‘Tails On Fire’, a high energy alternative rock band from Chennai was formed in early 2011. Being ‘more than musicians’, their music is a blend of styles ranging from Rock, Grunge, Funk, Alternative and Blues. Keen on experimenting with new technologies and techniques, the band’s visibility is seen even with melodies and smooth vocals. Read further to know more about Eight Octaves’ ‘Pick of the Week’.
Eight Octaves: How would you warm up a band? Give us tips.
Sriram: Imagine the calm before the storm, everything is ready, your heart races and your brain is going haywire to keep up. Your palms sweat and this is where you tell yourself, take a deep breath, keep calm and destroy that stage!!!! We all group together, band huddle, all of us so excited cuz this is what we were born to do!. This is what we earn to do. This is what we LOVE!. For a 3rd person’s point of view you would see us jumping around, randomly screaming, stretching , speaking in alien language and then, 3 2 1… KABOOOOOM!
Eight Octaves: How would you usually choose repertoire for your ensemble?
Sriram: Originals take the primary spotlight!…. We look at covers we love to do and also represent the direction that we hold in our originals. The covers ideally give us that boundary within which you would find our artistic direction of our sound!.
Eight Octaves: Tell us about a favourite composition project you guys have done.
Sriram: I think the most fun song to play live is “Happiness is a headshot” it’s simple and pure Mentalness in a bottle of coke. And you drop a nitroglycerine mentos into it.
Another track called “No! with some sugar” puts a smile on my face when we play it!
Eight Octaves: What would a student-centered approach look like in the band rehearsal setting?
Sriram: Jam room will be the place that one would get away from the harsh realities of life be it a student or a carrier man. When we walk into that jam room, the heat, your boss, your professors, your assignments, the traffic, your recent ex girlfriend, your miserable self confidence (otherwise) etc all go out the window!
Eight Octaves: What rhythm and/or tonal syllable systems do you use in your compositions?
Sriram: Bounce!. , Djent, Crazy maniacal awesomeness in musical form!.
Eight Octaves: What do you practice – exercises, new tunes, hard tunes, etc.?
Sriram: When we get together for practice, we spend a lot of time just going for it ex tempo(If you will) and see what happens, this really helps us form some sort of a single consciousness which helps us to even change and morph live on stage. And we also find it helps us come up with music that we could never come up with alone!. So then, new tunes emerge, or it might lead into a cover which is particularly fun to play…. Hard tunes are usually left for alone time for self practice!.
Eight Octaves: How do you handle mistakes during a performance?
Sriram: Mistake happens…. We look and laugh and somehow keep the music rolling and make it up. Since we practice so much together (not just for gigs) that single consciousness thing really keeps us in sync. Any mistake, usually we look to one person who would take the reins and lead us out of the mess. Sometimes its me on guitar, or the drums itself!. Most of the time it’s the guy who made the mistake, leads us out of it! The trick is to not make it LOOK like we made the mistake!.
Eight Octaves: Were you influenced by old records & tapes? Which ones?
Sriram: 3 of us in the band are country music fans. Strange that it’s a world away from what we play but yes we love a story telling approach to writing. I’ve grown up listening to various kinds of music putting me in various moods, if I want that mood in my song, ill know where to go I guess!. But for Tails on fire, I guess my influences are 90’s jump rock specialists, Rage against the machine, POD, Sugar ray, Hot action cop…..
Eight Octaves: How would you incorporate ‘world music’ into the band curriculum?
Sriram: We don’t have conventional songwriting and song structure. We ourselves using western instruments create something totally new. Since it’s not a trivial matter where you take a carnatic/Celtic riff and put it along with a ragger beat and put a Spanish rap to it!. That’s just biryani!. We like to make our own dish, so we aren’t really a party of a single genre (hate that word) of music. Makes us world-ish!???
Eight Octaves: According to you, what amounts to a great ‘gig’ session?
Sriram: When we get off stage with a smile on our faces and we are deaf with the screams of the crowd that partied with us and had a great time!.
