The band A Life of Riley, featuring Tufts senior Rahul Kulkarni on lead guitar, recently won a $25,000 record deal with Rock X Records. Their victory is still unofficial at the moment as nothing is signed yet, but it should be announced on April 1.
A Life of Riley entered the Gorilla Productions competition last summer and has consistently held the lead throughout the contest's four rounds, which included two battles of the bands and two online voting contests. The last round of online voting took place during February. At the end of the month, A Life of Riley had over 18,000 votes, beating the second-place band by over 3,000 votes. Kulkarni credits his band's fan base for the recent success, citing the people who made a point of voting daily for A Life of Riley as a huge help.
"It had completely to do with word of mouth," Kulkarni said, "Our fan base has been incredibly dedicated ... even though they have nothing to benefit from it besides seeing a band they like do well."
The band's prize includes 200 hours of recording at the Rock X Records studio in Cleveland, Ohio, and a 35-city, all-expenses-paid tour. A Life of Riley plans to use the studio time to record its third album. Kulkarni says the band already has a few songs written, and has been experimenting with different genres of music such as samba and R&B for its next album. The first two A Life of Riley albums are available on iTunes.
A Life of Riley is an eight-member band out of Bridgewater, N.J., that formed in 2004. Nearly half of its members have graduated from school, but for those like Kulkarni who had planned to continue their educations, winning the record deal has its downsides.
"I'm looking forward to taking a break from academia ... but it's a double-edged sword," Kulkarni said, "My whole life was lined up for me being here next year ... so it's kind of upsetting but at the same time extremely exciting. This is what I've been wanting forever."
Kulkarni says the band plans to return to the Boston area after the tour. Until then, those interested in acoustic jam may want to check out A Life of Riley at www.myspace.com/alifeofriley.
