Interview with Santana
Getting to see Carlos Santana is a very humbling experience. Over 4 decades in the Music Industry and still going strong, he has only good things to say about his life and his passion. Here is how the press conference went down (Note: we have questions from Eight Octaves as well as from the fellow media)
Santana: Firstly, I would like to say that I am very grateful to God. He allows this grateful opportunity to visit this great country. The real connection for me to this country come from the 60s where musicians like Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar showed the musicians in America that there is another way to represent spirituality in music. I was introduced to the beauty of spiritual principles. Today I am able to see with my own eyes and I want to connect from my heart to your heart and remind you that we are one.
Q: You have shared the stage with some of the finest musicians across continents. Could you share some of those moments with us?
Santana: Well I think that one of the highlights of my life is playing on stage with the supreme genius Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John Mclaughlin, Stevie Ray Vaughn and B.B. King because I am a child of multiplicity, not just a one trick pony. We love all the colors of the rainbow.
Q: Starting out in the days of Woodstock 69’ how do you feel your music has changed over the years?
Santana: I think today, because of the advantage or you could day disadvantage of technology and computer, music has lost some of its charm. I hear about people here who play music with such discipline. Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar were very disciplined and focused. This is the difference. Musicians from the past, were more focused. When you are more focused, you become a genius. A person who makes music with computers, well, that’s not genius. You know, just because you sell a lot of records and know computers, that does not mean you are a music genius. A genius musician is like Bob Marley. You connect with your heart. You make people dance, make people laugh and uplift them.
Such people today, are very few. There are a lot of entertainers and business men, but not musicians.
Music is something completely different.
Q: Who are your favorite artists?
Santana: Oh, lets see. John Coltrane, Bob Marley, Miles Davis. Ali Akhbar Khan, Ravi Shankar and Zakir Hussain from India.
Q: Would you like to collaborate with Indian Musicians?
Santana: My heart is open, to work.. no not to work. What we do is not work. It is sharing. I am open to collaborate and share.
Q: Would you consider music to be your form of spirituality?
Santana: Yes. Music is harmony and unity. There is a balance of male and female in music. Melody is female. Rhythm is male. What a wonderful combination.
Q: Tell us about music that helped you shape up as a musician.
Santana: The music that I listened to while I was growing up was my father’s music. When I was a child I just wanted to learn the blues, you know… John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, B.B king because I felt that the Blues is a very honest and pure way to connect. For example, John Lee Hooker’s Mmm, mmm, mmm… and everybody understood.
Q: Are you still definitive on your stance that “Drug use damages musicality”?
Santana: Well, there’s drugs and then there ‘s medicine. Humans make drugs in a laboratory which, imprison men for example, heroine, crack, cocaine. But nature, through photosynthesis tells the plants what color, flavor and aroma to spread. When these plants dry and you turn them into tea and tea is not a drug, it’s a medicine. If you drink the right tea, it helps your kidney, liver and heart so, I always say that there’s a big difference between drugs and medicine.
Q: In 1975, you said that, “guitarists bore me to tears”. Do you still believe that or is there someone in the current soundscape who has caught your attention?
Santana: I’d like to crystallize that statement. When a person plays piano and makes it sound like a piano, I don’t like it. When a person plays guitar and makes it sound like a guitar, I don’t like it. When a person plays piano and it sounds like life, I like it!
When a guitarist makes the instrument sound like a woman singing, or even life, I like it! I just don’t like a bunch of chords or scales. I wanna hear life not just notes. That’s why I say that I don’t listen to guitar players, I say that I listen to John Maclaughlin, John Hart or Gypsy guitar players because they don’t make it sound like a guitar, they make it sound like life!
Q: It is an honor for the fans in Bangalore to see a performance by someone who has played in the Woodstock of ’69. What are your comments on this?
Santana: Well, thank you for asking that question. We play for over three hours sometimes so we go over the songs of yesterday, today and tomorrow and we do honor the widest song range that people find memorable.
Q: What was the first guitar that you picked up?
Santana: I played my first electric guitar in Tijuana (Mexico) when I was twelve and someone said that they had a “hot” guitar. In other words, it was stolen and it was really cheap but solid guitar. A Melodymaker.
Third Eye Blind at HRC Bangalore
Submerge Presents DJ Skazi
India’s leading dance music portal – Submerge brings you Israeli Psychedelic master – DJ Skazi. The tour will be on 6th, 7th and 8th September. Details about the tour and tickets to be announced soon.
About DJ SKazi – Asher and Assaf B-bass have been working together since 1998, producing a unique style of hardcore dance floor trance music. Asher is responsible for writing, producing and mixing all the tracks. He also plays and records all the instruments in Skazi’s music. Skazi have been touring non-stop from 2000 until now. They have played in countries like Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Australia, Japan, etc. and have collaborated with artists like Matt Sorum (Drummer for Guns ‘n Roses) and Arno Carsten (South African Mega Star).
Your Sunburn #S7 experience just got better with Nicky Romero
~ World’s No. 7 DJ drops the beat on Sunburners with a high power music experience ~
Mumbai, 24th November 2013: The Sunburn Arena experience gets bigger as Nicky Romero, world’s no. 7 DJ, has dance music fans grooving to his beats. A gateway to a complete EDM experience, Sunburn Arena 2013 raised the bar of the Sunburn journey.
The Arena witnessed energies soaring as Sunburners pounded to the opening sets of popular DJs such as WA! (DJ Whosane + Dj Anastasia) and Lost Stories x Anish Sood. The build-up to Nicky Romero’s entrance did justice to the DJ even as fans awaited their favourite DJ with bated breath and thumping hands. Nicky Romero’s arrival was greeted with much hubbub and his signature Guy Fawkes masks. Sunburners continued to sport the masks as Nicky spun his famous ‘Toulouse’, a mainstay on the Beatport Top Ten for a considerable stint. Nicky Romero played magic with his music, leaving the audience spellbound.
Commenting on the growing popularity of Sunburn Arena, Shailendra Singh, Joint Managing Director, Percept Ltd said, “We recognize that India has an increasing taste for the EDM culture and with Sunburn Arena, we always look to satisfy their taste buds. By successfully celebrating Asia’s largest EDM festival with Nicky Romero, we have taken the notch up higher on brand Sunburn. We thank all our followers for being the immense pillar of support that they are!”
Sunburn is Asia’s largest electronic dance music brand, ranked as the 4th Best festival in the world (inthemix.au). Inaugurated in 2007, as a 3 day music festival, Sunburn is an eclectic mix of music, entertainment, experiences, celebration and lifestyle that has seeded music tourism in India starting with Goa. In the past six years of its existence, Sunburn has brought together renowned Indian and International artists to entertain hundreds of thousands of dance music lovers through its various formats that reach out to fans across the India & Asia. . Sunburn caters to a wide Indian and International audience and it showcases India as a Dance Festival destination to the world.
Sunburn has extended and diversified beyond the festival in Goa in cities like Mumbai, Delhi & Bangalore. Other formats under the Sunburn umbrella include Arena gigs, Club gigs, Campus gigs and the newest edition called ‘Sunburn Reload’ which are specially designed and customized to cater to as many dance music fans, giving them a piece of Sunburn in their very
own town. Reaching out to all the yearning fans across the nation, Sunburn is all set to give its fans the best experience of their lifetime over and again.
Event Review – NH7 Weekender
If you are asking, what happens when the king of the Indian music festivals meets the queen of the Indian Indie music scene? Well, there are thunderstorms, lightning and heavy rains! That’s exactly what happened when NH7 Weekender returned to Bangalore this weekend. I am guessing the mighty Zeus got so intrigued by all the positive reviews that the Pune NH7 Weekender got that he decided to give the Bangalore leg a visit, bringing with him unstoppable rain. Luckily he just decided to stay for the 1st Day and did not bother anyone on the 2nd day. Below is what happened in the fest:
What went horribly wrong:
1. The MTS other stage and the Red Bull Tour bus, being open roofed stages, had to be shut down after it started raining cats and dogs. This meant the cancelation of The Dualist Inquiry Band among other promising acts. We also got to know that Mekaal Hasan Band won’t be playing in any of the fests because of Visa issues. They were replaced by Winit Tikoo who did not disappoint the crowd with his blend of Kashmiri Sufi Rock.
2. Where there is rain there are electric shocks, so a lot of guitars decided to give it back to their owners on stage. One of the guitarists from So I Watch You From Afar got such a bad shock that he had to leave the stage, though the other band members played a crazily energetic set to a receptive crowd who fought the rain to see them in action. Their set will definitely be a highlight of Day 1. (Here’s an interview we did of the band)
3. I was really looking forward to Lucky Ali’s gig on Day 1 not because of him but because of his bassist Mishko M’ba who had a beautiful six string custom bass in his hands but I was hugely disappointed by the sound as nothing sounded the way it should. The Violin, the vocals, the flute, the guitars, the bass all sounded weirdly off, it was like watching a live gig video on the laptop speakers.
4. There were a few organisational glitches too, like us not getting the festive booklet on the 1st day, announcements not happening at the right time etc thus causing a little bit of a confusion. Well, I put this point because the same event in Pune, was immaculately organised thus coming to Bangalore, things did feel a little off.
What went awesomely right:
1. It was heartening to see people standing close to the stage to listen to music even when the rains tried dampening the spirits of the artists and the audience alike.
2. Day 1 saw some stern performances with Dualist Inquiry, Kailasa and Inner Sanctum belting out a good number of crowd favourites. I was also lucky enough to see my favourite metal band Bevar Sea open the Bacardi Arena. This was my first Bevar Sea gig having heard their amazingly doomish debut album. This is one band that can floor anybody with their massively heavy, perfectly slow and uberly groovy riffs. Their setlist consisted a mix of new material and songs from their debut album, including the crowd favourite Abishtu (when I lost my voice and neck). Day 1 also saw The Manganiyar Seduction closing the Dewarists stage with a mesmerising performance. In a nutshell, it’s a theatrically produced show of 43 Rajasthani folk musicians from the Manganiyar community playing Rajasthani folk music. Well, watching them was an experience like none before. The whole thing is impeccably produced to give viewers a visual treat.
3. Talking of visual treats, Day 2 had its own share of visual treats with The Raghu Dixit Project putting up an elaborately produced show for their album launch. The show had a carnival feel to it with dancers from the Nritarutya Dance Collective performing to Raghu’s songs. The gig also had the song Yaadon Ki Kyaari with Hand Shadow Puppeteers Prahlad Acharya and Poornima Acharya working their magic to deliver an endearing visual narration. The whole show was so elaborately done that it will be difficult to experience something like this again.
Day 2 was also the day of choices – “Should we go for Nucleya or stay for Skrat, Should we go for Papon or stay for Swarathma or go for Raghu Dixit” were the usual statements that were floating around. One band which I was definitely not going to miss was Skrat. A high energy performance atop the Red Bull tour bus made sure that the audience got the grooviest hooks from this highly talented band from Chennai.
Day 2 also saw The Fender Benders consisting of the best guitarists in India from Warren Mendonsa to Rudy Wallang making sure that the crowd got some high dosage of good ol’ rock n roll mixed with some bluesy and jazzy licks.They were ably backed by Loy Mendonsa on Bass and Jai Row Kavi on drums. Papon & The East India Company also played a hugely receptive set with the crowd singing the birthday song as soon as Benny Dayal, who was invited to sing Tauba Tauba, announced that it was Papon’s Birthday. Papon had the crowd going with favourites like Banaao Banaao and ending his set with Bihu Naam.
I was unfortunate not to see Swarathama in action as their slot on the Red Bull Tour Bus clashed with that of The Raghu Dixit Project at the Dewarists stage. The day ended with The Karsh Kale Collective playing to a packed crowd. Karsh Kale ended his set by making sure all the artists who have performed are on stage to the delight of the audience. The day also featured a secret acoustic set with Prateek Kuhad, Baiju & Nischay Parekh playing to a small receptive crowd.
Top 8 Album Covers
The only way that I was able to expand my music vernacular was buying CDs and cassettes. Without YouTube on our side the only other reckoning that provided that audible fodder was a trip to the local cassette store every other month. Then it was just incessant looping till the next musical crusade.
A lot of the time it was the album cover or the title that would draw me in and became discoveries to me like Incubus’ “A Crow Left of the Murder” or the famous Mecha cover of Linkin Park’s “Reanimation”. So in a very incoherent manner, here are my Top 8 Indian Album covers
8. Indian Ocean – 16/330 Kahjoor Road: This cover really lets me question if you really need a great artist or Graphic Designer to make an album cover that would interest people.
7. Eccentric Pendulum – Winding the Optics: Simple ,Rorschach-y and the contrast between the pendulum and the blots around contrast each other well.
6. Euphoria – Item : There is something Bollywood about this album that is kind of hysterical.
5. Reptilian Death- The Dawn of Consummation and Emergence: Really loved the effort that has gone into an album cover. Would buy this album just for the cover art(Big Sci-Fi fan).
4. Agam – The Inner Self Awakens: Emphasis of their Carnatic style with the Yakshagana referenced cover.
3. Sanjeev T- Epic Shit: Trippy!!
2. Bhayanak Maut-Metastasis: One family , one face. Should be the punch line for a new horror flick.
1. Lounge Piranha – Going Nowhere: Still trying to relate that old snail-deer chimera to a piranha but any non human living entity on an album cover just interests me.
8 Things About Sunburn Bangalore
8 Things that you should’ve seen
Bangalore and The Venue:
Yes, Bangalore, where rain (read: nature) or reign (read: government) tries to ruin every concert. The maddening traffic, though, suggested that the denizens of Bangalore had collectively decided to Stop the Code and Hit the road, to move from the karnatic to the the Kinetic. I was sure that I would be brutally maimed in the confusion and melee, especially when it involves hormone driven teens in rainbow tops and large flashing plastic eyewear. And I was right, except for the “brutally maimed in the confusion and melee” bit. Everything was beautifully managed, including the parking, the facility, the security and the puberty (refer teens with large flashing plastic eyewear). After being frisked with hands that were trained to detect anatomical defects, I was led into……….
The crowd:
What really surprised me was, there was more to the crowd than the young “Facebookers” & “Youtubers”, who grow up on a regular dose of Tomorrowland after-movies. I spoke with a few House “Purists”, in their 40s (waist and age), and they seemed quite excited about SunBurn and the line-up. One of them, went on to explain the underlying theory and mathematics that defines EDM/House, but I was quite distracted by the……..
The Crowd 2:
A lovely assortment of colours, creatures and caricatures, the EDM/House crowd made the excellent venue a wonderland, and certainly looked to make love and not war. I definitely spotted a girl with little wings (a wasp maybe?), and I think I also spotted a giant green cucumber. But it could have been………………
The Alcohol
Yes, there was alcohol. I got some, and this time, I was certainly brutally maimed. Getting alcohol involved 3 basic steps (i) Solving counter/coupon puzzles in record time (ii) Proving worth with blood (iii) Selling soul and freedom. I failed miserably, and tried everything else a proud Indian could. I flashed my “Media Badge”, used persuasive language skills involving female members of the family, threatened to call rather rough quarrelsome friends with friends in influential political circles etc. Nothing worked. But I did get some, and saw my mind bend and ribs crack with the……………………..
Visuals and Music
The visual set-up was insane, and I would have enjoyed it even without the sound, or maybe with a Morgan Freeman narration explaining the Space-Time continuum. Surprisingly though, and something a lot of attendees agreed with, the best effect that punctuated the entire show was brought about by…………………………………
The Rain:
Weird, yes. But, believe me, the rain was in perfect synchronization with the sound. Every “hook” hit you that bit harder with the pure atmospheric water, making the experience all the more natural and beautiful. A few wept, and as the popular Facebook status update goes, not many could see their tears. The gods had a grand scheme……………
Fedde le Grand:
And what a “grand” start to his set! His change of style was quite evident, as his music has now evolved from his signature commercial style to a more experimental and excitingly unpredictable sound! His mixes had cleverly incorporated “rock” elements, and his rendition of a “Red Hot Chilli Peppers” number certainly resonated well. Speaking of Live Mixes…………
Paul Van Dyk:
“Live Mixes Always!”, and he stayed true to that. His cult tracks, especially “Like an Angel” during a certain transition, pleased the purists, but what really endeared him to the crowd was the way he interacted with it. Unlike the more “popular” DJs of the contemporary era, whose only physical activity on the stage involves pressing a couple of switches and raising their hands, this guy was all over the place, off the console and into the crowd, leading it into crazy dancing and jumping. The crowd moved with him, up and down, and the earth seemed to be very alive, breathing………….
Cold Night For Alligators to headline Dhanak ’13
With every year passing by, we are witnessing more and more colleges going through with evolving their college cultural fests. Earlier with performances by local artists, they turned to nationally acclaimed artists for gracing their fests, only for them to grow and have international artists rocking the pro shows. The trend started with IITs and has now being adapted by colleges across the country.
Dhanak, the annual cultural festival of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) has been gaining more and more public attention, as it continues to grow every year. Entering its fifth edition, the festival is set to attract large participation from colleges all across India.
The ‘Pronite’ at the festival, has been a huge success in the previous editions with rock bands Faridkot (2010), Kaash (2011) and Indian metal heavy-weight Demonic Resurrection (2012) performing in the previous editions. This year the event is set to be even bigger with Danish metal quartet Cold Night For Alligators set to rock Trivandrum.
For the last few years Cold Night For Alligators have been making a name for themselves and catching the attention of fans with their energetic and positive live show. The band has played all over Denmark as well as in the UK, Belgium and Norway, always trying to give the audience the greatest experience possible. Although not looking like the stereotypical long haired, leather wearing metal band, make no mistake Cold Night for Alligators is all about heavy. Their music is aggressive, highly technical, melodic and has plenty of groove.
Although being associated with techcore/djent and certainly rivaling the best of what that scene has to offer, these terms alone do not do the band justice. With their combination of progressive death metal, atmospheric ambient and brutal technical hardcore they bring something completely unique to the scene. This eclectic approach is enjoyable to those who appreciate taking the time to delve into technical detail with music of a very high, as well as those who enjoy to simply bang their heads at metal shows. Either way, Cold Night For Alligators deliver the goods with the down tuned assault of an 8-string guitar and brutal vocals ranging from guttural growls to high pitch screams.
The ‘Pronite’ will take place on 22nd September 2013, at IIST campus. For further details log on to www.dhanak.co.in
True School of Music hosts its first Band Boot Camp to provide coaching to young bands
November 2013: The True School of Music (TSM), Mumbai, will host its first Band Boot Camp, aimed at providing coaching and support to young and upcoming bands, on the 15th of November 2013. TSM, launched in September this year, in association with The Manhattan School of Music, New York, is India’s first comprehensive institute of contemporary music. The selected bands will get the opportunity to showcase their music for, and interact with an expert panel of judges that has been responsible for shaping many artists’ careers in the country in recent times including Lalitha Suhasini, Editor, Rolling Stone India; Naveen Deshpande, Director, Mixtape; and Arjun S Ravi, Co-founder/Editor, Nh7.in. Through the Band Boot Camp, the bands take away the first resources and exposure that will help them along their career – invaluable feedback and advice through a coaching session from the panel, as well as a multi-track recording of their performance on state-of-the-art facilities provided by TSM.
The process
To register for the Band Boot Camp, bands are required to upload audio or video samples to YouTube or Soundcloud, and send links to these to [email protected]. The final date for submission of entries is the 10th of November, after which, four chosen bands will be intimated by phone or email on the 12th of November. Then, on the 15th of November, the chosen bands will showcase their music before the expert panel and the TSM faculty.
For each of the four bands, this is an opportunity to get invaluable feedback from the expert panel of judges. Following their performance, each band will be given feedback and a 30-minute coaching session with the panel. They will also be given the multi-track recordings of their performance on state-of-the-art facilities provided by TSM, giving them a great recording of their music to help start them on their careers. One winning band from amongst the four will also be given a live video recording of its performance, with which they can cut an official music video, as well as a 50% scholarship for the much sought-after 3-month band coaching module at TSM.
Expert panel for Band Boot Camp
Lalitha Suhasini is one of the best-known names in the music industry in India today. Having been a music journalist for many years, she is currently the editor of Rolling Stone magazine in India, has previously been the Deputy Editor of Time Out Mumbai and contributed to publications such as Mint and Forbes India. Naveen Deshpande is the director of Mixtape, an artist and event management company in Mumbai that manages some of the most popular bands in the country, including Shaa’ir + Func, Scribe, ViceVersa, Junkyard Groove and Indus Creed. Arjun S Ravi, as co-founder and editor of NH7.in, is very closely involved with the growth of the Indian independent music circuit, as he has been critiquing and promoting bands though NH7.in, Indiecision.com and as a young journalist at multiple publications since 2002.
About The True School of Music
The True School of Music (TSM), launched in association with The Manhattan School of Music, NYC, is India’s first comprehensive institute of contemporary music. It’s at the vanguard of providing music education of the highest calibre: helping students take the initial steps or continue their journey to higher levels in the music industry. TSM incorporates the best practices from international music and sound pedagogy, but at the same time, relates it to the Indian scenario. Its rigorous training programs open up lucrative careers in music for professionals and budding musicians. Spread over 15,000 square feet, TSM hosts the state-of-the-art infrastructure, recording studios, a comprehensive music library, rehearsal rooms, auditorium for live gigs and consoles for DJs, in addition to resident faculty from Manhattan School of Music, New York, professional instrument courses authored by leading music educators in the USA and sound engineering and music production courses authored by The Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM), UK. TSM has two primary departments – the Pro School, and the Foundation School. The Pro School predominantly teaches five western instruments, sound design and music production. The Foundation School teaches five western instruments as well as five Indian Classical instruments.
