Hi, how’s it going? For those people that haven’t heard of Another Kind Of Green (AKOG) could you tell us a bit about the band, your story?
It’s going quite well! The lockdown had us all stuck in various parts of the country for the past few months but we’re getting back now and have got a lot of interesting things planned for our audience!
For those who haven’t heard of us yet, AKOG is best summed up as an experience – one which is all about the zest and energy that we’re known for on stage. Our music is what we’ve come to self-characterize as FunRock, a genre that meets somewhere between rock, punk and even blues and is defined by its pizazz and spirit that gives us that unique AKOG sound that our audience loves.
The six of us met in college and we started out as a band 2 years ago. Since then, it’s been a crazy journey making music and getting it out there for audiences worldwide to listen to and enjoy. We have 4 singles out now and an album that’s releasing next year! So as far as cliches go, we can call ourselves small-town folks with big dreams of making it on the world stage – but we know that our music is something that will resonate with audiences across!
It has been quite a difficult time for musicians during the pandemic, how have you coped with the situation?
It was admittedly quite hard navigating the loss of performance spaces and the reality of gigs and shows being nonexistent for a while. Added to this was the fact that all of us were not together at the time and had to stay in different cities while the lockdown for the pandemic was in place. But that being said, we realized that making music didn’t need a place or a thing, it needed us to come together and that is exactly what we did – online video conferencing was a boon and we made a couple of more songs and released two new singles as well, the latest one being ‘Moonlight Swing’!
The amazing reactions and the support we’ve been getting from our fans is something that helped us hold our ground and stay strong through this time. We cannot wait to start working on our new projects and give back to them!
Who inspired you to get on stage and perform?
We’ve all been extremely huge fans of rock music since our teenage years and it only grew once we came to college and found this group of like-minded musicians who just wanted to play. Many of us had bands back home, but it was only when the six of us came together that a unique sound emerged and we knew that we had hit gold. From there, it’s been a great upward track of realizing that music is what we want to do and where we want to be.
Being on stage and performing is an addictive experience and we can’t get enough of it. Our fans called it the #AKOGExperience, and the phrase was soon there to stay – come for an AKOG gig, you’re leaving with an AKOGExperience!
Are there any particular artists or albums that have inspired your music?
I think we all bring each of our favorite albums and artists to the table and sort of pass it through a FunRock filter to bring out what eventually results in a song. While we wouldn’t have specific preferences collectively, we do try and take a whole lot away from live albums and shows of artists like Muse, Panic at the Disco!, Queen, Asking Alexandria, and so on, for cool ideas on how to make our performances more attractive, engaging and fun for the crowd. Again, that’s a very diverse shortlist of artists, but that stems from how each of us still have our genre preferences apart from rock – taking something from those artists and albums for us to be inspired by and apply doesn’t necessarily require the condition that they play exactly the kind of music we do, which broadens our scope for growing as artists as well!
Could you tell us a bit about the writing/recording of your Songdew Competition winning track Moonlight Swing?
We wrote “Moonlight Swing” before lockdown. Once we wrote the catchy refrain that the song is most prominently defined by, it acted as a sort of launchpad from where the rest of the song took off and took shape. We really had fun tweaking around with time feels and key shifts with the song, while still keeping an air of simplicity about it.
As far as recording goes, it was entirely done during the lockdown. While we all recorded our individual parts separately as we were spread all across the country, the most fun part of the recording process was getting the voices of our fans to sing the refrain of the song. There really is nothing better for us as artists to listen to our track and hear their voices along with ours on the record!
What plans do you have for your debut album?
The album release is something that we’re planning with the current scenario and its probable after-effects to live music and performance spaces in mind. We do want our fans to be there with us in person for this major milestone and there are a lot of things in the works right now to make sure that that can happen. But overarchingly, the debut album will be released with the aim of celebrating exactly what we at AKOG are all about – energy, fun and downright wildness!
What are some of your favourite venues to perform at?
FANDOM @ Gilly’s Redefined, Bangalore is probably our favourite venue to play at, not just because of how good the sound is, but also because of how close the stage physically is to the crowd – it is surreal to hear them shouting and singing along to us right at the front. We’ve made a lot of important memories there – there have been a lot of “firsts” for us at FANDOM.
Apart from FANDOM, we absolutely love performing at Bangalore’s Hard Rock Café, and bFlat Indiranagar, a venue that’s unfortunately closed now. But the feeling of being on stage regardless of the venue is always memorable for us, there’s nothing we enjoy doing more!
Here at Artistic Echoes, we are always on the lookout for new artists do you have anyone to recommend?
We love that you guys are reaching out to artists like us!
Thermal and a Quarter is one of the biggest names in the Indian music scene, and we really look up to them for their massive “Bangalore Rock” discography and their incredibly tight live gigs; plus they’re really sweet folks too!
Tejas Menon is another independent artist from Mumbai who has a very modern pop-rock sound, mixed with just the right amount of funk and soul. His music is known for its tight production in the scene, and he has a new album slated for release as well.
Finally, a band that we’re quite close to, Kelvikkuri, are making quite the stir around these parts as well with their fascinating fusion of Indian Carnatic music, jazz and funk elements!
What plans do you have for the rest of the year?
For starters, we’re all finally getting back together in Bangalore after 7 months of doing things over video calls and the like! We’re glad for technology when it comes to these things, but there’s nothing like making music and hanging out with each other, and we really can’t wait!
The immediate plan is to do a couple of live-streamed gigs because if there’s one thing we’ve missed, it’s performing on a stage! We think live streaming shows are amazing opportunities for us to connect to a fanbase and an audience beyond spatial limitations and we can’t wait to perform for them.
While the release of another single is in the works as well, the long term plan is to eventually push that album out and play in a few venues around India promoting its release. This does depend on the way our country and the world deal with the ongoing pandemic but things seem to be looking up and we’re hoping for the best in the days to come!
Find out more:
Website: https://www.akogband.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/akog.band/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/akogband
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akog.band/
