‘An interesting musical cocktail’: Shriram Alluri

When indie singer, songwriter and composer Shriram Alluri played the guitar to entertain his two-year-old nephew in November last year, little did he know that one thing would lead to another and he would land a gig with Glen Matlock, the bassist and member from the original line-up of the UK punk rock band the Sex Pistols, who’s now a singer songwriter. Alluri tells us, “I was practising for my show at the Transmusicales in France and my sister asked me to play for her son. I was tired and not too keen, so I played an acoustic version of the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK to scare him away.” On the contrary, the tot started dancing. This encouraged Alluri to cover the song in Telugu and English. “It was received well and my then manager Stephen Budd tweeted a link to Glen, who shared the song,” he adds. Thereafter, the Pistols’ bassist produced a demo Alluri wrote. That resulted in their collaborative single Don’t Lose Touch. “It was natural for me to ask him to come play with me in India. Glen hasn’t performed here before and was keen to do so,” the musician says about the impending gig.

MANY FIRSTS

Alluri is performing in Mumbai for the first time along with his band that comprises international artistes such as saxophonist Domenico Mamone (who has played with Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Tom Jones), bassist Roberto Dragonetti (for Nic Cester of Jet), drummer Davide Arzuffi and keyboardist Pietro Ubaldi. The show is also his maiden gig with Glen. “So, it will make for an interesting musical cocktail,” says the artiste. The set will have a mix of his Telugu and English tracks with his Italian band, followed by the Brit rockstar’s brief solo set and finally all the musician taking the stage. “We finish with playing Don’t Lose Touch, which was recorded with Muse’s Producer Tommaso Colliva. There will be a few covers to make sure everyone is zoned in with what is happening on stage,” Alluri says. 

GOING NATIVE

Alluri, who splits his time between India, the UK and Italy, started as an English artiste but moved on to writing in Telugu and had a digital release of his second album, Tales of This Telugu Man, on August 3. Three tracks on this record are in his mother tongue. “The album was a natural process in my songwriting. Only after I released some of these Telugu songs did I get more opportunities to play abroad,” he says when asked if he had apprehensions about works in his native language being received well internationally. “Going to gigs is part of the weekly culture in the West, so the experience of listening to Rock N’ Roll in a different language is familiar enough and yet different for them. And, rhythm and melody take over at a certain point and language isn’t all that important,” he explains. 

As the musician has started work on his third album, he has also written and recorded demos for nine songs, some of which he will play at the gig on August 10 at Hard Rock Cafe in Worli.