Chennai Band Skrat Release Slick Video

Skrat

Skrat is an alt rock trio of 24-year-olds ”“ T.T. Sriram on lead vocals and guitars, Satish Narayanan on bass and backing vocals and Tapass Naresh on drums ”“ from Chennai. The three bonded at 18 over a common love for The Foo Fighters and the dreariness of life at an engineering college. They got gigging six days after forming the band in 2006 and released an album titled Design in 2010. When they realized that they were serious about taking their band beyond Chennai, they took a break to rethink their sound and are back with a slickly produced video showcasing five new tracks from a sophomore effort that they promise to release before 2013 comes along.

Titled “Skrat In The Shed,” the video was shot and recorded at vocalist Sriram aka T.T.’s garage, which is a jam room for several Chennai bands, along the lines of Live in the Basement recordings. The video, which seamlessly moves on from one track to another almost in the form of an audio-visual record, is meant to showcase the band’s  “changing sound from funk  to alt rock,” says TT.  The vocalist adds that Skrat looks up to a range of bands. “Individually, our influences vary from Jack White, The Vines to U2 and Biffy Clyro but collectively they are The Raconteurs, Supergrass, The Hives etc.”

The video, which is just over 17 minutes long, is also an attempt to expand their fanbase. “We understand that we have low visibility in the North, and this is just our first attempt at promoting ourselves nationally,” says T.T. The band is aware of its audience ”“ anybody who likes guitar-based rock sans loud, long guitar solos ”“ and have mostly found fans in the city’s student community.

Chennai has been consistently producing promising talent including Adam and The Fish Eyed Poets, The Shakey Rays and Harsha Iyer. But the city, rues T.T., could do with more performance spaces. “Venues are limited, and hence so are the shows. The scene requires consistency. Our favorite venue has to be the Palace Grounds inBangalorewhere we played the Rock In India’ in 2009. We would really like to play at the various Hard Rock Cafe venues and Blue Frog too, soon.”

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By Jolene Fernandes