Their story starts simply enough - two college-going men with interest in music start jamming together. , In fact, the duo begins most of their performances with this story. “He was my junior in architecture school in Hosur, and he knew how to play the guitar. When we had small parties with friends, he’d bring out the guitar and we’d sing Ilaiyaraaja songs together,” begins Pravekha Ravichandran, flashing a wide grin.
Seated on a small ‘othasevuru’ (single/lone wall) that runs across the terrace of their studio in an apartment near Kodambakkam railway station in Chennai, both Pravekha (25) and Tharun Sekar (23) tell us the story of Othasevuru, their two-member Tamil indie band that was formed in 2017. It gained popularity through Sun TV’s Namma Ooru Hero show hosted by Vijay Sethupathi, where they performed at the end of every episode.
How they became a band
If you were to search for ‘Terrace Jams ft. Othasevuru’ on YouTube, you’d come across a 21-minute video of the Pravekha and Tharun, narrating how-the-song-came-about stories before playing it.
The performance in this video was the very first time they performed together. The song, in fact, was specially written and practised for the Terrace Jams session. Terrace Jams, an initiative started by members of a former Tamil band called Kurangan and few others in November 2016, was a space to showcase new talents.
Up until Terrace Jams, Pravekha and Tharun had only performed at college shows. Until this performance, they didn’t even see themselves as an official band.
The Terrace Jams performance happened because Pravekha and Tharun took a chance. They had always admired Kurangan, a two-member Tamil indie band that took the scene by storm with their original music some years ago. Pravekha and Tharun wrote fan mail to Kurangan’s songwriter- vocalist Kaber, in 2017, a year before Kurangan disbanded. “Naturally, he never responded,” laughs Pravekha.
The second time they reached out to Kurangan, it was with a song that Pravekha and Thraun had recorded: Mandaikulla Verum Mannu (Mere Mud Inside My Head). “This time Kaber got back to us. He said he wanted to come to Hosur to meet us. We were overjoyed and immediately went to Chennai to meet him instead,” says Pravekha.
Kaber asked them for a band name to finalise their performance at Terrace Jams, and that’s when it became official.
“So when they called us from Terrace Jams to figure out about the performance, they wanted us to give them our band’s name. We happened to be walking near the othasevuru in Madurai and decided to use it as the band’s name,” says Tharun. “The othasevuru lies on the Vaigai River bed in Madurai near the spot where the annual Kallazhagar festival takes places.” While the wall’s placement would seem random, but it connected with them, he adds.
The journey into music
How Pravekha and Tharun found their interest in music is an interesting story in itself.
Tharun’s next door neighbour happened to be the famous ‘Bluebirds’ Rajasekar, the indie jazz singer from Madurai who was popular during the ‘80s. “I’d bring him paniyarams (sweet) that my mom made and would end up spending time with him,” recalls Tharun. For Pravekha, music was a dominant part of the house. “My aunt used to sing, and I’ve learnt how to play the mridangam,” he says.
As for the significant influences on their music, Kurangan and writer/story-teller Bava Chelladurai take up the top spots. “We found Bava Chelladurai’s way of storytelling very inspiring – an easy art form that everyone could understand. We thought we can make use of it in our performances,” Tharun says.
Othasevuru intersperses its songs with small anecdotes and stories, a lot like the traditional folk art of Villupaatu. Mandaikulla Verum Mannu, for instance, begins with their days studying architecture, their frustrations at being directionless in life as students.
Their style is easily identifiable too - they wear almost identical attire, and shades. “We saw Kurangan wore shades and also that they spoke in between performances,” Pravekha says.
The two would go on to perform at Kurangan’s last public performance, a show that was held at Musee Musicals in Chennai. “We were their opening act. It almost seemed as if they gave us their audience before they ended,” he adds.
Dreams for the future
Having moved to Chennai quite recently, the two have set up a small space for themselves, an alcove from which they’d make their music and art. Pravekha spent a couple of years in Ahmedabad doing his masters in Film and Video communication from National Institute of Design. Tharun, who has just finished his architecture course, has also taken up designing stringed instruments. The smooth curve of a yaazh (a harp) lies among other cut pieces of wood on the floor near their studio room.
“When I first wanted to buy a lap steel guitar (slide guitar), I realised that there weren’t any good ones in India. So I ended up making my own only to find out it is a very addictive process. In the last six years I’ve made seven guitars,” Tharun shares. He is also learning the craft from Erisa Neogy, a renowned luthier (guitar-craftsman) in Auroville.
The duo also has plans of launching a design firm, Kolam, with some of their friends. It will offer services in architecture, graphic designs, branding and films. “We ultimately want to build a community space where artists can come, stay and chill. We are working its economics, and hope that Kolam will help us sustain,” Pravekha explains.
He continues, “It’s all about why you want to make music. We want to play for everyone. We want to be able to go on a tour across Tamil Nadu. Perform for people in Madurai and Trichy… 2020, for sure.”
Othasevuru hopes to come out with an album soon.