It was in my rather impressionable youth that I decided to pick up a guitar for the first time, after being suitably impressed by a hostelmate’s rendition of the Mission Impossible theme song, during my stint at an engineering college in Kerala.
I didn’t have too many ambitions around the time with respect to music. In fact, I’d been subjected to Carnatic vocal training for close to ten years, since this is a common affliction among Tambrahm parents – they all think their son is the next Veena Balachandar. I was quite grateful to the CBSE Board Exams of 2000 for providing me with an excuse to stop going to those classes. So with this in mind, I never saw myself going in front of an audience and enthralling them with a rendition of anything with a strain of melody in it.
Ah, how life has a way of changing plans.
Two years after torturing my roommates, I realised I was good enough to warrant inclusion in the college band (Translated: There was no-one else who could play guitar, and all the bandmates were my friends). To say that we had success would be stretching things – India had more success on their tour of England where they were beaen 4-0. Anyhow, I had a lot of fun. Later on, I went to a wonderful college called MICA in Ahmedabad, where, to my utter delight, there were only two of us who could play guitar. Aloha, I was in a band again!
Various philosophies of life will tell you that being in the middle is a terrible thing. For example, take exams. If you’re fully prepared, you have no tension. If you’re zilch prepared, no tension again. It’s the in-between-path that most of us traverse (finished 5 chapters, but didn’t touch the one on Refractive Index, hope that doesn’t come!!!!) that provides much of life’s tension.
It’s similar when you’re in a band. If you totally rock, no problem of course, since the audience will love you. If you’re totally terrible, then again, no issues, since your audience will expect nothing less and you can joke around about your own misery – much like what Darren Sammy did during the post-match ceremonies during the recently concluded series. It’s when you KNOW you’ve got talent (or expensive instruments) and have moments of brilliance but are mostly patchier than your granny’s quilt, that you’re always worried, iffy, frustrated and angry. And much of band life was that way.
I’ve had a wonderful time being in bands. Of course, I use the term ‘band’ loosely – the first time I ever performed was a ‘Western Group Orchestra’ competition in school. Lest the name lead you astray, most of the bands did not have 20-man symphony groups backing them. In fact, ours was the only ‘orchestra’ to feature instruments at all – two guitars. We sang two boy band songs, keeping in mind that Iron Maiden was probably not likely to go down very well with the judges. We won. Yay! This guitar shyte ain’t too tough after all.
Soon we played a few more times in college. And then we tried doing some heavier stuff like The Scorpions and Metallica and suitably flopped, mainly because ad-hoc stages were built for one, two mics at the most. We never got time for a soundcheck and more often than not, fell short of cables and mics. It was a sad scene, but we learnt. We also were brave enough to go to other colleges and participate in competitions. We came off creditably but it was obvious we had miles to go before we could exercise ambitions of playing at Rock in Rio, Brazil. Of course, along the way, I’ve met some wonderful people.
At MICA, things got slightly better organized – our band had more talent. Okay, actually, we just had equipment and a dedicated place to practice. So we improved and learnt to play with each other. Our biggest moment was when we were slotted to play at our annual college fest, opening for three huge bands – Zero and Parikrama on Day One and Strings on Day Two. When we were practicing, we realised we still didn’t have a name, so we had to cook one up quickly. Realising we’d come before Zero, we called ourselves – you guessed it – Minus One. My biggest regret at MICA is not taking music as seriously as I should have – we could have easily recorded a few tracks. We also had a huge moment when we were one of the finalists for IIM Ahmedabad’s competition, but 4/6 members of the band were to travel to Mumbai for an Iron Maiden concert! Maiden won at the end and all of us ended up going!
After starting to work, musical inclination has been slower, but I’ve been lucky to play with some good people during Pagalguy’s annual gig. My favourite video is this crazy medley we put together.
So…what can being in a small band teach you?
1. Respect each other’s opinions: There are going to be opinions about everything from what song to play to the band name. And in a setting where everyone has a different background and point of view, it’s vital to keep your cool and have a healthy discussion rather than push your view.
2. Time management skills: Musicians are a bloody lazy lot. Even if you’re on the same campus, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to have a hell of a time getting everyone together to practice. Some will be lazy, some will have other commitments, some will throw attitude. It’s important to arrive at a practice schedule even if there are no gigs on the horizon.
3. Play to the audience: When you’re a small band, your primary aim is to entertain. This is not a progressive metal concert where your audience is coming to see guitar pyrotechnics. Give the audience what they want to see. Of course, this changes once you’re an established band and can afford to play your own stuff… Rather, you should! But in a college setting where you have 15 minutes to leave an impression… You’ve got to draw a fine balance.
4. Be open: Our keyboardist came to MICA a Rahman devout and left tripping on Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) and Jon Lord (Deep Purple). He loved the experience and said it helped him grow as a musician. Good for him, because today, he’s the only one of us who still actively pursues music (and makes money out of it, too!)
There you go! Being in a band can be a really fun experience. It’s a lot of hard work, it’s not all alcohol and chicks (actually, we never got either of those… Never mind). So go ahead and pick up that acoustic guitar and get cracking!