Music transcends language barriers: Thaikkudam Bridge

Bengaluru: Easily one of India's most popular bands, the multilingual and multi-genre Thaikkudam bridge will be performing live next in Bengaluru on November 24 at the two-day music festival Bandland.

Although Bengaluru has been a consistent platform for the band, the question is, could the increasing linguistic chest thumping in Karnataka put a crick in Thaikkudam Bridge's setlist for the upcoming festival? Guitarist Ashok Betty Nelson agreed that there have been a couple of instances where people got offended when they did not sing in certain languages or sing less of certain languages.

He recalled the gig that they did during the G20 summit in Bengaluru in July 2023, when some young people in the audience insisted that they play Kannada songs.

"We were briefed by the organisers to keep the concert linguistically as diverse as possible. So we were singing in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and, of course, Kannada. But two Kannada songs were not good enough for some in the audience who were creating a ruckus," said Nelson to PTI.

Fortunately for them, he said they didn't realise that the audience was asking them to sing in Kannada until the concert was over, so it did not affect their performance. "We just thought they were cheering us on in Kannada as we are used to boisterous crowds in our concerts," laughed Nelson.

But he hastened to add that this mostly happens in corporate gigs. In ticketed events, he added, language is not an issue as those who buy tickets to watch them perform are usually fans.

Singer and bassist of the band, Vian Fernandes said as is the case universally, music transcends language barriers among their fans too.

"Even I don't understand most of the songs because I'm not a Malayali, but I still resonate with the music and I think it's the same that happens to all the fans, even new listeners. Over all these years we have evolved so much and that whole language barrier thing is not there anymore. Usually, people are there to enjoy and absorb everything we are offering as a band," said Feranandes.

Nelson and Fernandes were talking over zoom, to promote their upcoming live gig in Bengaluru.

The musicians said personally, they are looking forward to catching live rock legend Extreme's first ever concert in India. Extreme too will be performing in Bandland on November 24.

"We wanted to watch Avenged Sevenfold too, but unfortunately, we were told that they will be playing on November 23, so we will be missing their performance," said Fernandes.

The musicians also attributed a conducive ecosystem in places like Tamil Nadu and Kerala for enabling musicians like them not only to push boundaries in regional languages, but also find an audience for their experimental music.

"I think the first thing an artist needs is an audience and in places like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, school and college fests encourage original talents. If the audience is encouraging enough, then the artist will start practicing more and will try to come up with better material. I guess that is what is happening," said Nelson.

Fernandes said in any case this had happened with Thaikkudam Bridge, who began their journey doing covers well over a decade ago. But the overwhelming response to their original material pushed them to explore more such songs, changing their trajectory forever, added the musician.

"When we released our first album 'Navarasam', that's when the entire shift of the audience happened, helping us expand our territory in terms of music and also in terms of live performances," said Fernandes.

It helps that in Kerala particularly, people want their children to be culturally educated, added Nelson.

"Perhaps that is why we are seeing a new crop of musicians from there who are exploring unique sounds even while being strongly rooted in their tradition," said Nelson.