Performances were split across two stages, while nearly 1,500 people made the trek to the mountainous paradise. The attendees camped out as did the musicians, in tents a la Glastonbury style-y. The festival grounds were peppered with food stalls (yum yum pork curry!), stands selling Coorg curios as well as Storm merch.

Fun happenings at the festival included a paintball area in full swing during day two, and a midnight jam session around a bonfire featuring members of Yodhakaa, Parvaaz and Swarathma, with a BBQ on the side.

Here is a glimpse of the festival, in pictures.

Raghu Dixit of The Raghu Dixit Project @ Storm Festival, Coorg

Nikhil Chinapa @ Storm Festival, Coorg

Vasu Dixit of Swarathma @ Storm Festival, Coorg

Himanshu Joshi of Indian Ocean @ Storm Festival, Coorg

The peeps at the Storm Festival, Coorg

Photos by Abhimanyu Ghoshal. Stay tuned for a full gallery of photos. Also, this.

Check out the lineup below.

Bands
Indian Ocean
The Raghu Dixit Project
Lesle Lewis
Swarathma
Soulmate
Faridkot
Ankur & The Ghalat Family
Yodhakka
Agam
La Pongal
Airport
Parvaaz

DJs
B.R.E.E.D
Pearl
Arjun Vagale (of Jalebee Cartel)
Sanjay Dutta
Tuhin aka Brute Force
Vachan Chinnappa
Wayne Beck
Absolute
Chubby
Kay Mikado
Vishnu
Sekhar
Kalypso
Vilas

Visuals – Kaycee
Official Storm Festival DJ – DJ Swing

More from Storm Festival as we hear it.

‘Our Jampad is Open to You’, or OJOY, offers fans the opportunity to jam with Swarathma. Here are the rules of the contest (from Swarathma’s Facebook page)

• You do not need to be a professional musician or singer. You could be an amateur singer, or a guitarist who knows just one chord or someone with just love for music and no training at all. It doesn’t matter. What is important is that we will share the same musical space.
• The jam will be held in the band’s Bangalore jampad OR a rented jam space in a city where you live. The dates of the jam will be coordinated at a later date based on mutual convenience.
• There will be a video crew who will shoot the experience and create a DVD for you as a keepsake.
• We will also announce a winner who will walk away with a pair of Sennheiser HD 203 headphones as part of this contest.

To enter this contest, all you have to do is enter a reply into this note on the band’s Facebook page.

More from Swarathma soon. Check out the poster for OJOY below.

Poster design by Pavan Kumar
Photos by Kunal Kakodkar

Srinivas Sunderrajan, bassist of Mumbai hardcore act Scribe recently released the trailer of his second film, Greater Elephant. The film premiered at the recently concluded South Asian Film Festival in New York, and won the Jury Prize for the Best Narrative Feature of 2011. The film is produced by Enter Guerrilla (Sunderrajan’s production house), Mateeyao Production and co-produced by Bangla Black (of Gandu fame).

Music for the film was provided by Bangalore folk rockers Swarathma. The trailer of the film uses the band’s live gig staple ‘Yeshu Allah Aur Krishna’, which is going to be featured on the band’s upcoming album Topiwalleh (get their first single here), and also features ‘Sur Mera’ from the band’s debut eponymous album. Swarathma also featured on the latest episode of The Dewarists, alongside Shubha Mudgal. You can watch the episode here.

Sunderrajan spoke to us about the film

What’s the big metaphor of the Greater Elephant?
The entire film is a metaphor. The plot and the characters stand for something metaphoric too. And so does the animal involved. Each aspect of the film, including the very search for the elephant, stands in for something larger, bigger, subtler thought. But it’s all left to the viewer’s choice and imagination. One can choose to view it as a metaphorical film or an existential premise or as a plain, normal film! But that depends if you watch it in Chandan or at a film festival!

Why did you choose Swarathma to compose/contribute the music?
I usually collaborate with fellow (and like-minded) independent artists in whatever projects I do. When we were figuring out the music or the score for the film, the only name that kept coming to my mind was Swarathma. Their lyrics and music somehow related a lot to the way the situations were shaping up in the film (during the writing process we used to hear their album)! I didn’t know whether they would be interested, but I took the chance and got in touch with their management at Only Much Louder – who were more excited than me to collaborate! And it’s a great feeling to hear and see their music in the film too!

Is the film going to see a theatrical release in India? If yes, when?
Yes, we’re working for a proper release this time around. But there’s a strategy and route-map that we’ve drawn which includes a few film festivals around the globe and then having a release sometime in 2012.

Check out the trailer of Greater Elephant below.

Sunderrajan’s first film, The Untitled Karthik Krishnan Project, featured band-mate Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy in the cast as well. The film was screened at several international film festivals. He also made this.

The seventh episode of the show features Bangalore folk rockers Swarathma who collaborate with Hindustani classical chanteuse Shubha Mudgal. Mysore, the city of Swarathma’s inception, plays host to the artists as they create the song ‘Duur Kinara’ (download here). The episode is now available for streaming in its entirety and in full HD.

Watch ‘Duur Kinara’ below.

The first episode of the show featured Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Imogen Heap who collaborated with Bollywood music producing giants Vishal-Shekhar for the track ‘Minds Without Fear’ (watch here). The second episode featured Pakistani singer-songwriter duo Zeb & Haniya who collaborated with singers Shantanu Moitra and Swanand Kirkire for the track ‘Kya Khayaal Hai’ (watch here). The third episode featured New Delhi rock giants Indian Ocean who collaborate with singer Mohit Chauhan to create the track ‘Maaya’ (watch here). The fourth episode featured rock acts Agnee and Parikrama who collaborate with singer Shilpa Rao to create the song ‘I Believe’. The fifth episode of the series features breakbeat performer Shri, singer-songwriter Monica Dogra, and folk collective Rajasthan Roots in a collaboration titled ‘Changing World’ (watch here). Assamese singer Angaraag ‘Papon’ Mahanta (of Papon & The East India Company) collaborates with Punjabi singer-songwriter Rabbi Shergill in the sixth episode to write and perform the song ‘Khule Da Rabb’ (watch here).

To know more about the show, read this post.