Improbably Stupid.

There are two things we have grown used to accept about gigs, concerts and Rock performances in Bangalore. Improbability and someones mind-boggling stupidity. We've consulted many astrologers, numerologists and even psychic-parrots on the roadside and the verdict is as stupid and improbable as the events that occur in itself.

Inexperienced sound engineers( to be read as "pissed off because I've to sit here all day and help bands who don't know anything about their instruments, amps or effects processors only to be blamed for bad sound afterward") start right at the top. Very often have we landed up on a MASSIVE stage with some pretty good sound equipment around and then comes along a soundie who hikes up the delay when we ask for a little reverb. Send over your own sound guy to the console and these guys loose it. Attacks on ego, inappropriate comments and eventually bad sound are what we end up with. Though on the flip side of things you get this humble chap, who will step out with you for a smoke before the sound-check, try and understand what the band and their music is about, personally help us set up on stage and the finish us off with the right amount of tweaking during the performance. Once we met a soundie who also owned the company that did sound, he did the most running around I've seen a sound vendor do.

Then there's the sound vendor(read as, "i bought all this equipment because lots of people wanted to hire them"). Sound vendors are fascinating people. I think everyone should interact with a few of them once in a lifetime at least. their optimism and confidence should be an example to every human alive. They'll never say, "No, that can't be done". Never. But, you'd almost never meet a vendor at a gig. All his minions will run around trying to figure out which cable goes in where and it is usually completely improvised and experimental. The outcome of this is sometimes disastrous and results in exploding equipment, full-body electrocution and under rare circumstances impotency. I would at this point like to remind you of the soundie we met, who was also the vendor and did all that necessary running around. Fabulous man, will introduce you to him sometime.

I'm not even going to enter the event organizers' domain. They're very hard-working people who've way too many things going on while they're making plans for so many more things. Simply, they need to get more people to help them out. They face more improbably stupid things than i can imagine.

Cops. Need I say more? Expect to be randomly raided, busted or conned into a fine. Hey, they're just doing their job yeah.

And finally there's us.

Of all the billions of people, it is quite highly unlikely that the 6 people in this band met and decided to create an audio-visual experience. It might be considered quite stupid for us to give up the regular sing-a-song routine for our upcoming shows and move to completely improvised sets.

Obviously, we'd like to be jamming with other musicians and we might play a few of our songs, but the sets will be mostly improvised, on-the-spot jams.

Our recording plans are taking shape and we're proud to announce the track-list of our untitled debut album -

• Surya
• Boom Shankar(live)
• Chaos Theory
• Lucid Dreaming
• Sensory Overload
• Untitled track 01

 This, obviously, is in no particular order and is subject to change depending on the fickle mindset of the space-monkey.

Its all a cosmic conspiracy i tell you, but we're in it and are used to it if nothing. Times are changing, they will get better.

Thank you for flying with us.

Peace!

The right time

" in a moment that belongs to you,
a memory will be born,
one that will take you forward,
with no regret or remorse.

Death will be a guest,
when the rains would come.
They take away the lights
only to give your pyre more burn"
                            - R.I.P Zoom 606

Death was least expected on that day. But, while we just about finished playing "Chaos Theory" at the big mushroom cloud festival, i looked up to see the crowd going helter-skelter and wondered, "wow! we couldn't be THAT bad", only to realize that it had started raining. I looked around to find the other guys from the band returning home from that outro that we were lost in. I heard Karan's voice on the monitor grow, " guys, we've to stop. Guys! please wind up. Machaaaa, its raining, please stop playing..." and so he repeated, we couldn't stop for some reason and then we did.

It had started raining sometime in the middle of the second part and we hadn't realized. We didn't realize that some of the lights that were facing us had blown up and that Sadhu's guitar had gone off because the pedal had died. We tried everything possible but that was that. The Zoom 606 i had bought a few years ago as a "kid who's kinda into guitars" had finally met its death on stage. Dramatic!

Sometimes you don't expect shit like that to come by. You don't expect that you'll get calls from people saying they want to write about you and you don't expect people from different countries e-mailing to tell you how they'd like to jam with us. These things are hard to digest but its the truth.

The Oresund Space Collective is a band that we've looked up to in the past couple of weeks and we love what they're pumping out. Dr. Space and everyone with him is doing a fantastic job taking us to different parts of space with their music. They're a band we're really digging and they're mainly from Denmark. We hit 'em up on myspace and gave them the obligatory friend request thinking that it would be another one of those fan created pages, but who knew, Dr. Space himself was managing the page! His comments on the Drones from the Turbine page have greatly humbled us and we're trying our best to have a jam with him and the rest of the space collective soon.

Other gigs are coming up in Bangalore and other cities as well. Think we should play in your city? shoot us an e-mail, see if you can help us. We're having a little trouble finding our way to the studio but as soon as we learn to read the map, we'll let you know for sure.

Long overdue are a few recordings we caught hold of from our night at Fete De La Musique (here's the article in case you missed it). Here they are in no particular order -

Chaos Theory (Live @ fete de la musique, Bangalore) by dronesfromtheturbine

Lucid Dreaming (Live @ fete de la musique, Bangalore) by dronesfromtheturbine
 
Un titled (Sound check @ fete de la musique) by dronesfromtheturbine

See you at a show near you.

peace and love! 

A year to celebrate

Well, its been a year. A year of jamming and making music and trashing songs and making a million plans of doing a million things and playing many many shows. Its been a year of havoc nonetheless and its been a great year for sure and what a way to celebrate it. Yes i am talking about The Big Mushroom Cloud Festival of course. Some really good times these were, with many many bands that joined us on stage and off and some that even "battled" their way into our hearts.

To start with, we treated ourselves and our very eager drummer to a not-so-shiny drum kit. We've all waited for toys that we've always wanted and our kul-mute(in kannada = little gunnybag) has waited a real long time for this but its finally here. We're also back to our birthplace, the "room" in canara bank layout and we won't tell how good it feels.

Jams have been scarce with exams and work pressures, somehow the shows have also been scarce. But its okay really, The Live Gig Networks have helped us a lot in the past few months and there are more plans coming up.

As i said in the start of the year, The Bicycle Days did come out with their EP. Well produced and some intense concept revolving around in there. No matter what anyone says, its simply trippy. I like all the songs and the hidden track vain gloria reminds me of the first time i looked up their myspace page and started conversing with Karthik. Good times. Their schedule is pretty much full so you can catch them live and really experience their music. Check 'em out on myspace or get in touch with them on facebook.

Clipped Wing Satellite put out more songs and a phenomenal performance at the big mushroom cloud. As much as i would want to hear some vocals on their tracks(i've been trying some as well), i somehow seem to appreciate and enjoy their music without it.

Bangalore seems to house a lot of bands some with real talent. I just wish they get a little less serious and start playing music because they want to. Seriousness and commitment is a must, i agree, but if you're not having fun out there, whats the point really?

Anyways, next on the agenda is a book reading. Ashok Malhotra, an Indian author is launching his book called Child Man - The Selfless Narcissist and is having a sort of a performance with a few actors from Rafiki. They thought we could add a little color to their performance with some light acoustic music. We did go jam with them once and it was quite something. The book is quite interesting, it tries to understand the human psyche through characters from the Mahabharata. Facebook RSVP here.

We're finally getting to play at the world music day celebrations at Alliance Francaise, also known as fete de la musique. More on that soon.

Lastly, for those who've asked enough and are bugged, we will go into recording soon. This is probably one thing we don't want to hurry and at the same time we're not trying to slack of either. It'll happen and trust me, we're all waiting for it as well.

Much love and peace!

p.s. it really really sucks ass that they might chop off all those trees in Sadashivnagar because someone wants a 6lane road that connects cauveri theatre to yashwantpur.sad.

Introducing the Turbine....briefly.

The past few months have been a blur. Not just because of all the hallucinogens but with the number of shows and the kind of response we've been getting. We've not said no to any gig, except for the ones at malls or the "battle of the bands". We weren't at NITK for the same reason. So what have we been up to?

Well, to start with we had our first out-station gig in January. Pondicherry was kind enough to accommodate us in their hearts and festivities. So we headed down to the lovely city in our beloved Turbine. We drove down overnight, doing stupidities such as turning off the headlights on the newly constructed Hosur Rd. fly-over at about 100km/h and loosing our way and doing about 50kms more than necessary. What really took the cake was taking a turn onto the wrong side of the road, unintentionally of course, while the Turbine roared to 120km/h while we all sat in the car wondering why everyone else was going in the opposite direction. Yes, death was a probability, but it hovered over the head of a little kitten that ran right under our wheels. An extreme sadness took over us at that time.

The sun came to our rescue and cheered us up. We stopped randomly just to watch the sun rise. All night long we listened to the newly discovered Krautrock and post-rock bands that tripped us out with all that smoke. Pondicherry was a very welcoming city. With people lined up at the side of the highway, their bare behinds sticking out and screaming SHIT! at anyone who passed by.

Pondy was a delightful city. Bright, chirpy and all smiles. People are generally open-minded and happy. The Government is open-minded and happy. They don't frown upon things like women going into a bar in the afternoon to grab a beer. At the same time, they have their problems too but they treat life the way life should be - a peaceful fiesta for the mind and soul.

After a visit to Qualithe Inn with a few of our friends who traveled there to support the event, a few drinks down(taquila is 35bucks a shot!!), a smoke on beach road. We met up Pk's parents for more drinks and eventually lunch.

By late evening, we were absolutely wired from the lack of sleep, all that alcohol and smoke. It was the right time to get on stage.

When we got to the Beach Road we saw how huge the festival really was! 4 HUGE stages! each catering to its own audience. It looked like the entire city plus a shit load of tourists were there, for music, for fun, for the lights, for the entertainment and for freedom.

The stage was great. the sound set-up was crazy. All those who were there making the show possible were there because they love music. old music, new music, fresh music, stale music. They loved everyone who loved music as well.

Our return to Bangalore was marked with a show with Lounge Piranha and Sulk Station. This was called upon by the generous people at Lounge Piranha and Unwind Center. We dutifully thank Lounge for trying to give us a boost in the music scene and apologies for any inconvenience we caused that day. Although sulk has some insane material, they could do a lot more live, not just with the stage presence but with the music as well.

February kept us busy. It was the busiest month we've had so far I guess. With Our first gig invitation from Kyra but our first gig was an acoustic set at 64, a lazy loungy homely bar.

The acoustic set was apt. A few of us from the band had just returned from a peace trip to Gokarna on Maha Shivratri. There was a party on the beach for Valentines day as well and unlike the commercial V-Day that we see in Bangalore, this was just a gathering of people, sitting around a huge fire and singing and playing songs and everyone was there to celebrate the concept of love. Not give each other roses or greeting cards.

64 feels great. Its homely and has a big blue door that is shut after you enter. The sound system is very basic and there was no drum kit, so we brought out Adi's shiny new Djembe. 64 was kind enough to let us put up art on their walls and windows and every corner we could find. So we filled up the place with paintings by Pia Rajendran and a few photographs by Adi and Pk.

Kyra asked us to perform on a Thursday. We picked the last Thursday, just so that we have time to prepare a lot more. The stage at Kyra has been good to us, if not the hospitality. We get great sound and also get to do a lot of interesting things especially since the stage was designed to cater to more than one need. So we decided to bring out the big guns. New music, new visuals, we dressed up for the stage and Anand even wore a hat. But we wished we were dealing with people and not corporates when we deal with Kyra. Rajeev is a good man with a great vision, hence Kyra. Its supposed to be a place that promotes music. I don't know what omen rests upon them that they've left many bands who've performed there with a bad after-taste.

Nevertheless, the music, the visuals, the lasers, the lights, the sound and all the preparations paid off at Kyra.We had a great time and Shimrei gave us excellent sound.

Next up, was what felt like a private show to us. We climbed two floors to a very red Suberbia which was quite packed with all our friends. It was a fun show, very simple and although the acoustics aren't the greatest, the company was really worth it. It was awesome to have a smoke on the terrace with practically everybody who'd dropped in, then go down and play songs for the same people. The lines between smokes and jams got blurred that we were sitting upstairs with an acoustic guitar smoking and jamming with everyone standing around by the end of the night. Even the poster the designed for the event was kick ass!

Through all of these shows, we have reached out to more people. We've discovered a lot more music and have made many more friends. But whats been surprising is that at every show we find someone new and totally unexpected coming up to tell us they had a good time and somehow that seems to be a great consolation to everything that isn't working for us.

What we have in store for us in march is very unclear. We're always looking to do something new, so take a chance and send out any ideas you have.

Peace and love!

Strange Frequencies

Cheers! To the start of a new year.

After a grinding halt to our gigging spree in December, we're finally back. December was a month we had to take off, stop the music and turn off the lights. But it was a crazy month after all. With the onslaught of VTU exams, final year project submissions, jobs and BFA classes we hardly had time to tune guitars.

This dead time was quite a torture for all of us. We were suddenly not playing any shows, not jamming and not making music. It is true, once the stage-bug bites you, you're done for. The craving to get back on stage is a soft buzzing bee at the back of your head telling you that you don't really have anything to look forward to. Bad sound, the lack of a projector, broken guitar strings; these were problems that didn't exist in December and that kinda sucked.

We took our vacations after all this academic tension passed and did our own thing, yet constantly planning things for our next show(whenever that would be) in our minds, only looking forward to riding that bumpy road to jam hut.

Now that gig season has reopened for us, we're looking at implementing all those ideas and detailing every little thing that we'd thought of, including the purchase of a tuner. A special thanks to all of Adi's friends who were thoughtful enough to gift him a djembe for his birthday.

The days have rolled on as we approach our first real stage of 2010 tomorrow(22nd January) at Unwind Center. For the first time we share stage with artists who play a similar genre of music - Lounge Piranha and Sulk Station; and for the first time you will get to listen to some new material we've been working on.

The very next day we leave to Pondicherry to play and support Freedom Jam. This also happens to be our first out station tour and we personally feel its a great place to start.

Things to look out for in 2010 -

• The Bicycle days' EP
• Clipped Wing Satellite's EP
• Sand Animation Vs. Visual projections at an up-coming show
• DFTT playing different cites across India(hopefully the world)
• Our not-so-shiny Demo
• and lots of peace

Also, we're open to public opinion. So if you think you know a place we should play a gig at or you think we can do a part of our song differently or you just want to tell us how bad we are, e-mail us on dronesfromtheturbine@gmail.com

There's a strange intuitive buzz about the year 2010; a very crazy buzz. With hope in our hearts and peace in our minds, we hope that you do your bit in propagating some peace and spreading the word of good music.

peace and love!

In black and white...maybe a few other colors as well.

We received our first paycheck last night and we were too tired to do anything but smile. We were tired, hungry, blown and extremely dazed. There have been times when you really don't know if you've had a good day or not and yesterday was one of those.

To be fairly honest, to ourselves mostly, we're not a college competition band. It is true that in India, most bands are formed to play college fests and competitions. One of the most talented metal bands from Bangalore released an EP recently with a total play length of 14mins. No matter how fucking amazing those 14mins are, it still just proves one point - college fests are culprits for many of the crappy bands out there.

20mins is premature ejaculation in terms or music. 20mins makes happy sound-guys cranky. 20mins on-stage to off-stage is the reason bands make 3minute songs. 20mins is the reason song structures have stagnated over the years and 20mins is the reason for a lot more misery than what's just been mentioned.

But, hey who am I to stop college students from trying in some way to contribute to the music scene. I know how retarded one can feel while pitching the concept of a rock show to a principal who's as old as this country has been free. They don't understand what "Sound-check" is. They don't know who Jimi Hendrix is and of course they don't know what metal is. Electronica is a concept still by far unknown to the average joe, let alone the head of the college. What I do know, is that college-people are suckers for competition. They Like acknowledging and rewarding talented young peoples of the youths for the wonderous works and demonstrations of their skills in the various extra curricular activities.

That is the hard truth. Art, Music, Dance, Acting and even advertising is an Extra-curricular activity.

Yesterday was a tiring day because we attended and performed at a college fest. A competition at that.Yes, we walked the whole 9yards and played those 20mins. We played even though the sound guy couldn't recognize that he was having earthing problems and asked our guitarist to play without his effects pedal. We played the 20mins to a few friends who'd traveled all the way to watch and support us and the judges and the students who'd put all this together and to the cowboy-wannabe who was deep-throating a pen like there was no tomorrow.

When it was done, we were left with half the satisfaction. Although we had what people claimed to be a pretty tight set, we weren't sure if we were up to the standards - standards of the competition, standards of the judges. How the hell do you "standardize" music? No matter how experienced a judge is, he/she can not  move beyond their own sensory perception to understand what the band in front of him/her is trying to do and most definitely not in 20mins.

Anyways, these are exactly the things that left us puzzled. Whats even more confusing is that the metal band I mentioned earlier is going to be one of the headlining acts of this year. Last year, they didn't even make it to the finals.

What was kick ass about yesterday though was all the band bonding that happened. People were introduced and new friends made. Drinks were shared and smokes passed around while death metal and psychedelia stood in the same circle with the classic rock boys.

Here's to the hope that we'll get to the finals.

Peace bro!

Half a year and half the glass full

Sometime this week I realized the band was 6 months old. The journey so far has been anything but boring and uneventful. From shabby little acoustic gigs in ungrateful mall coffee shops to our personal hollow victories at the so called big stages that have long lost their charm we have remained happy, high and always optimistic.

The good shows are lot more in number these days and therefore clinging onto our optimism has paid off. Gigs like Clean and green, Jaaga and Kyra have enabled us to find and solidify our sound. The most recent gig, which was held at Legends of Rock, was nothing short of a really good gig.  

As usual we showed up for sound check late and had a few technical problems before we started. The staff at LOR were really nice and took care of all our needs. The food and the drinks were great and the band couldn't have been more thankful. Sound check done and we were all set.

 We got ready on stage and watched our friends pile up at the tables close to us. They have always been around for our gigs and to be surrounded by them is comforting. The house was packed and everyone had settled in. There is always a certain smell there that makes you feel like your in the 70's. The songs rolled on with the crowd getting more and more into it after every song.

By the time we played the last three songs the crowd had geared up. There were people in the back with their eyes closed and swaying to the music. Our friends, all lined up near the stage, were shouting out our names and poking fun at our stage act. We, as a band, were having a blast.

The gig finally ended and we were approached by 2 guys for our first ever fan photo. We gladly obliged and stood there like a bunch of idiots while they took pictures. The staff gave us a nice big table and enough food to satisfy our appetites. We thanked everyone and headed out home. This had been a very good day. Lets see what the next 6 months has in store.