‘Every Breath you Take’ is a 1983 song by The Police that we’ve all heard. But have you heard the Indian Classical cover of it? That’s the song by The Runks, a young and lively band comprising four Goan boys. The Runks are in the running to win the Red Bull Band Hunt as one of the seven finalists. The hunt will give the winning band the opportunity to perform atop the Red Bull Tour Bus.
So far in the lead of the competition, The
Runks is made up of Georgie Dias from Majorda (lead vocals, guitar), Kassel
Gomes from Nuvem (drums, vocals), Sheldon Gomes from Carmona (keyboard, vocals)
and Edelbert Azaredo from Fartorda (bass, vocals). “We formed the band nearly
one and a half years ago, when we met for the Battle of the Bands at Sanvordem.
We didn’t know one another personally but we knew about each other’s music. I
was part of another band called Wild Beat, while the others were part of Rhythm
Nation. From winning the Battle of the Bands in Sanvordem, we went on to win
the Vodafone Battle of the Bands Goa, Vistara 2K17 and are currently
representing Goa at the national level at the Band Hunt organised by Red Bull,”
says Georgie, adding that the band was named by combining the words Rock and
Funk.
Georgie is an FYBA student at Chowgule College, Margao while
Kassel is in his first year of Civil Engineering at Agnel Polytechnic, Verna.
Edelbert is working at Travco in the travel and tourism sector and Sheldon is
in the logistics department for Flipkart. Despite their busy schedule, they
practise twice a week on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The also perform at Uzzo
Grill & Cafe, Colva on Fridays, Soro on Saturdays and Yolo, Baga on
Sundays.
Speaking about the competition, Georgie explains that Vistara
2K17 was instrumental in Red Bull noticing the band, “Red Bull was part of
Vistara 2K17 as well as seven other college battle-of-the-bands competitions in
seven cities around the country and picked the top bands in each.” These seven
bands had to record one of their own songs, which are currently on the website.
“The winner gets to perform atop the Red Bull Tour Bus at 11 events in 11
different states of India over 2-3 weeks, which is a huge opportunity for a
band,” says Georgie.
For the competition, The Runks performed a cover of ‘Every
Breath you Take’ and the unique piece is garnering more votes over time.
However, there is still a need for more votes for the band to make it as a
winner. “We tried different beats for the song and we first started with the
Mando beats but the Indian classical sound really suited the song. The song
will be available for voting till September 10, 2017,” says Georgie.
Besides the Runks, the other bands in the competition are Last
Ride Home (Mumbai), Shivatattva (Ahmedabad), 6IX MHZ (Delhi NCR), We’ll Decide
On Wednesday (Bangalore), Wayside(Chennai) and Mukti (Barasat, West Bengal).
Though
they bring diverse styles and personal choices to the table, as a band, they
perform genres like Rock, Pop, Country, Funk, etc. “We do have our own
compositions, but for this competition, we wanted to give something that the
people could connect to. We decided to add the Indian classical musical element
to the song and the votes show that people are really liking it and are voting
for it. To conclude, we would like to ask our fellow Goans to vote online at
bandhunt. redbull.com before September 10, 2017 so that we can win the finals
of this competition,” says Georgie.