An acapella tadka

College days bring with them not just studies and parties but also a slew of cultural activities. Intercollegiate competitions and college bands are all par for the course. But in 1996, a group of four boys started to match their voices for acapella covers. This  became much more than just another college group. Penn Masala, so called because it consists of students of the University of Pennsylvania, is now a 14-member acapella group that has wowed audience around the world. Known for their stunning mash-up covers featuring Bollywood numbers and international pop songs, the group has managed to create a sound uniquely their own. In India for the second time in two years for their Yuva tour, the band is on a seven-city tour and seem to be as enthused about performing this year as the last.

“India is such a special crowd to perform for. The fans we encounter here are so energetic and lively, especially in concert. We love when they sing along with us in the crowd — it makes all of us so happy to see that,” says Atman Panigrahi, one of the members of the group.

“Everyone has their own memorable concert due to incredible fans being there, family members coming, or visiting their home city,” adds Nikhil Raman, another member of Penn Masala, whose collaboration with Indian artistes can be traced back to their rendition of Manwa Laage, with Jonita Gandhi in their album Resonance (released in 2015). Jonita also happens to be the only female collaboration for the group, which has retained an all-male make-up, despite the many changes over the years. “When the group was formed, it was by chance that members that joined were all male. As the years have gone by, the collection of songs we have arranged have been designed to fit the male register. So musically, it is not logistical to bring in the female register and restructure parts,” says Hari Ravi, who is quick to add that they are completely open to other collaborations with female singers.

The group also has mostly Indian-Americans, despite being formed of members of an American university. But Hari is quick to reassure that this is completely coincidence. “The group is welcome to people of all ethnicities and backgrounds. For instance, one of our members, Brendan, is Irish-American, and he knows just as much about Indian culture as the rest of us,” he says.

While the group is essentially an acapella group, some of their recent numbers had experiments with background tracks. Ask the team if they plan to keep up the explorations into non-acapella genres, and Pranay Sharma replies, “The group’s main focus is acapella. We had a segment called Masala Mashups that did use other elements, but we have decided to return entirely to acapella. That is our speciality and it is what we’re best at.”

This end of the tour will mark a new phase of creation for the band, according to Pranay. “Now that Yuva is finished, we’re already working on some new content for the future. We try to start working on the next album as soon as the one prior is released, and we’ve already got some cool ideas for video projects for the coming year,” he signs off.