From organisations promoting rock bands, music camps and fests to a Blues Club of India...are we waking up to a new melody. | |
| Sometime in April this year, a sizeable audience gathered around the amphitheatre at the capital's India Habitat Centre. It began with 400-odd people grooving to the music of Delhi-based bands HFT and Advaita. By the time the concert came to an end, the audience had swelled to at least 800. |
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| "Thank god there are also musically charged people along with musically challenged Delhiites," joked a friend who was at the venue to attend the show. |
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| If Delhiites are straining their ears to listen to jazz, rock, house, blues and underground music, in software hub Bangalore an increasing number of music lovers are huddling together and head-banging at venues where bands are giving audiences yummy slices of their original acts. |
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| And yes, let's not forget the otherwise "conservative" Chennai where rockers are backpacking and heading to destinations for road shows, corporate gigs and pub hopping acts. |
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| Evidently, contemporary Indian music is getting a Western twang, what with a rising number of rock bands. Even more exciting, a select number of individuals are coming together to create clubs, organisations and an increasing number of festivals to desperately create a market for the sounds that they want to promote. |
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| From a Blues Club of India to a non-profit organisation that encourages original, live music acts, to pitching music camps, to even hosting Bob Marley music fests, there's lots happening to promote original acts and attract audiences. |
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| Take "At Home", a once-a-month event organised by Adhiraj Mustafi, a 27-year-old software professional who left his job to "lend a corporate image to different genres of music emerging from promising bands of India". |
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| Says Adhiraj, "I play with the band HFT, and besides promoting bands with original acts, we're trying to educate people into understanding the real Indian music scenario." |
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| Adhiraj's company Prospect Advisory & Management, which started in 2003 to provide design, consultation and music facilities, recently collaborated with a Delhi-based pub to start what's called the Blues Club of India. |
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| "We take space at Haze, a pub in New Delhi, and bring together like-minded musicians and an equally like-minded audience to appreciate blues," he says, though admitting immediately, "It's a humble step and, to be honest, a very small part of our initiative." |
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| While Adhiraj is ambitious enough to model the "humble club" on the lines of Buddy Guy Blues Club, in Bangalore musician Chris Avinash is finalising details based on the overwhelming response he has received to a music camp he will organise in November. Avinash has been promoting an annual fest where rock bands from different MNCs and corporate houses flock together to jam and have some fun. |
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| "I have been holding regular workshops and, yes, with the music camp I plan to bring together some musicians who will perform various styles of music including jazz, blues, rock and such stuff." |
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| Avinash has chalked out the details: he will take a select number of people to the camp and with the help of professional artistes teach people everything about chord progressions, guitar techniques, the difference in music genres including a basic session on Carnatic music, besides tapping other Western music genres. |
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| It will cost Rs 2,500-3,000 per individual to be a part of this camp that will be held for two days, but Avinash plans to screen those who are showing interest in the project. "A lot of corporates are keen but a good number of kids want to be a part of the camp too," he reasons. |
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| Delhi-based guitarist Hitesh Madan feels there may be innumerable events being hosted in India for the promotion of rock music but it's tough to sustain these efforts. "I used to love attending Friends of Music concerts that were organised regularly by Teamwork Productions, but I don't know why they stopped," he says. |
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| "Efforts fail when you don't have the vision," stresses Adhiraj, adding, "The cost of running operations in my company is in lakhs every month, but by the grace of god I've managed to hold shows without begging for sponsorships." |
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| Prospect earns by creating music capsules for various channels including NDTV and designs brochures and organises events for corporates like Maruti and Tata. |
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| "Everything that the company earns is pumped back into shows and the bands' stay and travel arrangements are well taken care of by us," he says. |
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| While "At Home" concerts started with a budget of Rs 2.5 lakh, for a concert where Mumbai-based band Thermal & a Quarter will perform on June 30, the budget will go up to Rs 8 lakh. |
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| If Adhiraj is a fairly new entrant to sprinkle melodies on audiences, in Chennai, eight-year-old Unwind Center has stepped the tempo and started its operations in Bangalore. The organisation is perhaps the only one in the Western music genre to be given the NGO status in India in its efforts to promote original talent in India. |
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| According to Unwind Center's volunteer Ramnath, "We are not here to promote sex, drugs and rock-n-roll." Lijin Thomas Varghese, manager, corporate relations, Unwind Center adds, "Unlike other festivals where drinking and smoking at rock concerts is a norm, our fest discourages such activity completely." |
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| Currently,the organisation is hosting a June rock fest in Chennai and Bangalore. It also hosts LIV 1O1, an event organised twice monthly to promote what Lijin calls "heavy metal, jazz, funk, classic rock, everything minus substance abuse, smoking and alcohol". |
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| Almost all musicians are rooting for the cause of original music. Adhiraj points out, "Indian music companies won't ever touch these artistes because they're so hung up on sales and figures. So someone has to step forward and support these guys. Why, in the north-east, bands are releasing their own albums and selling 10,000 units easily." |
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| He's right. In Shillong, musician Keith Wallang just wrapped up a Bob Marley festival and Roots Festival Unlimited in February to "bring together musicians and audiences from all over the region, the country and abroad for some constructive interaction". |
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| The two-day fest concluded in February and had artistes all the way from Brisbane and Australia, besides Shillong bands, who jammed folk and funk, rock, jazz, blues and even world music. |
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| Wallang runs an event management company called Spring Board Surprises and organises fests through its earnings that come from there. |
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| For those like Adhiraj who were present at the fest, "It's an otherworldly experience as folk artistes play with a variety of indigenous musical instruments that you and I have never ever seen or heard." |
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| The rock act in India has just started getting a new lease of life. Which musical direction are you planning to take? |
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