According to This Artist, Kochi Rocked Way More Back in the Day

According to This Artist, Kochi Rocked Way More Back in the Day

  • 04 Oct 2016
  • FWD Admin
  • Features

With the number of events happening in Kochi, I kept thinking I was living in the coolest and hippest times here. My weekend calendar was full, unlike before. So when someone tells me that I’m completely off the mark and Kochi had a really ‘cool scene’ back in the day, it was pretty unbelievable. Clad in jeans, a quintessential rocker black tee and sipping on black tea, musician Rony Philip opened up a side to Kochi that we wouldn’t suspect. In his deep voice that had crooned many a Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin number back in the 90’s, Rony shared his journey in music and the comeback with his band Wrenz, with WtzupCity.com.

You were part of a college rock band. What is your take on the talents in our institutions?

I am still a part of that college rock band. (smiles). Wrenz was formed in my first year at St.Alberts in 1989. It was formed by a bunch of my friends from different colleges in Cochin. Every college in Kochi had a rock or pop band in those days playing Beatles, Led Zeppelin (one of my favorites), Deep Purple, Bad Company, Michael Jackson, you name it. What is great about college bands and the formation is that you start off as friends sharing your love for music and then you start planning to do something on stage. The chemistry is important. Just like the winners of BITS Goa SeaRock Kochi eliminations, Amorphia and Metafolks this year. Being the judge for this event I should say that their performances were great and they really pulled off together as set units.

Didn’t you face any opposition being in a rock band in college?

On the contrary, we had a lot of support. I won prizes for the college in my first year with St.Albert’s College at the University, Zonal and National level. There was no band in our college when I joined and I got a few of my mates to form the band. Our teachers were really supportive because they appreciated what we were doing. Every time we used to win, our Principal at St. Alberts ensured an event to congratulate the winners and a special winners day holiday (!) to go along with it. In turn we used to perform for many of our teachers events including the All India College Principals Meet in Cochin during that time. 

Where did the name of the band come from?

We called ourselves Wrens initially after the powerful song bird. But during our first show at the ‘Flower Show 89’ in Rajendra Maidan, the organizers made a mistake in the poster and spelled it Wrenz. We took that as a good omen and it stuck.

Rock at a Flower Show?

Yes. It used to go mad, late into the night.  Those days there used to be live concerts at Marine Drive, Rajendra Maidan, Durbar Hall ground to name a few apart from the halls, auditoriums and most of the hotels. Also colleges in Kochi had rock bands - Maharajas, St. Teresa’s, St. Paul’s, Bharath Matha and the rock cult and brotherhood was very strong. For my first competition I remember all the college bands from Kochi going on the train together for Countdown, all Kerala rock music fest  at  Don Bosco Irinjalakuda. It was our first fest and we were not confident about our performance, so we decided to go around and check out the others. But we got the chance to go first on stage and were left with no option. Fortunately all went as planned and we came in 2nd. This was all that we needed and from then on there was no turning back.

Wait, an all girl rock band from St. Teresa’s?

Yes. They were really good and participated in many competitions as well. They could always bring in a great crowd too with lots of support and cheer especially from our college.

There were live shows in Kochi?

There used to be many shows at the same time and it used to be difficult to choose where to go.  Shows would start around 7pm and go on till 11pm and apart from the bands in Kochi we used to have bands from major cities come down to perform here. Other than the outdoor venues, there were live music performances at the hotels too. Wrenz used to perform at Sealord and Taj Gateway during that period. At one point there was a ban on rock shows in public, because sometimes the crowd went wild and used to create a nuisance. Now shows are picking up again which is great for Kochi.

Music still plays an important part in your life. How has your journey been?

In those days, if you were passionate about music, you had to find your own avenue. I had a huge collection of cassettes that we would buy from the local shops which were limited and we had to wait for relatives and friends to send them from abroad. Nowadays, the new kids have so many opportunities to train and venues to perform. With Wrenz, one of the greatest achievements was to win  CrossRoads 91 in Delhi which was the All India Rock Music Competition for professional bands. Afterwards we did win at many zonal and national events and performed at many major cities in India. I had been abroad for few years and after I got back to Kochi I started composing and singing jingles and few songs in the film industry.

Your music has changed. Jeevitham Maayapambaram and Enne Ariyan are different from your usual repertoire?

I had never sung in Malayalam before and it was always English till then. There was an advertisement for a Jewellery that required singing in Malayalam. I shared the song with Music Director, Deepak Dev who is a friend and former band mate at Wrenz. He liked it and suggested that I should try one of the songs he had composed for the upcoming Malayalam movie Ithihasa. Fortunately the music and the movie were a big hit and then onwards I have been singing in Malayalam as well. The new album with Wrenz has combinations of English and Malayalam and Enne Ariyan was the first in this mode.

What do you think of music these days?

The internet has really changed the scene. Earlier we used to play a lot of covers and later we did few original songs too. It used to be more of covers and few originals during a regular performance. Now I see a lot of bands singing originals in different genres and languages reflecting our lives and surroundings and the local support has been awesome.

What is your advice for upcoming rock bands?

Stick together as long as you can, the music and shows will follow.  Be good friends than being great musicians.

What’s next?

Currently we are working on the comeback of Wrenz after 20 years and its been great to get back with friends I grew up with. We just performed for Music Mojo at Kappa TV and are looking forward to the launch.

 

Words: Maria John

 

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