Our Story

We grew up in a condo in Noe Valley, San Francisco. While the house didn't give us a play room, the city of San Francisco did. One of the ways we all kept our sanity was by getting out to the weekly Noe Valley farmer's market, where we enjoyed the live music by local artists (and honey sticks!) every Saturday morning. These memories of the community spirit at the farmer's market are what inspire us to share our music today. We don't believe in downward spirals - we believe in contributing back to the beautiful city we call home, and making it a great place to live and raise a family.

On the way to the market, we would pass by Russo Music on 24th Street. Realizing this family-run studio was within walking distance, our parents began to envision what instruments we might enjoy learning. Rohan was best suited for piano, Shaan seemed to crave the outlet of drums, and Noah was uniquely able to handle guitar despite his young age. Rohan already had a small keyboard, but "Santa" brought a shiny blue drum set and a 3/4 size classic guitar for Christmas in 2014, and the practice began.

We were never asked to play more than 10 minutes per day; our parents focused on building a regular practice habit and dodging the drudgery. The second half of practice time was always reserved for anything we wanted to explore - just having fun, and forgetting about the lesson books. Every summer, we were coaxed to extend our practice by "just 5 minutes" and our parents always "forgot" to scale back the minutes when school started in the fall. Soon we were logging 30-40 minutes 7 days a week, and enjoying it.

We were lucky to move to a bigger house in 2015 and get a dedicated music space and a real piano. Our teacher, Phil Surtees, graciously agreed to continue teaching us at our house, and he put his skills as a composer to use by simplifying some music for us to learn together. Most importantly, Phil patiently helped us make the pivotal jump from playing as individuals to playing in time with each other, which is something we could not have achieved in a studio setting. At our first recital in 2017 at St. Aidan's Episcopal Church, we played our first very simplified group songs: Jana Gana Mana (the Indian national anthem), The Star-Spangled Banner, and The Rose by Amanda McBroom. (You can see all the songs mentioned here on our Concerts page.) With the support of our family and friends who came to hear us play, we were inspired to keep going.

The following year we had another recital in which we showed our progress with some early classic rock pieces: Drive My Car, Let It Be, and American Pie. Sadly, there could be no recital in 2019 as Rohan had to have surgery to remove a benign tumor that was affecting the movement of one of his fingers, and we all know what happened soon after.

San Francisco fell under a "shelter in place" order on March 17, 2020, indefinitely closing schools.  We decided to make lemonade with those lemons. We would typically finish our online schoolwork within 3 hours, and had a lot of free time every day, with only each other for companionship. Instead of boredom and fighting, we became closer than ever as a band and as brothers. We saw an opportunity to become better musicians and share this positivity with others. We came up with the idea of an "April Challenge" in which friends and family could request songs with the promise that we would choose one of the songs to learn and post a recording of by the end of each week. We learned by ear and shared about 15 songs in that time, giving friends and family a way to participate and enjoy our music safely.  When vaccines were finally widely available, we were able to celebrate by hosting an outdoor block party, and we came prepared with a full 90-minute cover set. 

Meanwhile, our teacher Phil had transitioned us to Zoom lessons, helping us select an audio mixer and teaching us how to plug everything in so that we could continue lessons safely.  This proved immensely valuable when we moved to Singapore for our dad's work in June of 2020, as we and the teacher could comfortably continue working together across the ocean.  Most bands in Singapore were not allowed to rehearse or perform together for 2 years, but we could keep playing because we are one household.  When live music was finally allowed to resume in Singapore, we were some of the only musicians in the country ready to perform!  We were asked by The British Club to play a live music set for their new members night in April of 2022.

We moved back to San Francisco in June of 2022, and the experience at the British Club gave us enough credibility to share our music at the Noe Valley Farmer's Market on Labor Day weekend of 2022. We loved coming back to the place that started it all, and having the chance to bring a few minutes of joy, inspiration, and sanity to new parents with toddlers.  A merchant from Haight Street happened to be at the market that day, and recommended us to perform as the opening act of the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, not so far from where Noah got his first electric guitar.  Next up was a dream come true: as huge Warriors fans, we were thrilled to be able to contribute some vibrancy downtown recently with an appearance at the Thrive City lunch series outdoor concerts. 

We have so much to be grateful for, finding opportunity hidden in adversity, and being blessed with the support of such an enriching community. We can only hope that we give back as much as we have received.

Peace -

Swami 3