VINAPRA ‘ROCKS’

They came together to form music that was relatively new to ‘rock lovers’. ‘Vinapra’ the band that was formed a few years ago is incidentally the acronym of the band members Vivian, Natraj, Prasad, Pradeep and Abhijit. Today after enthralling music lovers in ‘Hindi-rock’, the band is all set to release its first album shortly.

Excited about the new album which is yet untitled, Natraj, the vocalist and the lyricist of the band says enthusiastically,“ It’s been a journey of more than seven years and now we are concentrating on releasing the album. We are also in the process of making a video for the same. Produced by Ricky Kej, the album will feature tracks such as Suno, Guru Brahma-Guru Vishnu, Dharti amongst the other tracks.”

Elaborating on how the band began its quest on Hindi-rock, Natraj says, “ We started out at the time when people had this misconception that one can’t rock in Hindi. But soon after our shows at ITPL where it was the noon-time binge and later our participation at Freedom Jam two years ago proved to be the focal point where we felt we were getting recognized as a rock band.” He insists on saying, “ We believe in writing and singing songs that are simple where even the rickshawallah will understand our music.”

But why Hindi-rock? Says, Natraj, “Because we think, write and sing in Hindi and believe our music is good.” He also adds that if individually one doesn’t believe in their own music it is difficult to market it. On being asked whether a band has to aggressively market itself to get noticed, he admits, “ It is all about packaging, not just talent. You have to push it to get noticed from music companies.”

‘Vinapra’ is also on its way on being part of a compilation album by Freespirit Entertainment in aid of the tsunami disaster. This compilation album has put the band with the bigwigs of the music industry like Ustad Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Ustad Sultan Khan amongst others. Vinapra has one of its main tracks ‘Dharti’ in this album, which according to Natraj is the anthem song that speaks about the bonding people have, and attempts to call people to come and join hands for initiating action in aid of the victims.

While each member is pursuing different career streams; with Pradeep working as a lecturer, Vivian a call centre executive and Natraj working as part of the event management company, yet Natraj says there is no compromise on music. “Music is the topmost priority and the time when career in music starts paying better, I am sure none of us wouldn’t mind quitting our existing jobs to this full-time. Whatever are our schedules, we make sure we jam up thrice or four times a week and enjoy what we do”

The band admits to have been inspired from music groups such as ‘Euphoria’ ‘Junoon’ and other Western bands such as Pink Floyd. For more information on Hindi-rock check out their website – http://www.vinapra.com.

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