A younger couple walks alongside a lane in Cubbon Park, every carrying a single long-stemmed rose, shoulders grazing, eyes interlocked, clearly in the courting stage. A few yards away, in the parking zone, a younger man carrying silver cufflinks and a barrister’s band, is entering into his automotive whereas on the lawns past, a number of older males are in deep siesta, their rhythmic snores interjected by the squeak of bounding squirrels, the caws of crows and the rustle of leaves dancing in the wind. Adjacent to this, at Queen’s Park, a younger girl in a sari fixes her digicam to a stand and begins recording her Bollywood-style dance strikes, whereas vacationers convene close to the statue of Edward VII aka “Bertie”, their informal denims, sneakers and backpacks, starkly contrasting with the former king’s close-fitting breeches, lengthy cloak and dapper sneakers.
It is that this laidback, eclectic vibe of the park that a recently-released song, ‘Cubbon Park’, is making an attempt to seize, explains Derek Mathias, who wrote this song final January whereas on a flight to Nagaland. “I was on my laptop, and I thought I’d just write something because I hadn’t written anything for a while,” says the Bengaluru-based musician and chief of the band, Derek & The Cats, as we decide on one of the benches located amidst the undulating inexperienced of the park, insulated from visitors and the normal bustle unfurling round it. The song made him really feel “ content and happy… like a Sunday morning.”
Derek & The Cats carry out at Cubbon Park
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
For Derek, a true-blue Bengalurean and educated classical pianist who started studying to provide and document his music in school, Sunday mornings are additionally inevitably linked to Cubbon Park. “I was trying to visualise this Sunday morning feeling, and since I’ve come here on Sunday mornings, calling it Cubbon Park seemed like a really apt thing. This place has had a positive impact on my life.”
Yoga fans at Cubbon park
| Photo Credit:
BHAGYA PRAKASH
‘Cubbon Park’, which was launched on YouTube on June 1, is an ode to the park, providing an immersive expertise of what the metropolis’s inexperienced lung appears to be like and appears like on a weekend morning. In the video, a stay efficiency of Derek & The Cats at the park is interspersed with footage of bushes and lawns, bounding canines, individuals taking part in badminton and frisbee, taking a experience on the toy prepare or boat, having breakfast at Airlines Hotel, and a few regulars providing sound bites about what makes the park particular.
“You come to Cubbon Park in the morning, take your dog for a walk, enjoy the space, go to Airlines, relax under that big banyan tree, have masala dosa and coffee and go home,” says Derek. “That is the full experience…the emotion I wanted to capture.”
People studying at Cubbon Park
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The journey
The band, which consists of Derek on the piano, Adesh Vinod on the guitar, Joel Rozario on percussion, Vishal Varier on bass, Kenneth Besterwitch on drums, Gautam David on saxophone and Anand Murali on keyboard, started engaged on the music video in March this yr. While they’d already been taking part in the song at varied venues nationwide, testing and modifying it based mostly on how individuals responded to the music, Derek needed to launch it solely as soon as the video was prepared. “I was particular that it had to come out with a video,” he says, mentioning that since the band makes instrumental music, “it is hard for someone to just hear a melody, and think, Cubbon Park. We needed to find a way to document it.”
Since skilled images is prohibited in Cubbon Park, they needed to get artistic, utilizing an iPhone 16 Pro, a GoPro, Insta360 and RayBan Meta glasses to doc the park over a number of weekends. “I am an engineer: jugaad is the way to do things,” he says, with fun. They even borrowed Appam, a buddy’s canine and connected the GoPro to his leash to “document Cubbon Park through their (dogs’) eyes,” he says.
Dog homeowners and pet lovers at the canine park
| Photo Credit:
MURALI KUMAR Ok
In May this yr, the band carried out at the century-old bandstand in Cubbon Park, which has been revived not too long ago, “one of the best gigs I’ve ever played,” admits Derek. Unlike in a daily gig, the place the efficiency takes place in darkish, smoky venues at night time, this gig occurred early in the morning, he recounts. “There was greenery, Sunday morning breeze, completely open…it felt so inspiring to perform our music there…such a great way to start the day,” he says. “We were just really happy.”
Derek & The Cats
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Derek hopes that ‘Cubbon Park’, which will likely be included in the band’s second album that will likely be launched in August, will make an influence. “If a person from Bengaluru watches this video, they should feel nostalgic. And if someone from outside watches the video, they should say ‘Wow, this is a place I’d like to go to’,” he says.
In his opinion, individuals have no idea sufficient about Bengaluru, and he hopes the song will assist change this. “We are a Bengaluru band, and if a band from Bengaluru doesn’t spread its culture, who will?” he asks. “Most of us in the band are born and raised here, so it has to be us.”
You can take heed to Cubbon Park at