Bangalore Scene Spotlight - Alva Kuuto

Alva Kuuto - On Serving the Song First

If you’re in Bangalore and have been following the music scene for a while, Alva Kuuto needs no introduction. They have been receiving praises from the biggest musicians from across the city for their contribution towards MAKING REGIONAL FOLK MUSIC GREAT AGAIN! Their self-titled album was released early this year, and the high quality, hard work and authenticity is evident in its first listen. The band comprises of Praveen Alva (Lead vocals, Acoustic Guitar), Abhilash Shet (Bass and Backing vocals),  Shashank Kandachar (Guitar) and Anshuman Upadhyay (Drums). It is always such a wholesome experience to have conversations with musicians and end up becoming friends with them - a community at its truest essence. Here’s a  bit of what came out from our huddle: 

Perhaps the moment that I would remember most about this interview was when Praveen Alva showed up in the middle of his many corporate meetings and found a quiet room to be interviewed in. It reminded me of the hustle that so many musicians throughout the country wear like a badge of honour – yes, we need to pay the bills, but we also succeed in doing what we love to do – and that is music.

Abhilash Shet and I had a conversation that I will hold close for many more years to come. We met at a show where the both of us were performing – at Fandom. I was ranting to him about the usual hate comments and music scene stuff, when he empathised and even gave direction for me to focus on – forget the comments, focus on your music. This sort of support is crucial for younger musicians navigating their way into the music industry.

The first time I met Shashank Kandachar was at a John Mayer tribute show at Fandom. “I’m a huge fan”, he said. I then watched him perform onstage at another show. I was mesmerized.

On open mics and starting out in the scene

With Anshuman Upadhyay, it is almost as if we’ve been on the same journey with open mics. When I first started out, I would attend a lot of open mics and frequently bump into Anshuman and Praveen. Anshuman describes this as some sort of a college graduation –

“And now, it feels like a high-school graduation, where it’s time for our batch of musicians to perform at a more professional level”.

He says that the experience of performing at several open mics – Fandom/The Humming Tree (back in the day), exposed musicians to a variety of listeners, and this is good to be able to adapt to different audiences.

The members of the band initially found each other through open mics in the city. Praveen adds that Bengaluru definitely has a thriving space for open mics; a major advantage of which is that songwriters get to test their new material in front of a new audience. It seems to be a continuous learning process and a way to hone the craft of both stage presence and musicianship.

On how music has no language barriers - Tulu takes the stage

It’s interesting to note that only Praveen speaks Tulu; unlike the rest of the band.

Vibe – This is of key importance in the creative process. Praveen usually narrates the vibe of the song that he has been working on which the band members pick up on and use as fuel throughout the song’s journey- which is in turn felt by  the audience as they listen to the music. (I think to myself, what can be more beautiful than this?). It is genuine to the core. To think about it, a majority of the members in the audience do not understand the language. For new listeners to truly experience the song with the vibe that it was originally intentioned with, is a wonderful thing.

For bands (such as Swarathma, Raghu Dixit and Thaikuddam Bridge) to be able to successfully sustain in making a mark for themselves with music that is majorly regional folk-music driven is truly commendable.

On the album’s journey

Abhilash says, “One thing is don’t think much about the language, just listen to the album. We are not fixed to a particular genre. We make sure we serve the song first, then the genre. Out of the 8 songs, there is something for everyone in the album – be it the story or the music – but majorly the music part because a majority of the audience may not understand Tulu. We put in a lot of work, thought and practice. Everything has been fantastically produced, mixed and mastered by Varun Murali from Swarathma. It’s a wholesome album, and there’s something for everyone”.

Praveen: “I am more of a visual person, in terms of my writing of the song. I take care of the

visual elements such as the cover art. We did a series of petroglyphs (prehistoric rock carvings) for each song. Each song has a symbol attached which has a Tulu script connection to it. Imagine the entire album as something we’re burying in the ground and the cover art comes off as an artifact that someone has discovered. The theme is that somewhere along the future, someone would discover us and our tradition would continue through the next generation of people that discovered our music. The way Avial and Raghu Dixit have changed the mentality of the people who discovered their music – we wish the same for the Tulu language – that when people discover us, the creative energies trigger something in them, which motivates them to start creating too. Visual depth and meaning was crucial to the album. We tend to look beyond the song in terms of just the audio being the medium. We emphasize on visual communication as well. Abhilash and Anshuman are concerned with the audio elements of the song – their technical understanding of music is far better than mine – that is how we distribute responsibilities within the three of us – I’m more of a visual guy, Anshuman is good at production and Abhilash has an amazing ability to understand the nuances to the song. We understand each other’s strengths which gets poured into the song creation. With the album, the songs are eclectic in nature where they have a bit of folk, rock and even hip-hop in certain places. The main purpose is to serve the song and a visual depth to bring it alive”.

On the music video for PAGEYTA PUGEY (Smoke of Vengeance)

The narrative of the video falls on the theme of fire, anger and revenge. A lot of hard work and multiple days of shooting went into the video which is evident upon its first watch. It consists of a story as well as a band sequence. The video was shot in Mangalore, where the entire village came together for its successful execution – from providing space in their farmlands, helping in arranging the props to also acting in the video. The band definitely ended up getting such wonderful collaborators on board. Luke Sydney directed the video and Prathviraj Shastry worked as the DOP.

On Pageyta Pugey’s visual aspects – An entire village comes together!

The scene is of  a local cockfight where rage and revenge narrate its aftermath… A fireball brings the band’s live set alive…A community grows in its own accord…the video is in fact, a story brought to life. Praveen says that the people of the village were so invested in helping out with the video, that in the end, the set consisted of close to 60-70 people. What a feat of collaboration, warmth, professionalism and wholesomeness! Strangers came together in building a story and narrating it through the visual medium. This was enough to give me

goose bumps.

To conclude, my conversation with Alva Kuuto reaffirmed what I have always believed in:

• Choosing authenticity over commercial success

• Serving the song first

• Writing songs with the primary intent of self-fulfilment, which, when performed, is eventually felt by the audience and vibed with

• Creating space for artists to thrive in making music in local languages

• Practising music as a discipline 

If you’re in Bangalore, do attend an Alva Kuuto show, and prepare to be mesmerised.