Artist description Genre-busting band that brings together all kinds of influences. Committed to playing original music and reinventing covers, TAAQ has emerged a favorite live act in Bangalore, India. The band has set a trend in its hometown by organizing their gigs from scratch, playing free concerts for charitable and humanitarian causes. Usually publicized through email, a TAAQ concert ends up drawing crowds to packed venues and rave reviews in the local and national media.

Music Style eclectic

Musical Influences Rock, Jazz, Indian Classical, Progressive Rock, Funk, Folk

Similar Artists Dave Matthews Band, Sting, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan

Artist History In stark contrast to most rockographies, the story of Thermal And A Quarter does not begin in a garage. Like the rest of us, the band was conceived in a bedroom. No sex (well, almost!). No drugs. Just rock'n'roll. 1996 was the year. If you're wondering where we got a name like that, 'Thermal And A Quarter'(TAAQ to the impatient) is the phonetic distillate of 'Three Malayalees and A Quarter Malayalee' -- a tongue-in-cheek take on the ethnic origins of the band members, most of who are from Kerala (where Mallus come from). Critics often ask us: what genre is your music? Genre? Isn't that the little label on the back of a CD cover? Labels make the band restless. Because it's really hard to put one on the kind of music we make. What labels don't convey is the contagious energy generated when TAAQ takes centre stage. The TAAQ sound is constantly evolving. Because having fun through music is serious business, we are ever churning out fresh new ideas and rhythms that can best be classified as 'Thermal And A Quarter'. But all that jazz about genre was best summed up by Dave Matthews: "Music isn't jazz, or heavy metal, or classical -- those are just categories, and the more you listen to music, the more you can see right through them."

Group Members Bruce Lee Mani (vocals, guitars), Rajeev Rajagopal (drums and percussion), Rzhude (vocals, bass), Rajesh Mehar (vocals, guitar tech), P N Umesh (sound, bass tech), Gurudarshan Somayaji (Drum Tech, PR), Leo David (Security, Transport), Bijoy Venugopal (Website and Online Communications) and P G Santhosh (Financial and Strategic Alliances)

Instruments electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, traditional Indian percussion, mridangam

Albums Thermal And A Quarter, (C) August 2000

Location Bangalore, India - India

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