Kerala drums brings in festive sounds to Singapore

It all started when a few Malayali students joined a college in Singapore back in 2011. One of them, Arun Prabha, from Attingal in Thiruvananthapuram, knew the basics of chenda. He mobilised a few friends and they started performing at small events in Singapore. Before long, they became a band of over 30 people in various age groups, performing across Singapore, and then, Indonesia and Malaysia, too. Now, they are all set to perform at Singapore pooram, modelled after Thrissur pooram, with robotic elephants, melam and other typical festive features.

Arun said, "Initially, only I knew to play chenda when we formed the Kerala Beatz band. Later, Rebin, who is well versed in singarimelam joined us and this helped us expand. Kerala Beatz. In the beginning, we had to use the bamboo sticks sold in the stores here for hanging laundry as drumsticks. For some events, a few associations would help us out by providing chenda. Now, we are fully equipped."

They play both singarimelam and pancharimelam, the former of which is not considered traditional by old-timers. They also have their own tracks. Vishnu, from Kochi is the one who choreographs their performances. Mubariz Mubarak, Akhil James, Vishnu Baby and Akhil Prasenan are the other founding members.

"Over time, we have received a lot of support from people in Singapore. We are also thinking of doing albums. We have done one in the past collaborating with a Tamil composer. But, now, we are seriously exploring the possibility of collaborating with other artists," said Arun.

He added, "Earlier, we used to follow a few popular tracks. Now, we compose and play our own. Our compositions have been well-received. Chenda's similarity to koothu, is one of the reasons that we are popular among Tamilians too."

Mubariz Mubarak, one of the founding members said "This is going to be our largest group performance. We have 30 active members, but have never had the chance to perform together before."

Violin-chenda fusion

Back in 2019, they had started a violin-chenda fusion in Singapore. "Actually, that's how we went to Malaysia to perform for the first time. People liked our performance video and invited us over," said Akhil Prasenan.

What's new?

For the pooram, they are trying a fusion of chenda, thakil, nadaswaram, parai, Malay drums and Nashik dhol. Also, they will do a play-along chenda segment where they will play along with background tracks. "We will play along a mix of old and new songs. Both are still a bit experimental," added Akhil.