Junkyard Groove’s Latest Single “Screw Control”

Junkyard Groove frontman Ameeth Thomas

You don’t invest lakhs of rupees in a studio and not tell anyone about it. One way to promote it is by putting the city’s biggest band into the studio and get the results on video.  Already riding on the success of videos by American fusion artist Shankar Tucker, Chennai’s Krimson Avenue Studios founder Prithvi Chandrasekhar has now started a monthly web video series.

Chandrasekhar’s good friend and Junkyard Groove [JYG] frontman Ameeth Thomas came in to track layers for their single “Screw Control” in September when the studio producer’s video crew was also present. “I always wanted to do something for bands, so I decided I’m going to produce Krimson Avenue sessions,” says Chandrasekhar.

The next two days were spent recording the song and the video. “The gear he [Chandrasekhar] has got in that studio is unbelievable.” Thomas himself has plans to become more active on the video front with his band, which now features guitarist Siddharth Srinivasan and drummer Peter Francis Joshua [from hard rockers 83 Miles Per Hour]. “We’re planning to do acoustic versions of old and new songs, with me on the guitar and Siddharth on the banjo,” he says, adding “I bought the banjo but Sid plays it much better than I do,” he adds.  

For now, the band has been uploading demo versions of songs from their upcoming album Accidental Heroes, which include songs such as “Losing Her,” “Slow Down” and “Beautiful Crime”. The band will soon begin recording the other songs from their 8-track album. Thomas says the newer material is quite different. “There’s bloody no real sound to the album, because we didn’t want to keep doing the same thing. This one has a few slow songs and a few with programmed beats and samples,” says Thomas.

Currently, the band is recording their songs at Thomas’ home, despite the invite from Chandrasekhar for “Screw Control.” Says Thomas, “I’m doing all the production myself, similar to what we did with our first album [11:11], and we’ll be selling it online, with bonus acoustic versions of older songs.”

As for the Krimson Avenue Sessions, since the first video has hit over 7,000 views on YouTube, Chandrasekhar is planning the next video for January, featuring Malayalam-rock band Avial or Carnatic prog rockers Agam. “There’s no ulterior motive to get to them [bands] to record here or anything. I just want to give them that sound, where everyone’s mind is blown,” says Chandrasekhar.

Watch the first Krimson Avenue Session featuring Junkyard Groove’s “Screw Control” here