When a group of techies started jamming, they decided to call themselves Moksha because “During the lockdown, we played music to keep ourselves sane. It gave all of us a lot of courage and hope. It also helped us calm down and provide much-needed peace of mind. So when we play to an audience we hope it would soothe their mind,” says Thiru Vakkalanka, the drummer and one of the band members.
The band consists of vocals, bass guitars, keyboard, guitar, flute and drums. While Thiru and keyboardist Pranay Mylapally are trained in western classical music, Akhilesh Vishwanathan, the bass guitarist and Vinod Sharma in lead vocals are self-taught. Vinod was one of the top contestants of 2022 at Sa Re Ga Ma, the talent hunt show on Zee Telugu
All through the lockdown the boys continued to play and jam through video calls. Employed in different organisations, they make use of break hours to discuss music, gigs and new compositions.. Among the seven members, five of them were a part of another band. Pranay elaborates, “Thiru, Akhilesh, Vinod, Satvik and I were a part of an office band called Adronaulix, at Tech Mahindra. The group was dissolved when we quit, but we always wanted to reassemble and take up playing music seriously.” When they did regroup, they wanted their music to sound different from the office band. Then their common friends, Kushal and Swaroop joined them.
Formed in August 2021, Moksha is the current favourite in Hyderabad for live gigs. It plays covers of Ilaiyaraaja and AR Rahman numbers with a new approach. Their decision to play these to a live audience was to present the vastness of music in ways that excited the band and the audience.
Swaroop Vyakaranam, the flautist of the band says, “We wanted to create a new vibe and made sure we clicked right from when we auditioned for live shows.” Keyboardist Pranay credits sound engineer Kushal Raj with finally adding soul to the music the band creates. Explaining the creative process behind their music, lead guitarist Satvik Kondepogu says, “We rearrange the music — not to make it sound better, because they are already the best — by adding funk and rock to give it a party vibe.
Satvik says that Akhilesh and Vinod Sharma, with their trained ears, help to modify the music for a crowd. Thiru adds, “As musicians, we play what we think is right. Our goal is to make the crowd enjoy the music. Akhilesh and Vinods inputs, together with Kushal’s mixing, create mellifluous music.”
Their choice of music has worked well, as every live performance gets the crowd screaming for more. In August, the band will celebrate its first anniversary with the launch of their first album.
