Point of View is a rock band from Dubai, UAE and they’re heading to India for their first international tour. We caught up with them for an in-depth conversation on their Indian visit, their last album and their endorsement by Bumblefoot. Read on…
Eight Octaves: Greetings from Eight Octaves! Point of View is coming to India on its first international tour. We are all stoked to see you guys here. How do you feel?
Nik (Lead Vocals): I’d like to quote James Brown here. I feel good! Haha! It’s like homecoming for me. I have spent a lot of time on the Mumbai rock scene and I left the scene in 2003. I’m looking forward to meeting old friends and hanging out. Nostalgia is creeping in. And of course I am very excited to see people’s reaction to our music. People in the Middle East have received our music very well. I am sure we will be well received by people in India as well. I wish we had some time. I’d have loved to go to MAMLEDAAR MISAL PAAV hotel near Thane Station and grab some MISAL. I guess we will have to give the MISAL a miss, unless you guys pack some and bring it over to HRC J
Eight Octaves: Haha! Well I guess fans in Mumbai will surely get some for you after reading this. So, you’ll be playing in five cities: Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata in five days. Isn’t it going to be a bit hectic?
Royden (Lead Guitars): If given a choice id play a gig every day of my life. Yes it is hectic but we decided to make the most of the trip as it’s our first one into India as musicians on tour. We are practically playing a gig every night and running between sound check, media interviews, friends, families, etc. on the next day. Sleep is definitely a luxury on this tour. We play our last gig on the 15th June in Calcutta and fly out on 16th June to play a gig in Dubai on the 17th of June. If Bumblefoot could do 2 hour concerts for 4 consecutive days and then land up here in the next 24 hours to tour with us in INDIA then we playing 5 gigs in a row is not such a big deal, right? J
Eight Octaves: Yes, talking about Bumblefoot, you yet again share the stage with Ron in this tour. How would you describe the experience of playing with him and having his support?
Shak (Bass Guitars): Ron is easily one of the most talented and the most humble celebrities we have ever met. Every time we get together with him, it’s just like home. No pretences and just pure unadulterated fun. He knows all our songs note to note and we struggle with his! J The support he gives us is priceless. His association with POINT OF VIEW has opened a lot of doors for us and he actually goes out of his way to promote us. We feel grateful, humbled and overwhelmed. And when we ask him why: He says he likes us and he likes our music. We pretty much have nothing more to say J
Eight Octaves: Point of View is also endorsed by Ron, the first band in UAE to get a celebrity endorsement. How did it work out?
Chiro (Drums): Nik our vocalist wrote to Ron in 2010. It was a random note about how we loved their gig in Abu Dhabi. Unlike most celebrities Ron’s email etiquette is worth mentioning. He actually takes time out to reply to almost every email he gets. He replied back and then Nik and Ron kept in touch. Somewhere down the line Ron heard our music and he was very forthcoming in telling us how much he liked it. Other than that, we share the same passion for charity as Ron. He offered to come down for our launch and not only did he come down but played all our songs with us on stage and did a much better job of it than all of us J Since then, there has been no looking back. We are working on a lot of stuff together for the next album and for future projects / gigs etc.
Eight Octaves: Your debut effort, ‘Revolutionize The Revolutionary’, offers us a really powerful and exotic hard rock sound and has some really promising material. How has the response been so far?
Murtaza (Lead Guitars): The album’s doing pretty well. We have sold a lot of copies back in the UAE and we have some serious downloads happening. Our core audience for downloads happens to be Indonesia, Brazil and Argentina and I’m guessing it’s because of the Bumblefoot/GNR connection. Having said that, we all come from different musical backgrounds; I come from a very Blues & Funk background. I initiated a huge Pink Floyd Tribute that we do every year in Dubai. I also love the 90’s grunge era and my style emulates that kind of sound. Royden comes from a Classical Guitar background. He’s a graded musician and listens to everything from Richard Marx to Lamb of God. Together we have managed to get a very unique sound for the band. It’s a mix of Vintage with aggressive metal riffs; so it’s hard rock with a tinge of metal power. And yes we all loved the 90’s. That justifies all the guitar solos on most of the songs. We are very keen on knowing the response to the record from our Indian audiences.
Eight Octaves: That’s good to know! POV also won the awards for Best Music Act in Dubai and Most Commendable Gig in Dubai at the Timeout Dubai Music And Nightlife Awards 2013. Please share your feelings with our readers.
Chiro (Drums): Our feelings! Haha!! Well we have never believed in awards really. We have been around for 8 years now. No one ever gave us an award even for keeping the band together for so long. Haha!! So any award coming our way right now is well received. At least we can tell our grandchildren that your grandfather was a part of an Award winning band, even if it was not a Granny.. I mean Grammy ! On a more serious note, The Timeout Nightlife & Music Awards are probably the most credible awards in the industry and we are glad we double whammied it.
Eight Octaves: The lyrical themes of your songs are mostly on social issues like corruption, greed, racism, etc. To what factors would you attribute the selection of such themes?
Nik (Lead Vocals): Shak is from Bangladesh, but he has spent a good amount of his student life in Bangalore. Murtaza is from Pakistan. Me, Royden and Chiro are from India. We all come from countries that have seen enough turmoil. Corruption, Crime, Castism, Classism, Poverty, Social Ignorance, Religious Intolerance etc are deep rooted in our systems and we do not realize that our whole lives pass by one day and we think its ok to be in that system. Until you step out of it and realize how much shit you actually were in. We live in Dubai. Dubai is a kingdom. It’s not a democracy but amongst the Arab countries it’s probably as free, if not more free than even INDIA, in terms of every aspect of life. Every time I come home to India I see people breaking traffic rules. I see people spitting on roads from their expensive cars. I see population rising. I see women being disrespected. I read about children being raped. I see hard working people dying of heart attacks at young ages due to work pressure and stiff competition. I see people paying taxes but getting nothing in return in terms of infrastructure. I see corruption at its peak. I see people making loads of money but still lack civic sense and class. I feel our education system is failing us. We are making scholars but we are not giving lessons of basic behaviour to our kids. Despite all this, I hate to see that most Asian’s have this CHALTA HAI type of attitude. I see things that contradict the message that we give out to the world that INDIA is shining.
Our music is all about how we feel and how the youth which is the future should start working now, to fix it. Change is bound to come but if our music can even make a 0.1 % contribution to this change, then we are happy that we wrote this album. Yes but there is one love song on the album for all the chicks to go and buy it and then realize what a bad investment this was! Haha!
Eight Octaves: How’s the local music scene out there in Dubai?
Shak(Bass Guitars): Vibrant. Multi ethnic. Appreciative. Clannish. Encouraging. Just like any other country.
Eight Octaves: That’s great! Have you tried listening to any Indian artists lately? If yes, who would be among your favourites?
Nik (Lead Vocals): Ive listened to a lot of stuff in the last few years. I love THEM CLONES from Delhi and TAAQ from Bangalore. I used to like PENTAGRAM till they went the whole Electronica way. I have been enjoying two new bands. Adil & Vasundhara from Delhi and Spud In The Box from Mumbai. Of late one of the best records I heard was the Indus Creed record. Great production. Very different than the old Indus Creed. The boys are getting older but they are getting better J
Eight Octaves: Finally, what are your plans after you wrap up with this tour?
Murtaza (Lead Guitars): We land in Dubai on the 16th of June 2013 (late night). Get some sleep and head into a crazy ass gig the very next day, called THE FRIDGE CONCERT SERIES with Bumblefoot. He travels back with us. We then take a little break for a month while we keep doing showcases in Dubai. We are scheduled to travel to NYC, The Far East (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand & Indonesia) in the latter part of the year, so we will start planning that. We want to come back to India and play the North Eastern sector (Shillong, Guwahati and more). And yes we start recording the second album in the middle of all this. So yes, there is plenty on our plates, I guess.
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