On Thursday 27 October The Henley College was treated to a special music event from Indie Rock band Sundara Karma. Band members, Dom Cordell (bass guitar) and Haydn Evans (drums) studied at The Henley College but the band had first got together with Ally Baty (guitar) Oscar Lulu (vocals and guitar) when they were just 14 when they were all at the Oratory School.
Last year the band got their first record deal and their album Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect will be released on 6 January 2017. Dom studied BTEC course in Business while Haydn studied a BTEC course in Creative Media Production. None of the band studied music but lead singer Oscar Lulu gave advice to young bands wanting to make it in the music industry: “Find out exactly what it is you want. Once you realise this – stick to it. Don’t let others steer you away.”
The band played main stage at Reading and Leeds Festival in August this year and opened the set at Henley College with Indigo Puff before playing their new single Olympia followed by Flame, Deep Relief, Waves and finishing with Loveblood. The band kick started their US tour in New York this month and will return home in February 2017 for their UK tour.
Lynn Jenkins, the Head of the Faculty of Science, was Dom’s personal and Business studies tutor and said, “I tried to encourage Dom to go to Uni and he had offers to go which he’s deferred twice already. I tried to dissuade him from trying to make it in music industry! It’s lovely to see Dom and I am so pleased that they’ve given up their day off today to come and play to the students.”
First year Henley College student Bethany Peters, who is 16 and lives in Slough is studying Music Technology, Photography and Film Studies A Levels and said, “The band were lovely and super friendly! The event was fun and allowed us to have a positive end to the half term. The Q&A with the band after the performance showed us that the music industry is more complicated than most people think and that you have to work hard to be successful.” Bethany took photographs of the performance to help gain experience with photographing live events and to help with build her Photography A Level portfolio.
Find out more information about the band at: http://www.sundara-karma.co.uk/.
