.
Having performed virtually in every premium pub in the city, Vijay explains, “The opportunities are great, but music these days is completely restricted to it. Way back in 1991, when we first started playing, there were really good events, but people were not much musically aware. And the venues we had were huge grounds, where we could accommodate huge numbers. For us, we don’t need people to come and get drunk at our gigs. We rather have an audience who will come to listen to our music.”
The band comprises five musicians, with Vijay on guitars and compositions, Soumya, the Vocalist, Anuj on Bass Guitar, Vivek on Guitar and arrangements and Sanjay on drums and Percussions. Every member is good in different genres of music that bring in the tinge of versatility.
So, is the band also genre-less? Varun replies, “Genre is something one cannot restrict themselves to. Musicians are in different states of mind and they compose accordingly. People get influenced by a particular genre and that is what comes out in their composition. We are open to experimenting, as it is not a good sign for a musician to get stagnated. Everybody is trying something new and it’s just nice.”
Observing one particular trend among bands and their preference for playing original compositions, Vijay says, “People these days are experimenting with new compositions and genres. When we started off playing gigs, there was a huge demand for playing cover songs. Playing a cover song is equally challenging and the crowds expect a lot sometimes. ”
He further adds, “Now, we have over 20 own compositions, which we have recorded but have not done nothing about. The first time we played all our own compositions was at Taramati, which was surprisingly a hit. Our compositions are usually beyond social subjects like terrorism, women’s empowerment, child labour and much more.
Alter Egoz has also composed an English song for a Telugu film called Johnny, another the song 'Dil Pe Math Lo' for Hyderabad Blues 2. The band has also composed a song for the Hyderabad Traffic Police to create awareness on traffic rules.
Vijay feels the Hyderabad music scene in general has been ascending new heights. “The rock scene in the city is not that great to boast of, but I can definitely say it is much better. From jazz to classical and contemporary, every group has its niche crowd.”
And on the spread of music, he says, “There are a lot more bands now and even all the necessary equipment is available. In our initial days as performers, I would go to Mumbai every six months to buy drum sticks or guitar strings, because back in the 90s there were hardly any music stores in the city. These days, there is a lot of information which kids can learn from, YouTube videos, DVDs and loads of online stuff.”
The band also started a new concept called the RASH – Rock Appreciation Society Hyderabad. “RASH was something we really believed in. It was an annual event and we held two seasons of it in 2003 and 2005 at Durgam Cheruvu. But, after that we did not get much support. People didn’t want to shell out money for the entry ticket. So, we stopped doing it, because there was barely any revenue,” he points out. The band always believed in choosing a language, that helps in reaching out to a larger audience. “English is something everybody is fine with or even Hindi. It’s not that we don’t intend to compose songs in regional languages, but the other option is always effective..”
As a musician, Varun says one cannot do two things at a time and do justice to both.”If you want to make money out of music, you can make a lot of it. But, yes, I do believe that one cannot do two things at a time. It’s like any other job, where you have to give people a reason to like your music.”
What is the band now working on? “I have a studio, which has been functioning for seven months and we have recorded some stuff, which we intend to release online soon. Releasing an album in the form of a CD is a difficult proposition right now, because they don’t get sold. People prefer it online. We are also working on a few corporate songs, jingles and other random stuff.”
The band will be performing at the Hard Rock Cafe today, from 9 pm onwards.
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