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Rock machine From left, Arun Daniel , Ashish Shetty, Mark Thomas, Manu Krishnan (on the drums) and Vivan Kuruvilla performing at the competition

“Due to time constraints we were asked to limit our performances to 20 minutes each for the finals. And since we were not too tired from the morning’s semi-finals we could give it our best shot,” Ashish adds.

The band has released their first album, the self titled concept album ‘Blood and Iron’. The five member band is a merry mix of Tamilians, Malayalis and a Telugu. Mark Thomas (lead singer), Manu Krishnan (drums), Ashish Shetty (lead guitarist), Vivan Kuruvilla (keyboards) and Arun Daniel (bass guitarist) comprise the band. Manu and Vivan are the Malayalis in the band and Arun is part Malayali.

Manu’s parents are based in Kochi. The rules required that a band to qualify for the competition at least one member of the band has to be a Malayali. With this win, the band gets Rs. 1 lakh and a contract with Kingfisher for a year worth another Rs 1 lakh.

The songs that won them the prize are ‘Dynamite World’ and ‘Anarchy’.

Although each band member has a personal favourite in terms of a band that has influenced them or whose music they like, the group’s favourite is ‘Iron Maiden’.

The band plays metal, but they make it clear that their preoccupations are not morbid or dark. “We are not into Satanic worship or death rock and that kind of thing,” they chorus.

Generally the trend is for wannabe rock bands to sing covers of songs of the more famous bands, however, this competition was different in that most of the bands preferred to sing original compositions, the point being “there is no point in singing what others have already sung.”

“ We want to sing our own compositions,” says Mark. Before the competition the take on the competition is, “it has been tough. Some of the bands that are participating are very good, in that sense it has been stiff. Now with the finals it is bound to get tougher,” say Mark and Manu, while the others nod their heads in agreement.

All geared up in black, with either goatees or long hair or chunky jewellery they live up to the stereotypical image of rock musicians. They are cheeky, cheekiness born out of confidence in their talent.

The band’s energy levels are sky high before the finals, but lead singer Mark has a sore throat. “But that’s okay. No big deal,” he says. This defines their attitude – rock star cool – minus too much of an attitude.

Each one of them could as well have been the proverbial boy next door. Even before they went onstage for the finals, they were smacking their lips in anticipation of the prize money and the contract which according to them would put them on their way to success.

On a lighter note their response to who their favourite to win the competition is, they say, “Do we give you the politically correct answer or do we say it as we wish?” Prophetic that joke turned out to be!

While Ashish and Vivan are studying to be engineers, Mark is doing his dentistry, Manu is studying sound and audio engineering and Arun Daniel is a graduate in Mathematics and works in HR firm. Mark and Ashish write the lyrics and the whole band gives the words music.

“We meet up at Mark’s place to practise as he seems to have extremely tolerant neighbours who do not seem to mind the noise,” laughs Ashish.

And they were still saying the same thing post-show, “When the second place was tied, we more or less knew that we had won.

But it was stiff again, it could have swung this way or that. We are glad that it swung our way,” says Ashish.

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