Silk Route (band)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Silk Route


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Origin = India
Genre = IndiRock Blues & Acoustic Folk rock
Years_active = 1995–2007
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Current_members = Mohit Chauhan Kem Trivedi Kenny Puri
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Silk Route was a popular Indian music band named after the Silk Road. It was popular in the 90's in the Indian music scene but slowly faded away. The band comprises Mohit Chauhan on the lead vocals and Guitar, Kem Trivedi on the keyboards, and Kenny Puri on percussion and drums.The original line-up however had Mohit Chauhan on the lead vocals and Guitar, Kem Trivedi on the keyboards, and Atul Mittal on acoustic guitar, clarinet and backing vocals.It also included a few guest percussionists.

They are an Indian band who have been classified under the broad category of ‘Indipop’ but who yet wish to distance themselves as far as possible from the term, and whose manager is the founder member of an India-famous rock band. For ‘Silk Route’, which came into being in the summer of 1997 and caught the attention of the country’s music scene by bagging a host of Channel V awards for their first album Boondein, with the track "Dooba Dooba" receiving the ‘Best Song’ award. The band incidentally also got awards for its underwater video, for ‘Best Debut’, ‘Best Music Video’ and ‘Best Indian Group’. It was, in fact, this runaway success that happened to them while they were barely born into the musical world that spurred them on to aspire for the heights that they have reached. Very shortly after, they followed through with their second album – ‘Pehchan’ – in the summer of April 2000. Which leads one to question this whole summer factor in their musical lives. "Morni"- a great folk number from the same album has a great indian classical and western acoustic touch with the unique style of lyrics."Morni" is opined to be one of the bravest form of experiment ever done in indian music industry.

The band comprises Mohit Chauhan on the lead vocals, Kem Trivedi on keyboards and sometimes playing the recorder – a unique 17th century European folk wind instrument that lends that distinct touch to Silk Route’s music, and Kenny Puri on percussion and drums. They also use known musicians for their stage and album performances - Brennon Denfer on Bass,Adil Manuel & Saurabh Chaudhary on Guitars,Qadar Miazzi on Sufi Vocals and Shambhu Bhattacharya on Tabla and Percussions.The band was joined only six months previous to this writing by manager Subir Malik, founding member of the band ‘Parikrama’ - one of the pioneers of rock in India.

The music of Silk Route, they would insist, is very much their own, even as they are constantly reinventing their sound and adding to its repertoire. “We come from fairly different backgrounds and what comes together in our music is this confluence of sounds,” explains Kem. He himself comes from a Western classical music background, having won a scholarship at the age of 13 to study music at Edinburgh. Soon after he also won the Inlaks scholarship to study piano and Western composition at the Purcell School of Music in London. Lead singer [Mohit comes from Himachal Pradesh and brings with him the influence of the music from the hills, which adds that folk colour to their music that has made it so distinctive on the ‘Indipop’ scene. Kenny meanwhile is an accomplished percussionist and drummer who previously played in a jazz band. Together they confess to such diverse influences as Sting, Simon and Garfunkel and Dire Straits, all of which find their way into the Silk Route sound. “Our music,” says Kem, “unlike contemporary forms, is not very electronic or synthesised but has got more of an acoustic feel to it.” To evoke this sound they use such instruments as the acoustic guitar, harmonica and talking drums. But in order to add colour to their music, they are always experimenting with fresh sounds. For instance, at times they would introduce an electric rock guitar, while at others they use the tabla and Indian percussions. Some of the folk numbers have also shown a Qawwali strain, something that has quite caught the band’s fancy. Thus, while they insist their music cannot really be characterised, the unswerving forces of the music industry have clubbed it under the category of ‘Indipop’. However, so long as their music continues to be appreciated, they are quite willing to play along with it.
* Initially band was named "crux".
*Atul mittal who was initially a member of Silk route till boondein was released, has now formed a band of his own named "Indic Mist".
*Mohit chauhan has released a new album named 'Kala:am' which comprised of poems by Abdul kalaam Former President of India. The band has now formally dissolved.The legal formal public notice of dissolution came on 10/07/2007.