Shriram Alluri’s second album, which is in Telugu, is inspired by his travel experiences
Shriram Alluri lets music lovers into his life with his second album O Katha: Tales of this Telugu Man. Inspired by his travel experiences around the world, the Telugu album includes songs for the loverlorn hearts. “A few songs are based on love and wishful thinking while others are on interpersonal relationship and the experiences that moved me”,enthuses Shriram, whose first album Man of Truth, which was in English, was released in 2016. Having studied in different schools in Andhra Pradesh and UK, Shriram incorporated social commentary into O Katha… lyrics . “One song from the album was recordedin 2016 but the remaining seven are new. We worked on the lyrics to make it more palatable for Telugu music lovers,”
The Hyderabad-born, London-based globetrotting musician, Alluri Shriram, is back with his second album ‘O Katha: Tales of This Telugu Man’ which is going to be available on his website allurimusic starting this Saturday, Citing the inspiration for his second studio album as, “ an identity crisis being resolved”, the singer feels he has identified and connected with his native language through the course of writing these songs in Telugu, While the lyrics on his album are close to home, the music was created in collaboration with award-winning Italian music producer, Tommaso Colliva giving the music a Western aura. Shriram’s personal favourite tune from his latest creation is “Baalyam” which already hav over 6 lakh views on YouTube. His other songs have love, travel and societal politics as the main subjects making a relatable narrative for all the listeners. Alluri’s third album is in the works where he plans to change the Western packaging in terms of music and move towards more indian beats. Alluri and his team plan on touring various universities across Andhra Pradesh ans Telangana to get a hands-on responce from young audiences and mould their new album accordingly. The songs will largely be penned in Telugu with room for a few English tracks for his global audience as well. Alluri plans on utilising the growing market for live music in the country and wants to help the culture grow in India.
He is back in Hyderabad to announce the completion of his album Telugu Rock n Roll Music Album “O Katha: Tales of This Telugu Man’, just released in the market, the 12 tracks music album is available on digital platforms and also in vinyl, the download of album is available from 4th May on allurimusic.com. This is the first time a Telugu music album is recorded using Italian musicians, A diarist to his core, Alluri’s debut album ”Man of Truth” was written during a six month travel break, between completing his Masters in Finland and returning home to India. Though he had been out of India for his education for nearly 13 years in England and Finland, his passion for his mother tongue made him write songs in Telugu. The artist also announced; he is set to start his third album soon. Shriram Alluri doesn’t need any introduction. The Hyderabad-born London-based alternate rock singer – song writer, is an artist who’s infused the best of two cultures, His vocals in his native language Telugu, breaks away from English and helped him carve a niche for himself in the global music industry. He has worked with Grammy award -winning producer Tommaso Colliva. “Coming back to Hyderabad is always an absolute thrill” says Alluri. and adds I am looking forward to my trips to different Universities in India this year and am excited to announce that I have.” After having ahectic year in 2018, traveling to cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Amaravati, and countries like England, France, Estoina, Alluri, has now chalked a plan for 2019-2020 to go on a Universities Gigs in India and also to document his travel and performance. His noted successful performance at the international stage include Cambridge Folk Festival – July 2017, Sofar Sounds X Amnesty – Milano Sep 2017, Transmusicales – Rennes, France Dec-2017, Tallinn Music week 2018- Estonia April 2018 and in London – 12 June2018. He was also part of the NH7 Weeknder Pune in 2017 performed in hyderabad the same year, with Italian musicians Roberto Dragonettin, Nicolo Taccori, Domenico Mamone, Raffaele Scogna which was bighit, In 2018 August he performed live in Hyderabad, in partnership with Paolo Raineri-Trumpet, Roberto Dragonetti-Bass, Davide Arzuffi-Drums, Pietro Ubaldi – Keyboard, Alluri Vocals/ ElecGtr, Ranga – Flute, Murali – Tabla was a ground breaking venture, a congregation of the vary best of talent was unimaginable for the Hyderabad fans. He followed it by a mindblowing performance in Amaravati for Amaravati Global Music and Dance Festival 2018.
We caught up with punk rock royalty Glen Matlock recently and the experience was as memorable as it could get for a young music journalist. The British musician and founding member of the legendary group The Sex Pistols was in Mumbai to perform at Hard Rock Café, Worli alongside U.K.-based crossover artist Alluri. Matlock, who left the Pistols during the recording sessions of their much-acclaimed 1977 debut album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, went on to release a ton of solo material, perform in various other groups such as The Rich Kids, collaborate with American punk legend Iggy Pop and reunite with his Pistols band mates on multiple occasions.
In this interview with Rolling Stone India, Matlock takes us through his punk rock heyday and everything that he is looking forward to right now.
The Pistols were notorious for causing chaos wherever you’ll went – one of the most talked about instances was when you’ll appeared on the Bill Grundy Show in 1976, can you tell me what you recall from that event?
It was a program that was on right after the six o’clock news – millions of people watched it. We went on to plug our first single (“Anarchy in the U.K.”). We only got the gig at the last minute because Queen were supposed to do it but pulled out and when we got there Steve Jones (guitarist) got drunk and the guy interviewing us, Bill Grundy, for some reason didn’t like us and he tried to take his dislike on us live on TV. But he hadn’t counted the fact that Steve Jones was drunk and he tried to take it out on the wrong people and the rest is history. Overnight instead of being on the front page of the music press, we were on the front page of the tabloids and became public enemy number one.
Plenty has been written about the Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and how he used inventive and provocative techniques in promoting the band. What was the relationship between the group and McLaren?
It was an interesting dynamic and it was complicated. He was 10 years older than us and was a very interesting fellow. I used to work for him at his Teddy Boy shop. I used to actually measure the Teddy Boys up for their drape jackets and then would have to call the tailor who would make the suits and I would have to go through Malcolm’s address book. He wasn’t the kind of guy who had all the names alphabetically, some of the names he had in were Yoko Ono, the editor of the NME – all interesting people. I thought this was an interesting kind of guy. He always claimed that he had formed us and that’s not true, we formed ourselves in his shop which was the hippest place to be on a Saturday afternoon in mid-Seventies London.
Noel Gallagher recently said in his new Netflix special, Once In A Lifetime, that he would strum along to Pistols records when he started playing guitar, what got you going?
We all had our own influences in the band. Personally, what got me going is that we used to not have a national radio station in England. To get around that there was all these pirate radio stations that sprung up on boats just outside British territorial waters broadcasting music. That coincided with bands like the Kinks, the Who, the Yardbirds and my all time favorite band the Small Faces. Little kind of three minute vignettes of pop culture, great guitar sounds, fantastic vocal delivery, kind of got into my blood somehow – so that is what I brought to the Sex Pistols.
Do you listen to modern punk rock and what do you make of it?
I don’t. The favorite record I like – and I’ve actually done a cover, the thing that has stuck out most is “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. There is something in the song, it’s got this kind of jazzy chords on a keyboard – something about it doesn’t resolve. And I thought that’s wrong – so I picked up a guitar and tried to work it out and it ended up sounding like the Pretty Things from the Sixties doing Pharrell Williams.
Since you’ve been involved in so many different projects as a bassist, guitarist and vocalist, do you tailor your performance to suit each set-up?
I do kind of tend to hopefully pick some things that are kind of cool and interesting and I do learn with different things all the time. I mean, Alluri is no Johnny Rotten (vocalist of the Sex Pistols) but he is an interesting guy and he’s got quite an encyclopedic knowledge of British music which I appreciate – it seems to work.
Speaking of Alluri, how did your collaboration with him come about?
Earlier this year, a friend of mine sent me a video clip of Alluri doing a version of “Anarchy in the U.K.” in Telugu. I thought this was interesting and he’s got this other track called “Don’t Lose Touch,” he said “would you be interested in helping him produce it” and he said he’ll be doing it in Milan. It came out really well and I got on well with Alluri, I like his songwriting knack, his general demeanor, he sings well and he plays well.
Can you tell us more about your upcoming album, Good To Go.
It’s very good. It’s got a dozen tracks and it’s my sort of brand of writing about loads of different topics. You’ll have to listen to it to find out.
