Masala Coffee is all set to sing live in Hyderabad on January 7, at Heart Cup Cafe, Gandipet. The band is going to present their best from all these years including the new Telugu, Hindi and English numbers from their yet to release album Ektara. The concert is presented by Eleven Point Two, and tickets are available of Paytm Insider
Interview by Rajeshwari Kalyanam
Masala Coffee founded by Varun Sunil has come a long way from the time they started with singing covers and independent music in Tamil and Malayalam with a bit of Hindi thrown in. There strength has always been creating unique music by bringing together traditional and folk music – and propagating what they call alternate folk.
They are in Hyderabad for their concert at Heart Cup Cafe, Gandipet – and Varun shares a few updates about what the fans can expect from their live concert.
Excerpts from an interview:
First thing after coming what we do is come to this café for some food and hot chocolate. All of us are foodies, says Varun. Evidently so – not only their band is named Masala Coffee – but you get to hear a lot of food analogies when you converse with him.
And, there can’t be a better name to the group which defines the music of India in a uniquely sequenced format that music lovers have come to love. .
“This is not the first time the band is performing in the city, “Hyderabadis loves to party, they enjoy all sorts of music and surely if its regional they get happier. We sang for a couple of Telugu films and that brought us closer to the music lovers. For the concert we are going to sing a couple of kritis too and that will include Thyagaraya kriti ‘Endaro Mahanubhavulu’,” shares Varun, whose eclectic team is diverse and yet together make for some really great music that has made into the hearts of music lovers.
Varun adds, “We are proud to be the only band singing in so many languages. In addition to the south Indian languages, Hindi and English. We have been singing even Urdu and Arabic.”
‘Post Covid, we have been working on our upcoming album ‘Ektara’. We have shot of couple of videos. It has not been easy. We have included Telugu, Kannada and English songs. Our strength is the way we bring together music – North Indian, South Indian and even Carnatic music giving it a different flavour. And, this has been possible only due to my creative team,” he shares.
Few of the songs from the yet to be released album will also be part of the repertoire when Masala Coffee performs at the newly opened Heart Cup, Gandipet.
While the group is popular for their Indie music, their film music is no less of a craze. “Films are a different scene altogether. We must satisfy the director and producer. We are not free to do whatever we want. At Masala Coffee our songs work because we keep experimenting. And, when we are jamming we share ideas, the vocalist innovate and we are free to do what we do. For a film we have to follow a set method – and there is no scope for exploring more. Its different.”
while on the subject Varun says due credit has to be given to the creators – in the context of the latest controversy with Kantara’s ‘Varaha Roopam’.
Masala Coffee – like the masalas in India bring together flavours of different music on one platform. Varun shares the takeaways from their journey so far – “When you do Indie music, you have to be confident of your music, you need to stand out and most importantly you must be patient and keep doing music and keep delivering. You cannot be in a hurry.”
“Its like baking a cake. You have to patiently wait for it to bake properly,” he relates.
From the time the band started when it was only the television and concerts where they could showcase their music to now with the huge choice of platforms to distribute music it has only become absolutely amazing for independent music, he says.
As the team continues to explore different music from various corners of India – Varun expresses his interest in discovering Telangana folk songs – we are trying to find folk songs from the region – the songs that we can sequence. Suggestions are welcome,” he announces.
The current Masala Coffee team includes Varun Sunil (Percussion/Vocals), Crishna (Vocals), Aslam (Vocals), Daya Sankar (Drums)
Preeth PS (Guitar), Pauly (Bass), Steve Kottoor (Keyboard), AmalSivan (Violin). And, together they strive to take their music across the world.
