Sometime back, I had written an article about the Underground bands in India; titled – The Rise of Underground Music in India. It was satisfactorily accepted by people, but I personally felt it lacked the punch. Well, not surprisingly I had a critic to support my claim – Mr.Sahil Makhija a.k.a. ‘The Demonstealer’, front man and guitarist of Demonic Resurrection. That was the time I made up my mind to write this article and thanks to a nice little chat with the man himself, I got all the details I needed to go ahead with it.
So what makes you an Underground Band?
The answer to the question is as relative as the interpretations of William Wordsworth’s poems. No one seems to have a definite answer to the question as such. The term “Underground” is basically tagged along with Metal genre in general, and what I could make out from my research is that it includes sub-genres which doesn’t have many takers; like Grind, Crust, etc. The bands playing these genres have an idea about the volume of crowd they can generate and normally they are not interested in fame. So if you would ask me if Underground bands need some kind of an award ceremony or big event to be recognised, my answer would be – No.
But in recent times, due to the unnecessary genre bashings and a trend of showing their “Kvlt” status, there has been a conflict and debate over Underground bands needing more recognition. There are bands, who regardless of how good or bad they play or whatever genre they play, want to be associated with the Underground scene. They would be bad mouthing about specific mainstream genres; but when asked about their influences, they would be vomiting names of bands belonging to the genres they talk shit about. And the stupidest part – they would be playing covers of Metallica in all of their shows; Metallica is supposed to be the best known “Sell-out” band in the history of the genre.
Yes it is true that you need a crowd to attend your show. But if you are hosting a gig with bands playing Grind and Doom, you won’t get a huge turnout even if you post a full page advertisement in all the famous newspapers of the country.
If you have chosen to be an Underground band, you must be aware of the fact that you have chosen a path where you expect no limelight. You are doing it for the love of music and you should stay true to that. There is no use ranting about how many people attend the shows and those who don’t are poseurs. Frankly, you are making a fool out of yourself. India is still growing as far as the gigs are concerned; hence we get to see an average of 200+ crowd during underground shows. In Norway; where more than 50 such gigs are arranged each week, you would hardly get 30-40 people attending your show, that too if you are lucky.
My point here is simple – if you have a band and want to make a name for yourself, Underground is not what you should publicise yourself as. Yes, you will be called a poseur for being mainstream.Your music shall be made fun of at every possible opportunity. But with time and maturity you shall learn to accept all the criticisms and the only thing you will be focused on would be your goal.
As for genres outside Metal, the term Underground does not apply. But something similar exists there too; it is called Indie. Independent artists are the ones who go the extra mile to create something never heard of before, a totally new genre at times. The best example: Motherjane. They took the country by storm with their never before heard brand of Carnatic Rock. But at the end of the day, they started as an Independent band.
So if you have aspirations of making it big in the music scene, notching up album deals, performing all over the country and maybe abroad too; then you should consider sticking to the basics and going Mainstream. If money, fame and groupies don’t matter much to you and you are happy with your family, job and just want to play once in a few months for the love of music; go Underground, you will find lots of support and like-minded people there. And you never know, you may get yourself an album deal too if you are good enough.
