Hitting the right beat with their audience is the ultimate accomplishment for most music bands but for Mumbai-based
Voctronica, the country's first ever all vocal ensemble the challenge is to entice listeners sans any musical instrument.
The five member Acapella- Beatboxing group performed in the city recently for unveiling of KFC 's brand new product, 'Chizza', no crust all chicken pizza variant.
"Today we're here primarily because the theme is why not? somewhere it made sense for us as to connect with the concept of being a band without musical instruments. There is just us with mikes sounding like a full blown band, making the drums and guitar sounds just with their voice," Voctronica said.
The group formed in 2011, initially came out as an experiment of British beatboxer, Schlomo who along with a member of Mumbai-based metal band, Scribes conducted workshops from which 8 to 9 people were shortlisted and post some changes, Voctronica now stands with its five members.
Avinash and Raj handle the rhythm sections also called 'the drum kits' by fellow members, Arjun Nair does the bass guitar with Warsha Easwar as vocalist and Clyde Rodrigues is for various other instruments.
More than three years into their existence the band is still in the first surprising reaction phase as the people coming for their performances still get surprised by what we do on stage, says Arjun who jokes tells about the experiences they continue to gather.
Talking about the exploring this untouched music form, the band says its important for people to understand and accept this music and that's why do a lot of re-interpretations of Bollywood and English songs.
"We are not rushing anything as of now because Acapella meets beat boxing is still a new territory, not a lot of bands in India are doing it and we are discovering our abilities day by day with each jam and each performance. We just want it to grow and do well," says Arjun.
"Voctronica may have started off as a beatboxing-acapella
workshops to what it is right now, the entire process is a constant evolution for everything. This band may operate on a different mindset we all have but its still part of the music scene," he adds.
Keeping aside the live gigs the bunch of youngsters is also working on making original music and the band is now in process of producing tracks based on the experiences that Voctronica has witnessed over the years also highlighting the fact that an output in visual form is needed the most.
"Voctronica is working on a set of original music and an EP is also put out. Lot of stuff is video focused as well, people have to understand this kind of music which means they have to see the band doing what they do," the vocalist Warsha Easwar says.
"We pull from experiences and from what we listen to, there's instrumental music and there are a lot of lyrical pieces in it too. Sometime one of us would get a random and all of us would build around it and it can do to a whole different direction," Avinash says.
The group, in the past has also collaborated with the quirky comedy-collective AIB paying a tribute to classic TV advertisements from the 90s. The jingles and complete music were recreated in acapella form.
Utilising the chemistry they have, the band plays an impromptu piece at all of their performance with each one switching roles and making varied sounds ranging from vocals to playing a bass guitar, all thanks to the chemistry they share and coordination that happens with a simple eye contact.
"We do this thing called a circle jam at most of our live gigs, where each person improvises on the spot and next one builds on that, so a track is created live in front of the audience, it happens at every performance, it is about hearing each other well and anticipating what could be done next," the band said.
"We don't essentially think about any language in particular, while writing a song so its more understandable for all the audiences."
Voctronica will also perform at the Tabula Beach Cafe here tomorrow as they conclude the week-long annual music festival, The Gig Week.
