Introducing Staccato – Chennai Band at 2012 Olympics

Introducing Staccato, a Chennai based band who have been selected from over 10,000 entries from across Asia to represent the continent at the 2012 Olympics in London. The young band will perform at the cultural exchange event to be held at the Olympic Park on the 30th July and 2nd August.

Staccato is an experimental band whose very essence lies in assimilating a plethora of musical tradition across the globe and creating music that soothes the soul. This band draws from an impressive spectrum of style, some of which include Carnatic music, Jazz and Blues, Arabian influences, Bach et al. The band have a few originals and perform “Staccato-ised” covers of musical greats such as A R Rahman and Illaiyaraja.

We spoke to the band earlier today and were told that they are all extremely excited and delighted to be performing at such a prestigious event. The story began when the youngest member of the band, Kaashif Rafiq secretly sent the band demo tapes to the London 2012 Organising committee. The British film director Danny Boyle who is the creative director for the Olympics selected Staccato to perform. When they were contacted about performing at the event, they initially thought it was a spam message! Now they know it’s for real, they have found a sponsor for the flights, started rehearsing around the clock and will be bringing their sound to London.

We unfortunately couldn’t find a high quality performance video of the band to feature so we decided to feature another – the Lead female vocalist of the band “Vandana Srinivasan” performing with popular Youtube sensation “Shankar Tucker” (who isn’t a member of the band). 

We look forward to London 2012 and it’s Chennai connection!