Kush Upadhyay -This 18 year old is a session guitarist from Mumbai, India. He started playing guitar at the age of 11 and discovered Blues to be an intriguing genre at a very early stage. At the age of 13, Kush started playing live in the local venues of Mumbai. Over the years he played in various different bands with genres ranging from Blues, Funk, Rock, Jazz, etc. Today Kush can be seen playing across India with bands like Kanchan Daniel and the Beards, Louiz Banks’ Guitar Synergy, Overdrive Collective, Vasuda Sharma, and his own Blues/Rock oriented instrumental project called The Kush Upadhyay Group.
Kush is one of the youngest musicians to have played some of the iconic blues festivals such as Mahindra Blues Festival in 2015 with Warren Mendonsa; An Ode To The Blues with Overdrive Collective in 2013 and The Rhythm and Blues Festival with Kanchan Daniel and The Beards in 2016.
The Kush Upadhyay Group is a solo project of Kush Upadhyay. The band is a Blues/Rock based instrumental project consisting of Nathan Thomas on bass, Varoon Aiyer on drums, Anurag Naidu on keyboards and Kush Upadhyay on guitars. All three members are session musicians who have come together to form a fun project to play their original music.
Anurag Naidu-Anurag is primarily a jazz pianist with a strong background in Western classical music. He studied jazz performance at the Bill Evans Piano Academy in Europe. Anurag performs with diverse band formations drawing influences from several genres of music to create a modern and new sound to jazz performances whilst still holding the jazz tradition in full integrity.