City-based fusion music band e-Swara Project on Sunday secured its place in the finale of ‘Saarang’, the annual cultural festival of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, scheduled in the first week of January.

e-Swara Project, a progressive fusion rock group that started playing in February this year, competed against 11 other college bands in the city in the ‘Saarang Band Hunt’ competition held at Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering on Sunday. The band will now compete at a national stage in the light music finals at ‘Saarang’.

“It means a lot to us to have qualified for a national event in the first place. It will be a great platform for us to showcase our talent and also learn,” said Dinushan Shanmuganathan, the band’s percussionist. The band recently released a single ‘Vande Mataram’ which garnered over 2 lakh views on YouTube.

e-Swara Project comprises Yogeendra Hariprasad (vocals, keyboards), Anirban Sengupta (lead guitar), Dinushan (percussions), Raynol D’Souza (bass guitar), Nitesh Iyer (drums), V Noel Aiyar (keys) and Kantick Bannerjee and Aishwarya Rangarajan on vocals.

Sunday’s event was IIT Madras’ first outreach programme in an attempt to ensure more participation, said Ravi Gondalia, final year aeronautical engineering student and head of IIM Madras’ publicity team. “We have had similar band hunts in Pune and Bhopal. Now, we head to Kochi and Hyderabad. Earlier, we invited entries through video links that was adjudged by experts. But our judges complained that it was not the right way to judge light music groups,” Ravi explained.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bangalore /  by Express News Service – Bangalore / October 21st, 2013