Five Indie Acts Recommended by When Chai Met Toast

Formed straight after the members graduated from college in 2006, Skrat has redefined the Chennai independent music scene with their funky garage rock compositions. Led by guitarist and vocalist Sriram TT, the band also includes drummer and vocalist Tapass Naresh who plays for Oorka and Kulam and bassist Jhanu Chanthar, who strums for Kulam and his self-titled metal band Jhanu.

Parvaaz has redefined the independent music scene with their soul-stirring compositions replete with thought provoking verses. Coupling blues, rock and psychedelic with Urdu and Kashmiri poetry, the band has truly displayed their ability to produce home-grown contemporary sounds, time and again. Comprising of Khalid Ahmed and Mir Kashif Iqbal on vocals and guitar, Fidel Dsouza on bass and Sachin Banandur on drums and percussions, some of their credible music include 'Beparwah', 'Ghaib', 'Color White' and 'Shaad'.

The Trivandrum based band who actually prefer calling themselves Katta Vibe, comprise of Jyothi Krishna a.k.a. Crishna on vocals and guitar, Ananthu Nirmal on drums, Brian P. Fernandez on bass guitar and Pranav K.S. on keyboards. Since their big break on Kappa TV with their single 'Kunnikkuru', the band has been belting out incredible compositions in Malayalam, Tamil and English.

The Bangalore based Indian Classical/ Modern Progressive Rock/Electronic Rock band, Pineapple Express -formerly known as E-Swara Project consists of Yogeendra Hariprasad- Brains/keys/vocals/production, Karthik Chennoji Rao- Vocals, Jimmy Francis- vocals, Bhargav Sarma- guitars, Ritwik Bhattacharya- guitars, Gopi Shravan- drums, Arjun MPN- flute, Shravan Sridhar- violin and Abhinav Joshi- sound engineer. Their music has a touch of Indian classical, djent and synth.

Many fans would hail him as the John Mayer from the South. Mahesh started making music at the age of 13, when he picked up the guitar. In an interview, he said that he was always inclined towards music, since his mother used to teach him devotional songs. His works reflect the influences of Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, John Mayer, Jason Mraz and Damien Rice. He is also a part of the Bangalore-based band Blushing Satellite.

When you think of the Cochin-based band When Chai Met Toast, the first thing that comes to your mind is their happy music. In their words, their music happens when they spontaneously exchange tunes and riffs over WhatsApp audio messages. Comprising of Ashwin Gopakumar on vocals and guitar, Achyuth Jaigopal on guitar and banjo, Palee Francis on keyboards and Sailesh G Pai on drums, When Chai Met Toast have won their fans over with their winning singles, 'Beautiful World', 'Joy of Little Things', 'Firefly' and the recent 'Run Closer'. Here's presenting five indie acts that they listen to when not jamming in between.