Bengaluru band Kutcheri on their roots and moving outwards

Bengaluru band Kutcheri
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

How do you start out in the polyrhythmic chaos of subgenres such as math-rock and progressive metal and get into Kannada indie rock? That is the story that sets Bengaluru band Kutcheri apart. Guitarist-composers Sucheth Ramprasad and Soorya Praveen with drummer Aniketh Ashok were already in the band Haiku-Like Imagination. Then, in 2016, they found an opportunity to write a theme song for Aniketh’s engineering college festival.

Sucheth says, “We took the elements that we had with Haiku, that chemistry that we had in the syncopations, right down to the breakdowns, and put all of it in to more rooted music, I would say.”

Along the way of jamming with Haiku-Like Imagination, they met vocalist Srikar Athreya, bassist Ruthvi Urs and keyboardist Akshay Krishna within familiar college and music circles to create the current lineup of Kutcheri. They released their debut song, ‘Endigu’ in 2019, followed by ‘Preeti Sadhyave?’ in 2021. The draw of the band’s music is not just slapping on Kannada lyrics and vocal melodies over rock and prog-inspired instrumentation, but also subtly working in their shared love for film music by the likes of AR Rahman.

Within their choice and freedom of choosing to be influenced by film music, then, is what makes Kutcheri fully independent. In fact, they are so happily indie that they are taking their own pace with releasing upcoming material.

Bengaluru band Kutcheri
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

They are indie enough that they have taken the decision to make their upcoming album an eight-track bilingual collection of songs, going from being just a Kannada rock band to becoming Hindi artistes as well. Still, as Sucheth notes, they were drawn to writing in Kannada in the first place because “you get to tell stories in a way that you can’t narrate in any other language”. He says, “I think because Kannada is our first language, it’s really more easy to express things lyrically. We can’t connect to a lot of the aspects in Western lyrics.”

In addition to their previously released singles, there are love songs, ballads and introspective numbers that come with a helpful dollop of their influence from rock band CHON and post-hardcore band Dance Gavin Dance. “We have lyrics that talk about relationships and about finding yourself,” Sucheth adds. He speaks of how their upcoming song ‘Marichike’ is akin to American shoegaze band Deerhunter writing a Kannada track. There is a Hindi song called ‘Aasma’ which Sucheth compares to Japanese post-rock band Toe. Aniketh chimes in about a Kannada song called ‘Nashvara’, which he promises has a lot of breakdowns that one can head-bang to.

While Kutcheri are currently making songs you will not hear in Kannada film soundtracks, an offer to make a song did come their way. It was something they took on, but the movie did not materialise, according to the band. Within Bengaluru’s multilingual rock scene, they feel that they offer something different compared to the folk-inspired music of the Raghu Dixit Project and Swarathma, who also do not just stick to the Kannada language.

Bengaluru band Kutcheri
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Back on the topic about offers from the film industry, Aniketh shares, “We’ve always loved to work together as a team, where all of us are involved. That’s really hard to push currently, where we tell them we’ll come in as a six-member band, and we’ll come in together to work for you, that’s when the conversation ends.”

Being an indie band with members spread in different parts – Sucheth works in Yokohama, Japan – and holding down different jobs (both music-related and otherwise), Kutcheri say even gigs and releasing material takes time because it is something they are okay to wait on. Their recent show at Fandom at Gilly’s Redefined opened them up to a slightly different audience, they were supporting Malayalam artist Job Kurian, but also came together because Sucheth happened to be visiting. The guitarist says, “We’re doing it our way. We’re not even thinking about the market that lies ahead. We are not too sure if the film industry is going to look at it. We’ve moved past that stage where we’re looking for some kind of external approval.”