Editorial - 8octaves Music

September 26, 2013

September 26, 2013September 12, 2022 Varun Khatri

The Abbey Road Album and the Indian Music Scene

A great man once said, The Beatles ‘are more popular than Jesus’. Well, I don’t know about that, but their influence on us has been so huge that even after 44 years of them recording their last album, their presence can still be felt around us. Be it a mention in some song by some band or a poster hanging around in some café or one of their 213 songs being played in any of the pubs or lounges that you are chilling at. So 26^th September, 2013 being the 44^th anniversary of the Abbey Road album, I wanted to find out how much is the Indian music scene influenced by this phenomenon called The Beatles.

The phrase ‘what goes around comes around’ makes perfect sense with India and The Beatles. They came to India, learnt about the culture, our music, made a few songs and left, and all the songs that they wrote either in India or anywhere else has had such a lasting influence on our Indian music scene that it’s hard to neglect it. Be it frequent tribute concerts or bands naming their songs ‘Lucy’ (Zero has a song called Lucy. Listen to it here), The Beatles influence never seems to fade away. Tough on Tobacco actually has a song called Forest of Doom where they explain a magic mushroom trip by using these words (listen to it here):

‘Cellophane something and marshmallows too
A gathering of insects in the sky with Lucy, do you remember me?
Lucy, sweet strange lady friend me ‘

Warren ‘Blackstratblues’ Mendonsa posted on Facebook, ‘When I was a kid, I think I felt more sadness at the fact that The Beatles were no longer a band than at the fact that Santa was a myth’.

I asked a few Indian Musicians of how they felt about The Beatles and the age old question, ‘Who’s your favourite Beatle?’ This is what I got:

Micheal Dias (Vocals / Guitarist, Mad Orange Fireworks) – I think the most amazing thing about The Beatles is the melody and harmony in their songs. It’s absolutely brilliant how all of them are such amazing singers and songwriters. There is so much that any musician can learn by just figuring out Beatles songs.
I’m not too sure who my favourite Beatle is as I love John’s singing the best among the four but I love George’s songs more than anyone else.

Kaushik Kumar (Bassist, MOF) – I like the way all their songs, and most of their albums always have that quintessential ‘Beatles’ sound – their signature sound, but still manage to sound so different from each other. At no point in my Beatles listening was I ever bored, or nothing ever sounded overdone or similar to me. That, to me, is pretty damn amazing.
Favourite Beatle- I’d have to say Ringo. Paul’s basslines are crazy beautiful, but Ringo was the one who kept the groove.

From Lagori, the band that recently pulled off a ‘Let It Be’ on the Bangalore crowd, the lead guitarist, Geeth Vaz, had to say this:
I’ve been listening to Beatles a lot! I think no other band has been able to deliver catchy music, album after album like them other than Queen of course.
Favourite Beatle: George Harrison.

Sriram T.T (Guitarist, Skrat) – The Beatles were not just a popular band they started a way of life. I can listen to their songs every day. Hooks after hooks coming at you with every song. I don’t usually fan a band unless I like them, I don’t usually get influenced by existing fans trying to make me fan a band. Didn’t work with the doors, and most definitely didn’t work with Pink Floyd. The Beatles though it did.
Favourite Beatle – George. While most Beatles fans fight between John and Paul, and Ringo is usually the guy nowadays is cool to like. Without Harrison, The Beatles would have been just a bunch of decent song writing from John and a charismatic marketing man from Paul. George was the cake. John was the icing, and Paul was the cherry.

Here’s MOF giving a tribute to The Beatles:

September 14, 2013

September 14, 2013September 12, 2022 8octaves Music

Psybience

Psybient music is a genre of mainly electronic aimed at soothing the soul. With soft beats using cultural vibes and a touch of dub, psybience is a mix of psychedelic and ambient, but without the 165bpm pace of psychedelic trance. Many international bands have now started incorporating psybience into their dynamic, even if they are metal or pop bands, like a small section of soft, surreal synth that proves a gripping interlude to the middle of a djent or rap song.

Often qualified as ‘drone’ music, ambient pioneer Brian Eno quotes it as “ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.”

This is the essence of sound that most modern artists are going for. With the inclusion of tribal rhythms and melodies into an extremely psychedelic but not-too-fast-paced beat, the listener can either zone out, or get sucked into the same sound. Brian Eno’s revolutionary ‘78 album, ‘Music for Airports’ is an interesting insight into the birth of this genre. With the intent of making some catchy music for people stuck at airports, the record basically plays with the idea of looping, with some simple melodies to back it up. Careful timing with the looping sees the dynamic and sound that ambient music is today.

In the last half a decade alone, with dramatic advancements in audio technology, there has been an exponential rise in the number of ambient artists. Now that anyone with a computer can download a music program and compose, there is also a larger local understanding of the merits of this particular genre. Carbon Based Lifeforms, Aphex Twin and FSOL(Future Sound Of London) are heavy propagators of this sound and tour regularly across Europe to promote a deeper connection to ambience. Bands like Entheogenic and Bluetech are better examples of the electronic ambience used in a psychedelic vibe. With aspects of randomness, weird samples, and deep bass beats, these bands give you a sense of unease and a touch of the surreal, as psybient music should. There have also been a spread of louder live musicians who have incorporated this ambience into their own styles, such as progressive metal, a combo with which ambience is totally complementary. Acts like Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Cult of Luna and Tangerine Dream have brilliant examples of such mixes.

Personally, the band that takes the cake as the epitome of psybience today would have to be Shulman. The Israeli DJ duo of Yaniv Shulman(cofounder of aleph zero records) and Omri Hapaz have conceptualised sound to another level entirely. With four purely electronic albums out, the tracks on these songs vary through an intense range of emotions and styles, but with the basic element of psybient sound intact.

Many of their songs range around electronic samples of native or indigenous music and rhythm. Keeping these tones as the fulcrum, layers are added around it seamlessly to form a cognitive whole, complete with bass lines, multi track percussion and some crazy synths. Shulman also has quite a distinctive sound from similar counterparts like Entheogenic or Bluetech as there is a lot of glitch, and a lot of backing IDM-style beats. Some of their songs are extremely easy to dance to and also can be listened to in a completely meditative state too. What really got to me was Shulman’s latest album, Alive, which contained remakes of a few select songs from previous albums. The remakes are novel in a sense of term as the electronic drums, bass and keys have been taken out and replaced by musicians playing live bass, acoustic drums, electric guitar and keyboards. Into this delicate mix, the samples and electronica gently flow through, rather than tossing the live sound aside. It is this acoustic dynamic to psybient music that I find really cool.

Locally, ambient and psybient music is making a coming back. With India having the cultural heritage that it does, international acts have long stolen sounds and ancient hymns to use as samples and clips in their electronic tracks. Now, local bands such as Teddy Boy Kill, Dualist Inquiry Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale, who’s been doing this for ages, all have heavy essences of ambience in their normal dynamic.

More closer to home, one-man project Avilente recently released a full length album through the immensely popular Microcosmos Records that hits the psybient hammer right on the nail. With heavy essences of Shulman to some more deranged types of psychedelic trance, From Clear Spaces Within is a brilliant stepping stone and a foundation for other local bands to build upon within the dynamics of psybient music.

September 2, 2013

September 2, 2013September 12, 2022 Ahana Mustafi

The Bangalorean Pirate – Commercialism, Democracy, Music Piracy

The city, as with any IT hub sees an extensive internet branch out into every imaginable facet of information sharing. From a musical perspective, there has always been more of an inclination towards torrent usage in the city, but also, a deep-rooted and honest mixture of respect and support for local music.

Album sales used to be the primary means for a band to earn a living. However, simultaneously, the common listener shouldn’t be expected to pay for all his/her music. The increasingly commercialist viewpoints of music are overshadowing some of the key ethical values that an artist would consider central to a creative flow. When a commercialist stance overtakes the actual mentality of creating the music, then it is hardly democratic to be asked to pay for it. There is a thin line between the ethics of selling music and just playing it.

As with international acts, good Indian bands are often downloaded or shared and their albums are not purchased. Yet, more than the sales, local support is what has propelled these bands into stardom. The act of “following” an artist by listening is at least of as much importance as the total sum cost of purchasing albums that an individual fan might do. Many international bands that are highly popular in Bangalore, such as Tool, Opeth, Mars Volta and Porcupine Tree all try and convey the sense of musical flow that fits precisely into an album format. They try to carry aesthetic vision through right to the packaging, to encourage album purchases. However, none of them are typically against downloading music. When Karnivool recently released their third album, Asymmetry, it was on a live stream. This was so devoted fans could hear it online from start to finish, in all its originality and just as the band would want you to hear it.

Another example would be someone who has just purchased the latest album from a rock band but has never heard their music, versus someone else who has gone for all the gigs of the band but has never purchased an album. Thus, while we can accept the democracy of buying music, it is only till the limit of actually appreciating an artist. Recent orders by the Indian high court have barred several torrent sites, yet solely this action will by no means see a direct rise in musical sales. In this day and age where we needn’t get up from our computers, the purchase of real, tangible, physical produce holds little appeal anymore. However, Brit-band Radiohead released their 2007 album “In Rainbows” online for a purchase price that could be decided by the fans themselves. They took a confusing step forward with their next album by pre-releasing it for free online before the stipulated release date. This kind of mentality from the artists themselves shows that the main concern and focal point of musical creativity is not the sales, but the feel of sound.

In this way, a musician can fight back, not only against the economics of album sales, but also against the inequalities of internet file-sharing.

“An entertainer can make music to please his fans; an artist has to make music to please himself.”
–Steven Wilson

July 1, 2013

July 1, 2013September 12, 2022 8octaves Music

Letter From a Band

Being in a band is not an easy job, especially when there are too many things happening around you and you don’t know what to do. We caught up with a very well reputed and established band from Bangalore and asked them about the current scene. We got this heartbreaking letter in reply. Read on, and the next time you hear bands playing somewhere near you, do support them:

Any Musicians and Bands out there trying hard to play gigs but to no avail? Well, join the club! Lately it’s become so hard to find gigs it ain’t funny. I mean we get that the economy is down so it’s hard to pay a good amount for any artist regardless of the field, but when you start expecting to everyone to start playing for free then that just isn’t right. Personally speaking I remember us (My Band) getting quite a few gigs but not able to close once the finance talks in. We give our quote, they say it’s over the budget; we negotiate and somehow try and settle on an amount. They give us a verbal confirmation. Then few days later all of a sudden we hear “Oh sorry, but you guys are a bit too expensive for us and we won’t be able to fit it in our budget”. Then we hear they get a band to play for free! Well you can understand for a while a few bands would start to play for free because that’s how you start out. You play for free so people can see and hear you and start to like you, then follow you and that’s how you build a fan following. But when musicians start playing for free (whatever their reasons may be), it puts a lot of musicians who make a living out of it out of business.

One of the things that can really get on your nerves are some of these fraud organizers. I’m not going to put any names here but I know a lot of musicians have been through the same situation and a few that have been swindled by the same organizer. We were asked by an organizer to play a show at a venue for a last minute show. Well we still wanted to play of course since it’s what we love to do. So we talked out how much the fee would be and came to an understanding.

Biggest Mistake: We didn’t get a mail confirmation from this person since we had played a show for him before and there was a certain trust that was formed.

We played the show and the crowd loved us, the organizer thanked us repeatedly saying it was a wonderful show and we all went back home with wide smiles on our faces. A few days later we try contacting this organizer in regard to the fee that was due. He doesn’t reply regardless of how we try. Calls, messages, mails, we aren’t able to trace this guy at all. About a month later he finally replies by mail and message. He gives a lame excuse as to why he didn’t respond, and we honestly didn’t care. We just wanted to get what we had earned. All of a sudden he says that the price agreed was half of what was once agreed. We’re sitting over there with our mouths hanging open. In the end we couldn’t do anything since there was no written proof. Really sad there are people out there who could cheat others even after getting good product.

One final thing I’d like to address is this revolting Genre battle that is happening between fans. I fail to understand what reason is there to fight with someone about something you don’t like that he does. I mean if you don’t like you just stop listening to it plain and simple. I see old school fans commenting on New Wave of American Heavy Metal Bands saying that its ‘shit’ and nothing beats old school. I hear some people hating on new bands just because their sound isn’t good and they probably wouldn’t of been tight on stage. How can you hate those bands?!? You should be able to relate to them since we’ve all been there. When you see someone having issues on stage or playing a performance that could have been done much better, instead of telling everyone they weren’t good you can help them out with advice on how to improve. This war between genres and musicians really needs to stop. If you can’t depend on your fellow musician for help then who are you supposed to turn to? Trust me this is more like an advantage to the sad ass organizers and promoters to take advantage over an upcoming band.

Now, that the main problems of bands are addressed with, let me pull out on what is happening in Bangalore.

A lot of Bands (when i say bands i mean big bands, I would love to pull out the name but I’m not immature like these people) diss on the upcoming bands. I mean a lot of young musicians would look up to these people while making music and it is just a let down situation for them when this happens. And the organizers would take advantage over it and probably wouldn’t give a chance for promising musicians after following with the lame comments made by these so called BIG MUSICIANS.

There is another type of situation that these promoters/Organizers come up with. A lot of upcoming bands sell their merchandises when they play at these venues.

I once remember when my band was confirmed to play a local gig we wanted to sell our merchandises. The organizers had agreed to pay a certain amount as the band fee. But later she comes up with this clever idea saying there is a shortage of budget so she expected us to make money through the merchandises and 10% of that money will go to her. This was so far the stupidest organizer we had seen in our lives. She had first agreed to pay the band and now she expects the band to pay her 10% of the merchandise money. Well, we certainly asked her to read between the lines anyway.

One thing i would like to say to the bands that agree to play free gigs: If the organizer is not ready to pay a fee don’t just blindly make a decision to play for free. Make a deal with him/her. They should at least bare you transportation charges from the place to the venue. Trust me it is not easy carrying shit loads of equipment without hard work. Book a cab or if you have a vehicle make sure the cab fare/petrol charges are taken care of by the organizers.

And the main thing is food for musicians at the venue. The organizers are not paying you. But still you are taking so much pain and energy to come and play an energetic set and entertain the crowd. How are going to get this energy back? Food, of course! Ask the organizers to take care of your food charges because you certainly helped them out raise a certain amount of money with your performance and the least you expect is respect and nothing can be as great as them providing you good food and booze.

Lastly I just want to say, all you so called music lovers who are out there sitting on your asses and just downloading music of bands you like. Try to go to a local gig and start buying a band’s CD and merchandise to whatever extent you can. Do you know that nowadays certain venues make a deal with the artists? The entry fee completely belongs to the bands playing at the venue. They share it equally. So your presence makes a lot of difference. Also there are so many amazing local bands out there you wouldn’t believe me until you actually went out there and heard them. You are not just paying for them to make good music, you are also giving them a hope that their music is worthy enough for them to stand against all odds and make more amazing music. So please do go and pay that nominal fee so that those bands can survive and continue to make music you love. Without you fans, us bands can’t continue doing what we love!

P.S. : Due to possible complications, the name and details of the person writing the letter has been kept secret under their request.

June 21, 2013

June 21, 2013September 12, 2022 Varun Khatri

Santhosh Lobo – RIP

“I have a life, and it’s not on twitter.” – were the last words addressed to the mass by the man who is almost single-handedly responsible for the whole sector of independent music journalism that we see today. Santosh Lobo, the owner of Indian Rock MP3, was a loving father, son, husband and brother, but most of all he was a visionary blogger and a crazy music addict. The whole Indian music scene was left in mourning, when the news of Santosh’s death spread over the internet. Santosh was battling rectal cancer for a long time now, when he finally took his last breath on Wednesday, June 19, 2013.

Indian Rock MP3 was probably India’s oldest portal, which started in August 2008, and pretty much got hold of the scene back then. Driven by Lobo’s ambition to promote the local scene, Indian Rock MP3 featured artist interviews, album reviews, artist of the month and gave away free mp3 downloads of various rock and metal bands. “…my guess is giving away music won’t hurt as much as someone steals it from you”, said Santosh in an interview. IRMP3 was unfortunately shut down last year; however the statistics of page visits and site hits still show one of the best figures till date.

Santosh was a very cheerful, humble and practical man. He never moved from his motto of promoting the Indian Music scene to take the site to a larger scale or get any commercial benefit at such. Musicians from all over the country came out with a few words to observe this unfortunate occurrence.

“He was a man who believed, one who cared and one who had a passion for Indian Rock and Metal. After our gigpad and rsj days he created a little mini revolution with IRMP3. He was a kind, genuine, warm and supportive person. He believed that if you had nothing nice to say, don’t say anything. He lay down the reigns of IRMP3 a while back as he was battling cancer and today he’s lost that battle. But what he created, the support he gave bands and his genuine appreciation and fondness for our scene will never be forgotten. Dear Santhosh Lobo, you will always be fondly remembered. My thoughts and wishes to your family and friends. You were a wonderful human being and a dear friend.” – Sahil “The Demonstealer” Mahija (Demonic Resurrection, Reptilian Death, Workshop)

“RIP Santhosh Lobo! Indianrockmp3 were one of the first indie blogs to spread our music. We will miss you!” – 1833 AD

“RIP Santhosh Lobo. You gave us a chance when no one else did. You will be remembered in the Albatross camp forever. A toast to your name!” – Albatross

“One of the few people who cared less about himself and put everything he had into promoting the Indian music scene! RIP Santhosh Lobo!” – Devoid

Eight Octaves salutes the pioneer of Indian underground music journalism! You’ll always be in our hearts!

RIP Santosh Lobo!

June 11, 2013

June 11, 2013September 12, 2022 Shubangi Sundar

Music and the Times

Tegan, Sara and all the other in-betweeners

There are some vocations that are constructive. There are some are degenerative. Some exhausting and some mindless. Then there are those that make the mind wander. Music, like writing, is one such vocation. One could argue that it isn’t a vocation, but to me it seems to fall into that box in my mind.

I remember when I was 12, hearing people say how much music had changed their lives. The only music I paid any mind to (courtesy my parents) was old Bollywood, and generally Kishore Kumar. Padosan (1968) on a tape would play louder and louder as I danced my way through our small house’s joint bedroom. And then I heard about life changing. I didn’t pay it any mind, till one day I found myself tuning into Grey’s Anatomy. Not the kind of show I watched regularly, the male lead tweaked my interest. It was there that I discovered the power of a soundtrack. Songs would influence my mood, they would force me to feel and listen to their lyrics and I found myself wanting to know more about the songs than the show.

Tegan and Sara, Ivy, The Ditty Bops, Jem all of them were names I hadn’t even seen on TV. I had heard the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears off and on but none of these really featured anywhere the public around me looked. And I liked that. That was where my journey with alternate music started. The inbetweeners. I didn’t even realise it. I didn’t realise that this would start a new chapter in my life. I started listening to a variety of music. Rock, pop, jazz, you name it; I heard some part of it. I always came back to the inbetweeners of course, they were my people. They talked to me, taught me and walked me and somewhere along the lines, introduced me to a movie genre independent of mega publicity.

What I’m most thankful for however is the extent which the inbetweeners have stayed with me. Even today, when I’m unemployed and lonely, I can always play Ingrid Michaelson’s Turn to Stone and cheer myself up. And with the tempo of numbers like Super Cool by Bang Sugar Bang, it was hard to get any sleep. Needless to say, there were a lot of things in my life that managed to attach themselves to one song by Dee or another by Joe Purdy.

Another benefit I realise now was the inbetweeners lead me down an interesting road of alternative music closer to home. Listening to them made me curious about what my country had in store for me. Being the old Bollywood fan I was, and the frequent ghazals and Bhimsen Joshi that played in-and-around my home, I knew Indian musicians had an innate appreciation of a variety of instruments. So I started looking around. And did I find what I was looking for. From Zeb and Haniya to the Midival Punditz, I was amazed by the variety and interpretation young India was upto.

Whether it was a rainy afternoon or a morning pick me up, my computer stayed open and blaring, much to my parents’ dissatisfaction. What was amusing through all of this was the fact that while the music developed rapidly, the kind of music emerging stayed consistent in quality. Whether it was through the show or some other means of listening to a new song or artist, the kind of music being created was enriching and new; and best of all, the lyrics moved you. These songs talked about their singers and what life meant to each one. Much better than a stripper pole and how a stripper stripped on it.

June 7, 2013

June 7, 2013September 12, 2022 Namita Gautham

The Relationship of Music and Fashion

One music and fashion for me please, on the rocks.

That’s one heady mix that fits into the proverbial Siamese twins category and creates an impact far larger than one of them, standalone. Fashion is not just for the Bollywood bandwagon, nor for just the designers, stylists and the entourage that follows.

Someone recently said, music is the biggest indulgence and I never would have thought of that until that very moment. Until that moment, fashion was my biggest indulgence and I realised there is fashion in music and a musician without fashion is like a violin with one string kaput.

I had the joy and privilege of styling a friend of mine for the radio city freedom awards and her brief to me was simple. My clothes need to reflect my music. Easy peasy, I said at that point to keep her calm because I was pretty much holding back trucks in my tummy. A few hours of sleep later, I sat down and thought of her music and listened to it. Snap, it was just that. Simple.

This other time, I was invited to style a performance by the Wishbone factory for a jazz routine and little elements like veils, bow-ties and winged eyeliner made the choir look like they walked right out of the sets of the movie, Chicago. Fashion brings out the tangibility in music and adds visual appeal to compliment the sounds you hear.

(wishbone images here_)

Fashion represents a persona and a mood. I’ve always believed that and now the bond between music and fashion looks like it’s been glued together with industrial adhesive and the “want” to represent.

Picture this, lady gaga wearing a white chiffon skater dress and pumps while performing born this way. Born which way? Our way you mean? Just like all of us regulars. Too regular I would say.

Here are some musicians who truly dress to represent their music and the best part, it’s not forced, it’s who they are. (There are so many more who deserve a mention, if your favourites aren’t here, you should drop in a comment and let everyone know)

Raghu Dixit
(image here)
Monica Dogra
(image here)
The Ska vengers (image here)
Shakira (image here)
Avril Lavigne (image here)
Pink (image here)
Nicki Minaj (image here)
Parikrama(image here)

Before even listening, knowing what’s in store just by looking at the clothes, now that is music to my ears.

Avril Lavigne 30 — Losing her clothes for charity … Columbian pop star Shakira.

Avril Lavinge — Losing her clothes for charity … Columbian pop star Shakira.

May 3, 2013

May 3, 2013September 17, 2022 Amrutha Ananth

CARANTIC MUSIC GOES DIGITAL

Bored of listening to ‘western’ music? Bored of ‘film songs’?In mood to trace back and experience the taste of rich carnatic music?Missed a good carnatic musician’s concert? Well, thanks to advancements in technology, Web radio exclusively for Carnatic music has arrived!

Launched on November 12,headed by Mr.RaviKiran, The Carnatic Radio Channel is broadcast on www.radiowalla.in and features live events, concerts and full-length shows. That is not it all!Another such channel, www.ctunesfm.com, was launched by Charsur Digital Workstation in January. Other channels include www.carnaticradio.com, www.sangeethapriya.org and www.sunaadaradio.com.

Already thinking of booking tickets for this December Music Festival?The December Music season with some sabhas being ticketed targeting the cream layers, it is always a disappointment for carnatic music lovers.But with the Web Radio’s being launched,the organizers are even trying to directly broadcast from the sabha! With programming done diligently, Internet radio will definitely have a big role to play as mainstream channels don’t give much space to classical arts. Moreover it also serves the purpose of the musicians to target the audience at large.Futhermore, the audience levels expands to the international market as well.With smart phone rising, we don’t think Carnatic music apps catering such needs is far away from innovation.

April 17, 2013

April 17, 2013September 17, 2022 Amrutha Ananth

INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC – WHERE IS IT?

What was once just ‘Carnatic’ or ‘Hindustani’ ; music with uncompromising adherence to the core tradition has now branched out as people are coming up with various sub-genres under the Carnatic and Hindustani pillar.

The traditional music of India, the genre always attached with emotion, aesthetics and technical perfection ; classical bow ranges to even Classical Pop ,Classical Jazz , Carnatic Rock and what not? The Indian rock scene has even produced many bands and artists. Moheener Ghoraguli, a Bengali independent music group from Kolkata, is arguably India’s and West Bengal’s first band!

One can also see this as if people are ceaselessly seeking avenues to give and take in equal measure from world music and hence the branch out? Or is it because of the scope that classical music has that it has even reached the Oscars? Pi’s lullaby is a classic example. This brings us to a think about how classical music is perceived? It is definitely not a dead art but it is pioneering into various genres. The future of classical music definitely lies with us – the younger generation.It is how we shape it and carry forward our tradition. Time for some classical revival this may by Eight Octaves! J

February 21, 2013

February 21, 2013September 12, 2022 Varun Khatri

Note to the Event Companies – This is a fan’s request

With the rise in the number of foreign bands and musicians coming to India, we have seen a boom in event management organisations. It started with a couple of proper organisers based predominantly in Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai; even till 2010 they ruled this territory. But come Metallica in 2011 and there was a sudden explosion in the number of Rock concerts in the country. The promising factor in this, though, is the fact that the trend has spread all over the country and is not restricted to the cities of Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai anymore. We had IIT Madras bringing in heavyweights like Anathema and Opeth; IIT Kharagpur brought in Monuments; Kolkata saw Parkway Drive and Poets of the Fall; Darjeeling is pitched to witness Cattle Decapitation in action in a couple of months’ time; and now the latest news says Nale from Sweden are going to perform in DA-IICT, Gandhinagar, which also happens to be the first time an International band is performing in Gujrat!

So, yes, there is a very promising career in event organising, more precisely, in hosting gigs. And not only Rock concerts, we have seen artists like Norah Jones, Gotye, Lady Gaga, Snoop Lion and Enrique Iglesias, pay India a visit and mesmerise their fans. So whatever genre you choose, you won’t be disappointed.

At the end of the day, we are all humans and we will surely make mistakes. And if luck does not favour you much, the mistakes will be perfectly timed up to screw up your most important project. We have seen a number of fumbles in the past couple of years, some even leading to the cancellation of the event. No matter how much they try to suppress it, at the end of the day, fans are left shattered.

The boom has resulted in a healthy competition among organisers and the fans are left confused about which concert to attend. And with cancellation of events like Indian Music Conference(IMC) and Fly Music Festival (Press release of Fly being cancelled), some have lost faith in them too. IMC has more failures than successes, to be frank, with Cynic and Behemoth cancelled a few days prior to the respective event date and only Cradle of Filth in their list of successful gigs; luck hasn’t favoured them much. Fly Music Festival on the other hand had a really promising line-up. The multi-genre event with 14 international artists pitched to perform was no child’s play, especially when legends like Anthrax, Manzarek-Kreiger and The Wailers were involved. But due to lack of proper promotion and ticket sales, the two day fest which was scheduled to be held in Noida and Bangalore had to be cancelled.

Now let’s discuss the effect these concerts or gigs have on fans. Firstly, research says that majority of the gig attendees are aged between 18-25 years, i.e. high school and college students. And may I add that,the majority of the Indian population being middle-class citizens, there is a certain budget they adhere to each month. Needless to say, most of the attendees don’t earn and have to bargain with their parents to buy a pass. So ticket pricing becomes a major factor when it comes to attending gigs for people of this age group. With the sudden rise in gigs and multiple bands coming in throughout the year, the dilemma becomes which show to attend and which one to ditch; mostly because there is no way they can arrange about 6-7k and attend four gigs in a span of 2 months.

Secondly, the timing of the gigs is an important factor. If your major crowd is consisting of students, you are supposed to organise the event when there is least chance of it clashing with the academic calendar. In my opinion, one of the main reasons why there weren’t enough ticket sales for Fly Music Festival is the very fact that it was being organised at the wrong time. Students have their exams during February and March. Moreover, board exams are always during this time. So that cuts out a big chunk of the crowd.

Sometimes, transport to and from the venue becomes a headache. I personally have spent around 1k at times on transport, and I stay in the heart of Bangalore city. So providing transport from some accessible areas in the city to the venue would surely be a big help.

So basically my points are simple –

Make the tickets a little affordable, while keeping your percentage of profits and the cost of arranging the gig in mind obviously. I am not asking you to go into bankruptcy. No one would want that.
Maintain a window for organising gigs; sometime around September or October is the best time to organise gigs. November wouldn’t be muchof a problem either, but December would be risky as board aspirants normally have their pre-board exams then.
Providing transport to and from the venue from a pick-up point accessible to the general public wouldn’t harm much either. Rather it would build more trust between you and the fans.

The main objective of this article is not to lash out at everyone and bad mouth theorganisers and event management companies. We, as fans, would love to see more artists come down to India and we would certainly want to see our idols perform in front of us. So please be a little careful while organising gigs from now on, because it breaks our heart whenever our favourite artists are supposed to perform and we can’t go because of our exams or financial issues or the worst reason – the gig is cancelled.