Taking a Chance

He is an unconventional percussionist who learnt mostly by ear,and plays on pots and pans in the kitchen,as well as on the djembe,derbuka,daffli and tambourine among others. Aulakh has trained in Hindustani classical vocal music and sings slow rock,sufi,folk and country besides playing a guitar. Joshi draws his influences from Mark Knopfler,Glen Hansard and Eric Clapton. Apart from being an astute guitarist,he also provides the vocals.

The three have been together for seven months,playing at gigs in Delhi and Chandigarh. As they entertained the audience with the sufi folk music at Blue Blazor on Friday,we caught up with them and absorbed their music — earthy,slow rock,rooted and with interesting acoustics. Interestingly,their strength lies in creating original tracks,those penned by Aulakh’s mother,Polly Sagaera.

Mostly with folk undertones,the three,through their music,talk about issues like the girl child,loneliness and disparity. “We want to free ourselves of a genre and would rather experiment. That’s why the stress on original lyrics and unconventional instruments,” says

Before the band was formed,Aulakh was performing solo at various venues and writes and composes music to this day. Together,their performances are fresh,sans the jaded electronic beats that dominate the circuit today.

As Sood plays around with different sounds,songwriter and composer Joshi straps on ghungroos like Raghu Dixit,and plays and sings.

The trio say that there are plans to shift base to Delhi soon but,before that,they’ll be releasing their album,Polly’s Diary. “We’ve already recorded the tracks,eight in all,in Delhi,with Keshav Dhar. We are now working on the cover and a video,” says Sood. Aulakh is also looking forward to her song in Kabir Sadanand’s film,Project 36,that is scheduled to release later this year.