What job does a musical troupe have in a technical festival?

“Our job is basically to lighten the heavy technical mood in APOGEE”, says Saksham Nagar, coordinator of Gurukul. In spite of being a very busy man, he agreed for a small interview for the APOGEE English Press in the late hours of the night.

The sole event Gurukul is entrusted with is their performance on 24th midnight at the Rotunda. Titled Reprise, it is a clear implementation of the theme (The Retrofuture) and they shall be playing modern renditions of old and popular songs. Performing on a circular stage would be a challenge – especially soundcheck and equalization. Having been part of the club for three years, however, Saksham confidently says that it would not be a problem.

“Song allotments had taken place before midsem and we started with picking up our individual parts just after”, says Saksham. With 35 to 40 active members comprising mostly of 1st and 2nd years, full-fledged band practice began after a week of part pick-ups. “It takes around 2 to 3 hours of practice to get a song perfectly right and in sync,” he added.

Being a coordinator of a club such as Gurukul has not been a smooth ride for Saksham. Despite this, he has introduced many changes in the club this semester such as creating a more efficient practice schedule. “Previously we used to have a music gallery with panels of album art, pictures of performance and collections of songs on mp3 players. This year we scrapped that and decided to concentrate on doing what we do best, that is playing music”, adds Saksham.

Apart from APOGEE, Gurukul will be active for the rest of the semester as well. Battle of the Bands is scheduled for April, which is an open BITSian band competition. Gurukul composes originals songs every semester and their original composition for the current semester was performed on Gurukul Nite in February.

One wishes Gurukul all the best for Reprise and their upcoming work.