say "Peace!"

Mr. Bee, a musician who plays for Teddy Boy Kill, recently quoted that "artists, musicians etc., comprise less than 1% of the Indian population." and I agree with him.

Miss Blah, a singer with the band Tempo Tantrick, says "we're all wannabes". I agree with her as well.

Mr. Dasgupta, Bass player for Swarathma, suggests modestly that "you won't be treated as a professional band unless you behave like one". I agree with him as well.

As you can see, my interaction levels with other musicians have increased and it's great to hear these things from experienced musicians. What they all say is true in its own context. There are very few musicians, very few writers and very few artists. This creative population is very small and I still think they should dedicate some of their time to battle with the government for a minority status and ask for reservation, quota's etc. But, they don't seem to be very interested in these things.

By definition, an artist is one who exhibits exceptional skill in the fine arts and usually uses this ability to earn a living.

What we forget is there is a huge population of those trying to master certain skills. The wannabes, the could-bes and the would-bes. This population is definitely not a minority. There're a large number of people who're trying very hard to make their passion into a fortune, because at the end of the day, survival is necessary.

Through bad break-ups, rehab, bar brawls, fiction, lack of an audience and strings that snapped on stage we have realized that a gig needs to be more than just a gig. It needs to be an experience. Something that opens your mind and engulfs your senses and we're not talking about brain-washing.

We started experimentation soon after freedom jam, which i must report to say was not all that great. We lived out a dream and were happy about that but just one and a half songs on stage means we only have one and a half reasons to be happy(as Anand put it). Lack of organization and impatience can really drive people up the wall but that has sort of been the signature trait of Freedom Jam and the likes of it.

Sick of all this, we headed off to a jungle for our first ever Clean&Green gig. An all acoustic jam, out in the jungle. About 40people joined us at this gathering a little outside the city and here's a few photos of it -

We also got a new band member. He was officially induced a few weeks before our show at Kyra. Ashish Sharma is a psyched out guy. He knows no instruments yet and I've never heard him sing. What he is good at is not knowing what he's doing. He's worked with me as a cinematographer on many occasions. He's with us now, full time as a video artist. He does visuals which are projected on us at our live shows. His visuals emote the music. He bring a whole new dimension to the band. The visual experience. We're still in stages of experimentation of this new dimension. We're still trying to make it a live performance as well. But for now this is what we've done -

Thats part one of the song. I'm sure you'll find part two somewhere around there. There's another version of the song on facebook, taken by another mobile camera.

This was a tricky experiment we were doing, think about it; experimenting on a respected platform such as Kyra isn't something every band would do. But, we were rewarded for trying. In this day and age, of speed and internet, people actually took time off to watch the entire 14minute video of really bad quality(resolution of 176x98, i think) and not just that, we were appreciated for it. The music was compared to Radiohead and early Pink Floyd, all of which is very flattering but personally I don't think we've reached that level yet.

We did forget one very crucial element at Kyra. Think I'll keep it a surprise for our next show, all i'd say for now is "think band merchandise".

Kyra established certain things for us. It proved our instinct right. It told us we're heading in the right direction. It told us we need to keep at it whole heartedly. It told us that the visuals work, but need to be refined. It told us the same things every story with a happy ending tells you - its not over yet.

Over the past few months, we've made new friends, we've been called names and we've had cop trouble. But the best part is, that we get a lot of advice. From every direction. We get support and people have told us to keep at it.

I guess thats what professionals do. I guess thats what artists, musicians, writers do best. Keep at it.

Among all this, we mourn the loss of a superwoman. The co-owner of opus and inspiration to thousands; someone we've interacted with very shortly yet loved. Gina, we salute you when we cry out with a thousand other voices and say as you would have, "the show must go on".

peace!

of good beginnings and bad roads

Today, we turn on month old. And that is a lot considering the kind of musicians we know, extremely skilled ones. But, that isn't the problem, more than a good musician you need someone you get along with otherwise as well, someone you can JAM with and thats hard to come across.

But, all that happened a month ago and we played at the Barista in Garuda Mall in Bangalore. It was a show without a drummer, just 3 acoustic guitars and a vocalist. This was a great first gig considering we are heavily influenced by the acoustic guitar. We did our bit and had a good time. We were told that we would be given coffee and some food dor playing the gig and it was quite a sweet deal. We played, we ate, we drank and at the end of it all we were psyched...good psyched.

We heard of the "Rockathon" that's happening in the city and decided to register. We were given 3 slots but ended up playing four. We are supposed to get paid for that and it'll work out soon i guess. We spent the most amount of money on the parking, yes it exceeded our food expenses. The hippie inside us wanted the rockathon to be in some open-air field where we could pitch tents and woodstock would be revived, but then again that's asking too much from the government.

We then at the Bulls-Unplugged gig at Opus, Bangalore. This was a very important mile marker; because we had fun. We had a bunch of friends there in the audience and some unknown people at other tables yet, the place was quite empty but it was still a lot of fun. What came out of the show was a recording from the sound-console, the stuff that's put up on the profile page. It wasn't just a recording it was a mirror that showed us how we sound and what we need to work on. That recording was featured on opus' online radio channel. Allthough it's not the greatest recording, its a first.

Today, we turn a month old. We played at exactly the same barista with one lil' change - 2 guitars, 1 bass, 1 vocalist. Thats four people. But our soul wasn't in it. At the very first note we knew this would be the most dead-beat, boring performance and it was. The place had gotten to us. The orange and fake-wood interiors, the plastic people, the "mall-culture" oozing from every corner and the wannabes. It destroyed the zest for music; ut made us sleepy. It was the kind of soul torture you would feel in purgatory. Don't get me wrong here, we were kicked about this show. It was at really short notice but we were really looking forward to it. We'd put in the hours jamming to make it work but the venue was just the biggest turn-off. What made things worse was the organizers left immideatly afterwards and all they gave us was one coffee. One bloody cuppa.

We know how the ladder looks from below and we're trying to climb it the hard way but that is no way to treat a band. When you say we get some food and coffee to play an hour long set, you better live up to it. I agree we weren't upto standards but we still played the best we could. We kept the crowds entertained.

I guess we're expecting too much from the corporate goons that run the world. But, then again the world never gives you what you want and sometimes you don't like what the world gives you. You go to bed wondering what the city of dreams has in store for tomorrow. It's a constant battle and tomorrow the world will forget you.

Peace.

In pursuit of Beautiful-ish things

The plan has always been quite clear. Get a gig, find your band members, jam (or not) and go play. But, that's what you'd do when you've a band. Of late, we seemed to have a band member less. With Abhinav's doctors cutting down his jam time thanks to tinnitus(his ear condition, constant buzzing, very painful); he dicided to dedicate the little jam time he has to his band, Inner Sanctum. Mucho respect senor.

So with a week left for our unwind show, we headed out to find a shiny new drummer. As luck would have it, we did find one right outside our house. Some guy we randomly knew said he'd started drumming and had a kit about 20mins away. So we went over and jammed. Although the jam was good, he was kinda creepy.

So, we were left less than a week and still no drummer. At this time we got on to facebook and all the wonderful contacts we had on our phones to find a drummer. We got in touch with some random people but with no response. Then there was Aditya. An old friend of mine (Pranav), the guy i'd first gone up on stage with back in school to play "hotel california". So, i called the guy over, introduced him to the band, smoked a coupla' greens and got down to jamming. Neither he nor us have a kit so for that jam he used a wooden board to do percussions on, followed that up with a coupla jam sessions at unwind center before we found heaven.

Heaven to us is a place in Hennur called "the Jam Hut". It is the ideal jam hut. for 200bucks an hour you get a well padded garage with a cut, some huge speakers, an able mixer and Gerry(the owner) lets you smoke, booze and what not. The jam we had that day was without a doubt the best jam we've had. We saw that Adi was having fun so we knew we had our drummer.

Knowing very well that we are a psychedelic experience, we made sure the audience has a similar experience as well. so we set up live visuals to be projected on us while we play. The result you can see on the video that will be up soon.

So, what are we looking for next? more shows, more psychedelic collaborations, more new music and a lot more fun. What we really want to do is involve other types of artist, painters, illustrators, dancers to bring their art-form to our stage and collaborate with us.

And if you're a tree, please just get on stage the next time we play. I just like trees.

will the big and bad be ugly also?

Fredom Jam cometh!

For those who don't know, freedom jam is Bangalore's little woodstock, or atleast it used to be until the authorities come down on us big time. But, the scene is picking up and all looks good.

Well, almost.

You see, Aditya was sick and in the hospital. All this while the papers went on about the number of deaths due to swine flu. Now, we ll know adi's no pig so we figured he'd l've tough it.

Freedom jam was the place i first saw a BIG stage. I mean, this thing was huge! You had no other purpose there but to look up at bands that came and belted out their tunes! At a small corner at the back of everyones heads was one thing and one thing only - HOW THE FUCK DO I GET UP THERE?!!

That question rang loud in my head, louder than "hmmm...how can i get high now?" and they were both answered by the very people who were up there, on that big stage! They got me high AND told me how to get up there. Now, I won't just tell you what they told me. No, that wouldn't be very ritualistic.

But, I've been in that crowd and I know what it feels like; this sunday I will be up there, hopefully. And when we do play, if these two questions do ring in your head, ask me.

In other news, the organizers were quite pleased about our band but wanted explanation for our genre. They wanted to know if psychedelic rock was just normal rock under the influence of psychedelics and if so would we be carrying any (sigh, take a deep breath, it still not over) and if so would we share it with them.

Talk about a band image.

But, quite a happy bunch they are so it was all a matter of humor. But, weirdly so, I don't have any definition for our genre. Psychedelic rock is classified as music made under the influence of, for the people under the influence of... Not the same in our case. But, hey! of our music is a treat to you while you're under the influence of, have a good trip and peace man!