MUMBAI: The Bangalore-based supergroup Peepal Tree has combined forces with an old friend and well-known music composer Sandeep Chowta on the 4 track EP titled 560001.
The album pays tribute to their favourite city- Bangalore or Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka.
The album was released on Chowta’s music label Namma Music on March 29th, 2020.
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Stream the EP here: album.link/in/i/1503391149
Link to the video
With all the signature Peepal Tree finesse in place in the album, the sound however is a bit of a departure from their usual fare.
The sound, concept and production was all Sandeep, who had a definite idea of how he wanted this EP to sound, so the band just trusted him and went with the flow. PT bassist Praveen Biligiri wrote lyrics for the first 3 songs and the 4th one is a classic folk song from Karnataka.
Sandeep has been a friend right from the starting days of this band and one of its biggest supporters. They worked on one song together (composing/directing vocals for Roshane Kaafile) during PT’s debut album Chetana and discussed the possibility of doing something together since then. Last December, Sandeep pitched the idea of how he wanted to pay tribute to a city he loved and grew up in. “Since all of us were from Bangalore and grew up here and the fact that we sang in Kannada too, he thought this would be the perfect idea to collaborate. Since then until we put it out on 29th March, it was quite an amazing experience which we would totally do it all over again,” says vocalist Sujay Harthi.
Chowta shares similar sentiments, “I’ve known Tony Das from Peepal Tree for nearly 12 years now. In fact, I put a band together called Karma 6 which included him when I was heading Columbia records for India. Ever since that time, Tony and I have been very good friends and we share the same kind of musicality. Tony introduced me to Sujay & Praveen when I was shuttling between Mumbai & Bangalore. I was involved in the brainstorming and planting the seed for Peepal Tree. I didn’t get to help on the first record because I was tied with my film work, but they’ve been very good friends and it’s been 5 years since I knew that the first record was being made. So when I started Namma Music 4 months back, they had approached me and I was also very agreeable on doing a project together. My only issue was that we needed to finish it right away. So we spoke in December, and we completed the album in March. I did get my writing chops on two of the songs out of the four. I believe that they are a fantastic band and they could land themselves a lot of film projects. I thought, with my 25 years of experience, I could just bring in a commercial tinge into the Peepal Tree style of making music. which is already very good. I believe I missed Bangalore and I realised it the more I started coming to the city. I wanted Peepal Tree to write an ode to Bangalore of the good times and the good times only.”
EP details:
Nammuru Bengaluru – As the name suggests, it pays tribute to all the positives of Bangalore. It also features homegrown rap sensation, Gubbi. The lyrics were written by Pummy (as Praveen is fondly called). The city gets a lot of flack for traffic and crumbling infrastructure. This song reminds people of all the positives this beautiful city holds.
Friendship – The song is about Friendship and the memories of the time we spend with friends at different points in our lives and how they stay with us through out. The song also ties the memories of growing up with friends in Bangalore
The Heart of Rock n Roll – A song about Bangalore and the vibrant counter culture that exists in the city making it a destination (at least used to) for all things rock n roll.
Taani Tandana – An old folk song that sung in many local community festivals across the state of Karnataka urging one to let their hair down and dance.
More about Peepal Tree and Sandeep Chowta
The Bangalore-based Supergroup, is steadily proving to be a good example, of how music is truly beyond the format and restrictions of language.
Be it their 2018 debut album Chetana, their touch and go with the Grammy ballots or their last single Cauvery, Peepal Tree’s music has touched a lot of people across the country and the world itself.
Their music can be described as Indian melodies sitting on funk grooves with overtones of electronica, and sung in a variety Indian languages. Peepal Tree, attaches a lot of importance to the message they convey lyrically, apart from their musicality on their recorded material and at live performances. The lyrics range from a variety of social issues such as human disregard for the environment, to more philosophical ideas, nudging us at times to hold up a mirror to ourselves.
Line up: Sujay Harthi on vocals, Tony Das on guitars, Praveen Biligiri on bass, Willy Demoz on drums and Siddharth Kamath on keyboards.
Each musician in the band brings a wealth of experience to this project, having been a part of the Hindi and Kannada movie industries, apart from playing in some of the most successful bands from India, namely The Raghu Dixit Project, Thermal and A Quarter, Moksha, Sandeep Chowta Project, and Bhoomi among others.
Their first official album titled Chetana was released in October, 2018 and rose to #1 on the iTunes Rock Charts (India) and #3 on the iTunes overall album charts (India) within hours of the album hitting the online stores, among others.
