Bathroom Singers Of Bengaluru, Come Off!

Raise the roof and the volume.

We’re sure that while flipping through the tantalising tales of Issue #5 of LURU: The Music Edit, you briefly paused at “Life Without Music Would B Flat” and then dived into reading the oral history about the city’s denizens recalling stories of singing in choirs with campy makeup, sneaking into colonial bungalows, and bullying adults into parting ways with their plum cake and kalkals after carol-singing. And then, you wondered to yourself: where can I go and sing just for fun, no pressure? We’ll admit, dear readers, we were certainly manifesting such a destination into the universe.

We, the LURU newsletter team, have good news for you (and for ourselves). We’ve found one! It’s clarion call – no need to be a “singer” – had us at our warbling bests at Belt It Out. Last Saturday, we joined the debut session of this no-holds barred sing-along held at Studio345, the headquarters of Sandbox Collective.

Life sounds better with a little harmony

Even our savvy autodriver, whizzing in the gaps between other vehicles in the Saturday early evening rush, didn’t ensure our punctual arrival. We quietly slip into the shadowed garden of Studio345, and immediately, we’re secreted away from the constant thrum of traffic on Wheeler Road Extension. Our shoulders brush past the vibrantly blooming Heliconia rostrata, or hanging lobster claw, we get blessed by the shiny disco ball glimmering over the doorway, and enter a room with a small circle of people holding photocopied lyric sheets. They were taking a breather after belting out two Beatles’ classics – ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Yesterday’ – and figuring out the mood for the next stretch.

“We always wanted to do a karaoke or singing kind of event,” says Raabiya Jayaram, one of the members of Sandbox Collective, an arts collective that works at the intersection of women, gender, and sexual minorities. It doesn’t seem like left-of-centre programming considering it has been the venue for everything from artist mixers to a baby disco, and every event in-between and beyond. “It’s just about sitting with a bunch of people loudly singing songs from our childhood,” Shiva Pathak, another member of this decade-old collective, seconds. “We didn’t want it to be structured or have a fixed format,” Shiva adds. “It’s just a group where you can sing off-key, badly, or even well, it doesn’t matter. At Belt It Out, there’s no judgement,” Raabiya underscores.

Throw one’s hat into the sing

Break done. Voices warmed up. Gullets wet. We get ready to take on the track list. Next up, Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ and Aerosmith’s ‘I Don't Want to Miss a Thing’. We’re not sure of the others, but we found my own voice cracking on a higher octave, careening to a shift in the melodies, and cackling at my own musical shortcomings. Raabiya, the musician in the collective, leads us on the keyboard and Sachin Gujral is on percussion; they’re like flagmasters on a train track, gently bringing us back into tune, making sure we avoid colliding into each other.

Even our cooler than cool selves enthusiastically participated, it was like being back on a picnic bus or the backseat on a family roadtrip. We cycled through Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’, Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Sounds of Silence’, ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’, and even Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ – everyone sang the guitar solos, the interludes, and spoken-word parts together. It sparked joy. We didn’t hold back and neither did anyone else. Now fully charged, we decided to take on the song of all sing-along songs: Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Someone from our small group attempted to straighten us out by asking “to first, find the right key,” another piped up “is that G-sharp” which fell on deaf ears. And then, with gusto, together we murdered the song. It was delicious!

Like all good singing sessions, we didn’t want this to end either. We promised each other we were going to end with Elvis Presley’s ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ but we followed up with ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ from The Wizard of Oz. It seemed like we could’ve gone on singing from the Great Songbook of our memories.

The details: Studio345, 345, Wheeler Road Extension, Cooke Town. Follow them here to get an update on the next Belt It Out session in November. Rs 250 per person.