Madonna And Her Band Is Ready to Live Happily Everafter

• 09 Jun 2016
• Fathima AbdulKader
• Features

You hear of a band with a name like EverAfter and one starts to wonder what the story is behind the band with a whimsical name and who create such eclectic music. The band has an impressive line up when it comes to the members including Premam fame actress and singer Madonna Sebastian, Music Composer Roby Abraham, Metal Rock enthusiast and talented guitarist Ashwin Aryan, Mother Jane founding member John Thomas on the drums, Rex George on the Keyboards, and Joel Varghese on Bass guitar. When I caught up with the band for a quick chat, they were finishing up their practice with very few hours of sleep amongst them, but they are all geared up and ready to go for their launch gig on June 10 at Radisson Blu.  

What’s the story behind the band name?

There is no big story when it comes to the name. We went through a lot of names, none of which stuck or were equally liked by all the band members. We needed a name which met all our criteria- catchy, uncomplicated, not too long etc.  The concept of naming itself was only done out of the sheer need of having a name. The name Everafter was finally chosen because it was the name of least resistance. We considered so many names that we might just end up changing it again.

And so your first live gig is on June 10th right?
Yes. We had previously performed on Kappa TV Music Mojo and a song called Veruthe which we released as a music video. But this is our official first gig with a live audience.

Madonna, does the launch of your band mean that acting is going to take a back seat?

No way! Music is my first love and acting has helped my music career. I have come to love the acting experience and I hope that I have grown as an actor. So I do hope to keep my acting career going as well.

What would you say is your sound?

We are a hybrid of different genres. We like to refer to ourselves as freestyle rock as it gives us the freedom to explore our creative whims. A lot of our songs have Electro sounds and classic rock influences, soft melodies and those with minimalistic arrangements, perhaps with just a piano backing.

How did the Band come together?

Roby and Ashwin probably had the oldest association, and then Madonna came into the picture for Music Mojo. The Music Mojo stint was actually Roby’s tribute to musicians he admired and a few of his songs. But this created the idea to start a three piece band but somewhere along the way everyone else joined in and that is where we are at now.  

How do you work with each other and how is it like for Madonna to be the only girl in an all guys band?

More than the music, we feel that the each of our individual mindset and the chemistry between us is what holds us together. Even though we all come from different backgrounds, have different musical influences, we come together as a band. For Madonna, it really does not make any difference in being a girl among the guys.

How do you come up with songs as a band?

During jam sessions or if one of the band members comes up with an idea, it is worked up on to create new songs.  Incase of the lyrics, two of our Malayalam songs were written by Rafeeq Ahmed while two other were written by Manu Manjith. The songs written by Manu were not written “for the band” but rather were those that came naturally. After the start of the band some of the English songs have been written by Roby and Ashwin (mostly out of the need for new original songs, they confess).

What are your thoughts on cover songs?
While we are planning to cover songs at our launch gig we try to keep them to a minimum. We would love to do covers but we feel there are more than enough cover bands right now .And when we do covers, they are mostly performed because it can encourage audience interaction. 

What would you say are your musical influences?

We all have very different tastes in music, while Roby loves to listen to Classic Rock like Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Snarky Puppy; Madonna is an avid Cold Play fan. She grew up listening to her parent’s favorites like Kishore Kumar, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and the like, but started listening to bands like Queen and Cold Play as she got older. Ashwin who played metal rock for a long time, now loves to listen to bands like Mute Math and other ambient music. And of course the whole band is quick to express their love for Bollywood and A.R.Rahman.

Madonna, if you could be the lead singer to any band across any genre across time, which would it be?
If I could be the lead to any band to have ever existed, I’d want to be the lead of Cold Play. And no, I never could or want to replace Chris Martin, I’d rather be the co-lead with him.

What are your future plans as a band?

We have released one single which was not actually planned to be our official first release. It is called “Veruthe” and it got a really good response. We hope to do another music video which we want to plan and execute properly.  We do hope to end up being one of the best bands in the country (yes we know it’s ambitious but we can always dream right?)

Words: Fathima Abdul Kader

Images: Everafter Band