The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Rock musicians finally getting their due

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 18, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Rock musicians finally getting their due

By Sudhish Kamath

LBG: Just Arrived. Unable to find record companies ready to promote an all-English rock album, the band members pooled in Rs. 20,000, recorded their album and put the copies out for sale during a concert last week. They sold 50 albums at Rs.75 within an hour. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI, JULY 17. Rock is alive and rocking in Chennai. After years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears, rock musicians seem to be finally getting their due. For what is truly theirs.

Scene at a concert last week:

"We don't play covers," Arjun Janakiram, bassist and vocalist of LBG (formerly known as Little Babooshka's Grind), announces. Crowd cheers. "And we don't apologise for that." More cheers.

But there is dissent as well. As Naveen of Anna Nagar says, "Unless bands play covers, how do we know how good they are?"

Naveen had just stepped outside the hall after LBG began its `only originals' act at the concert on Saturday. But inside, there were many who were quite loving the show. Soon, the band sold 50 CDs at the stall outside.

The scene is just about looking up.

After nine years of a wait, Moksha, which boasts of a line up of the city's most reputed musicians, has finally found an international label to release its first full length all-original English rock album. "Well the problem is ... If you play original music, the crowd says `do some covers.' If we play covers, the crowd asks us `where is your original music?'" says Leon Ireland, the band's vocalist.

Moksha's 10-12 song album, `Walk before you crawl,' is expected to be out by August.

But that name is just for the album. "We wanted to get our fundas right on production before we jumped into it," Leon explains why the band took so long to cut an original album. The band released two `tribute' (covers) albums years back.

LBG's album `This Animal Is Called The Wallet' has 16 songs. "We wanted to make sure people get their money's worth. Today's world is controlled by the wallet," says Arjun.

"Record companies told us they were not sure about the future of rock `n roll. So we did it ourselves," Avnith adds. Arjun, Avnith and Aum - the band of brothers, run an advertising agency called `Matter Most Urgent'. Vocalist Praveen Heinrich works in an e-learning solutions company called `Element K'. The guys got together five years ago and have stuck together as a band. "We make it a point to meet everyday," says Praveen.

"We worked and invested all our money in the album. Money will come in eventually. Now that the album is out, there will be magic," says Arjun.

Money will flow in with live concerts. Which is why even an established band like Moksha is using an artiste managing company to tie-up for shows abroad. "We didn't have a band management until now. That's one reason why it has taken us time," says Leon, who works as a senior copywriter at Rediffusion.

LBG has its crew in place and hopes to use shows to promote its album. "We plan to shoot videos for our songs `Codeine' and `Money' this year," declares Arjun. Web sites (www.thelbg.com and www.mokshaonline.com) have helped the bands to promote themselves.

Gospel-rock bands Contagious and Armageddon have managed to release their albums too. Armageddon spent Rs.35,000 on its album. "It's just a hobby. We aren't looking at recovering costs," says Kishore of Armageddon. Saroop of Contagious says that it has become cheaper to get demos done. "A ten-song demo would cost you Rs.10,000," says Saroop. Unwind Centre, the centre for rock in the city, rents out facilities for musicians.

Today, a home PC and a garage can transform into a studio. Six-month old band Garage Monsters Inc. was formed in a garage just to participate in IIT's cultural fest, Saarang. "We just clicked," says Joshua, lead guitarist of the band. "We practice at our drummer's garage. There are no neighbours. We can practice as late as we want. We are doing it because we love it. We are not sure how much money there is in it. We are new, we can't expect to be paid," he adds.

But rock veterans say it will all pay off. "Play all around the country. Let your band and faces be recognised or why else would they buy your album," asks Leon. "If you don't play outside Chennai, how will you know how good you are," he adds, recalling how Moksha spent 45 hours by train to Kanpur to play at IIT.

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