Meet the Bangalore-based Supergroup, Peepal Tree that is steadily proving to be a good example of how music is truly beyond the format and restrictions of language. Be it their 2018 debut album ‘Chetana’, their touch and go with the Grammy ballots or their last single Cauvery, Peepal Tree’s music has touched a lot of people across the country and the world itself.

Their latest release is a 4 track EP titled 560001, which brings them together with their  old friend and long-time supporter Sandeep Chowta.

Peepal Tree’s music can be described as Indian melodies sitting on funk grooves with overtones of electronica, and sung in a variety Indian languages. Peepal Tree, attaches a lot of importance to the message they convey lyrically, apart from their musicality on their recorded material and at live performances. The lyrics range from a variety of social issues such as human disregard for the environment, to more philosophical ideas, nudging us at times to hold up a mirror to ourselves. They are heavily inspired by literary and philosophical giants of Karnataka, namely Rashtrakavi Kuvempu, Dara Bendra and Santa ShishunaLa Sharif. 

The supergroup, was born out of the fervent desire of four friends, all musicians, who wanted to incorporate each others’ musical abilities, leanings and knowledge, to write ‘good songs’. They wanted to document their individual musical impressions into a collective expression that would test their ability to write music, represent all the factors that they loved about different kinds of music, while at the same time, keeping them miles away from sounding ‘very esoteric or self-indulgent’. While the band started working on music together in 2011, they found their rhythm to roll only by 2014.

Their first official album titled ‘Chetana’ was released in October, 2018 and it rose to #1 on the iTunes Rock Charts (India) and  #3 on the iTunes overall album charts (India) within hours of the album hitting the online stores, among others. 

‘Chethana’ was the coming together of diverse musical influences, stitched together in 10 songs by 4 passionate musicians. The purpose was the album is no different from the band’s raison d'être, to play music together, on stage and while doing so, make a sincere attempt at writing good music. The album has 6 Kannada songs, 3 Hindi and 1 Tamil song. In these one can find traces of rock, pop, funk, heavy metal and everything in between.

‘Chetana’ in 2019 had made it to the ballots of the 62nd Grammy Awards, in Best Rock Album category.

On the very first day of its release, their December 2019 single Cauvery climbed to the no.1 position on iTunes’ Indian Rock charts, just as their first official album ‘Chetana’. Cauvery, pays tribute to the incredible lifeline of south India. Though the mighty Cauvery has a huge impact on the lives of people of 3 states of South India, the sentiment of the song can be attributed to any river, rivulet or tributary anywhere in the world. For at its core, the song celebrates our most vital resource one that we share with all forms of life on this beautiful planet.

The band that doesn’t believe in shackles that come with genre-based descriptions — comprises of Sujay Harthi on vocals, Tony Das on guitars, Praveen Biligiri on bass, Willy Demoz on drums and Siddharth Kamath on keyboards. Their music can be described as Indian melodies sitting on funk grooves with overtones of electronica, and sung in variety Indian languages.

Each musician in the band brings a wealth of experience to this project, having been a part of the Hindi and Kannada movie industries, apart from playing in some of the most successful bands from India, namely The Raghu Dixit Project, Thermal & A Quarter, Moksha, Sandeep Chowta Project and Bhoomi among others.