with Thaikkudam Bridge

Thaikkudam Bridge
There is no story to why the band is called Thaikkudam Bridge, Govind says. “We used to practise in an apartment near Thaikkudam Bridge which is why we gave it the name. Simple.” “We do not have a genre. The mandate is to play songs people will like rather than us playing what we like. Our core is melody but we have specialists who are strong in certain genres.…people irrespective of where they are from should like the music.” Which explains the band’s rather unconventional number of vocalists – eight. The band members, incidentally, are from different parts of India, which gives the band its eclectic flavour. The band’s line-up is — lead guitarist Mithun Raju (formerly of Motherjane), Ashok Nelson (rhythm guitars), Vipin Lal (vocalist), Christi Jose (vocalist), Ruthin Thej (keyboards), Abin Thej (drums), Piyush Kapoor (vocalist and guitarist), Vian Fernandez (bass guitarist), Krishna Bongane and Nila Madhav Mohapatra (Hindustani vocalists), Govind P. Menon (violin and vocals), Siddharth Menon (vocals) and Peethambaran Menon (vocals). Govind had help from his sister Dhanya with the lyrics of ‘Fish Rock’.


Early this year, Malayalam newspaper group Maathrubhumi kicked off their entertainment channel Kappa TV with a bunch of interesting programmes in its arsenal. While the channel itself has received good response, one of its most appreciated shows was Music Mojo, Kappa’s own version of the studio jam session a la Coke Studio and the like. The show featured a lot of interesting-yet-unheard bands in its first Season, but few have met with the kind of phenomenal success that Kochi-based Thaikkudam Bridge earned with their set of videos that went up on youtube last week. Having quite literally sprung up with the Music Mojo session, a lot of our readers were keen to know more about the band, and so we decided to get in touch with the band’s main man Govind Menon. And here is a primer on Thaikkudam Bridge!