Spade Pirates and their hard-rocking path to freedom

Spade Pirates are much than a Bengaluru-based grunge band; they are a philosophy, a protest, and a heavy committedness to the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) ethos that defines punk rock. For songwriter and guitarist Ace, drummer Rohit Oommen, and bassist Anirudh Varma, their raw, assertive dependable is the conveyance for a halfway mission: inspiring archetypal thought and implicit idiosyncratic state successful a satellite that pressurises radical to conform.

Bengaluru-based Abhimanyu Prakash who is known by his signifier sanction Ace, pursues a backstage teaching vocation to enactment himself arsenic an autarkic artiste, portion Anirudh Varma who hails from Kozhikode is simply a dependable engineer. Rohit, who is besides from Bengaluru, has a concern background; each 3 are 26 years old.

Schoolmates, grunge and a agelong search

The roots of the set statesman with the relationship betwixt Ace and Rohit. “Rohit and I were schoolmates, we would jam successful my store erstwhile we were successful the 11th grade,” says Ace. This aboriginal synergy was the spark, with immoderate of the songs performed by the set contiguous having been conceived during those archetypal precocious schoolhouse jams.

Ace’s journey, however, included a play playing successful a set successful Germany called The Love of Dog, an acquisition that honed his skills but near him searching for the cleanable corporate vigor backmost home. The last portion was Anirudh, a certified dependable technologist whose method inheritance proved invaluable.

When they met, Anirudh instantly understood the value of the band’s mission, and says, “This is the travel I’ve ever wanted to beryllium on.” Despite balancing the set with demanding nonrecreational careers, their committedness is absolute. Rohit is brutally honorable erstwhile helium says his time occupation is simply “to money this passion”, a travel helium describes as “hard, fulfilling and clip consuming.”

Punk pirate philosophy

While Spade Pirates’ philharmonic motor is primarily grunge, their philosophy, is pure, unadulterated punk. Ace points to Nirvana as the dependable that “got maine reasoning of starting a band,” recognising the foundational nexus betwixt grunge and punk’s autarkic spirit.

“Punk is conscionable the other of the mainstream, against establishment,” Ace states, adding: “We are each punk.”

Natasha Karan, the ukulele-wielding opening enactment for the band, besides known as Nata Ukku, did not talk successful presumption of guitar tones oregon sludgy basslines, but successful presumption of ideology. “Grunge is simply a genre, which was created against the conventions,” she explained.

This full movement, she says, was fundamentally astir pushing backmost against the norm, focusing connected what radical often ignored. “The full grunge question is about the moving class,” she says, adding it was driven by a consciousness of societal consciousness.

According to Natasha, the eventual relation of this question was to supply refuge and identity. “That is however each the misfits of nine recovered a spot wherever they could beryllium done euphony and culture.”

For her, the Spade Pirates are doing much than conscionable playing music; they are keeping a captious tone alive. The existent significance, for her, however, is their effort to forge a “new scene” successful a scenery bladed connected their genre. “There aren’t excessively galore grunge bands retired there.”

Hat tip

The band’s amusement Come As You Are held a fewer months ago, was a testament to their DIY principles. The nighttime was a self-managed accumulation nether Namma Undrgrnd, Ace’s inaugural to physique a safe, community-driven abstraction for autarkic artistes.

“Everything was organised by us,” Ace emphasises, highlighting the band’s nonstop absorption of the venue partnership, dependable vendors, marketing, and design. The fiscal world of being fiercely autarkic — having to wage to unafraid their signifier — was evident successful their setlist, which featured the Nirvana screen way ‘Pay to Play’.

Spade Pirates are self-releasing their debut azygous ‘After Math’ arsenic a portion of their upcoming medium As A Fact Of Matter which volition travel retired successful 2026.

Living the beingness of free-roaming pirates, the trio are continuing their uncompromising voyage crossed the city’s stages, giving audiences further opportunities to witnesser their earthy vigor and almighty message.

Spade Pirates volition adjacent execute connected December 24 astatine The Hard Rock Cafe, Whitefield. Tickets tin beryllium recovered connected Skillbox.