My Passion for Music

I was first introduced to rock music when I was 10 when I heard a screeched out tape of a band called Nirvana and another one of Metallica thanks to this half aussie friend of mine Dirk , and I was hooked from day 1 . One small shop in andheri used to sell tapes 14 years back, we both would chip in to buy tapes of the likes of the 2 above bands and pearl jam which were our favorites. When I was 12, a band called Bon Jovi came to Mumbai at andheri sports complex. I don’t know till this date how I managed to convince my parents to let me go to my 1^st ever “ ROCK SHOW “ and there was no looking back . Those were the days of growing up, rebellious teens belonging to the infamous generation X.

Listening to parikrama , pralaya , psychomotor , agni , Bombay black in the hay days was something . Independence rock at rang bhavan when your 16 is an awesome experience. Touched a guitar for the 1^st time when I was 17 and started to strum it on my own and thanks a couple of mates, covering bands in those days was close to impossible with no tabs sheets as internet was just in and damm expensive, I remember my first song I did was Strings – Sar ke Yeh Pahar , arguably one of the earliest local rock band video and that to from Pakistan .Did that on my friends guitar , at that time I didn’t own one as it wasn’t cheap thosedays . After an unsuccessful and a real bad experience of forming a band , I gave up ( I matured like anything thanks to my 1^st band , taught me a lot about management at 17 ) … late 90’s , my influences grew thanks to MTV to listen to megadeth , slayer and pantera n so many others , that too when there were no cd’s , no mp3’s , only tapes and some friend of mine whose father used to get vinyls from chor bazaar . In many ways, mtv of those days was much better than any damm channel now and had a huge influence. Also my parents were very supportive , never questioned what is this “ loud shouting” u listening to , u want to b a musician kya stuff , mostly cause of my dad as he used to listen to elvis , bee gees when he was in college in xaviers Calcutta so he understood , mom still is a bit apprehensive but its all cool .

Then came 10^th and 12^th , time to decide about careers , lost touch with guitaring , band split , and a time in college when every soul around you listened to stuff I could never listen to . So there was always this problem of fitting in and “what’s wrong with u dude, why u dressed in black t shirt blue jeans, do you do drugs, why you keep long hair blah blah.

Those days, drugs usage was so rampant that I remember behind NMIMS, the lane would be filled with cars with dopers. It was very easy to get hooked on to these things, but thank god, I never tried it. I saw how it destroyed people, friends, friendships, people who were great in school dropping out of college and never to hear from them again and the worst when I lost a friend as he overdosed and he died in front of my eyes in the hospital , never touched booze or any other stuff since then ( God Bless u Dude , wherever u are ) .

Razz the disc here , started allowing bands to play on Sunday nights around 1998 . we would have 1 show like in 2 months and I wouldn’t miss it for anything . I have seen so many Indian bands, I have lost count . Some great , some not so good . , some out n out real shit. Then came the pop revolution and remixes . Indian rock n metal suffered even more than before. a time came when we had no shows , no news about bands , only I Rock once a year thanks to farhad wadia , and then u had morons not knowing a , b or c of rock n metal coming to the shows and cheering and dancing when someone played a heavy metal cover , I thought its an end of an era . Let me tell you , metallica was so damm close to coming to Mumbai , we all were thrilled , but in the end it was the shiv sena who never allowed them . I heard the band was like a month away from coming here but it never happened alas .

Then an unknown band called PDV ( Pin Drop Violence ) came at IROCK and blew everyone away . For the 1^st time, someone covered slipknot. Rockers were left stunned, me too. I couldn’t believe my ears what I was listening to. A revolution began in Mumbai, bands started coming up out of nowhere, Gigpad.com and rsjonline.com came up on the net for fans to discuss about the scene, shows started happening regularly. Soon things moved out towards other parts of the country and bands from Calcutta, banglore came down to Mumbai to perform. Still an album, sponsorships was a dream for many. A Day job at offices and rockers by night was and still is for all of us. We formed like a community meeting up at shows, bonds stronger than friendship trust me . .PDV album came out in 04 followed by some great albums from the metal bands, compilations and a couple of days back, saw a video of PDV and I was like …. Things are improving for the good or is it so?

The current generation doesn’t seem that enthusiastic about rock and metal music . All I see at shows is guys n some girls like me who know what this thing is all about and have been quite regular and keeping the thing alive . I don’t blame them in a way cause they don’t see or hear rock n metal on TV ( we had MTV in the 90’s) , Radio ( 107.1 fm did have shows in the 90’s in the night ) and all they see n hear is pop , bollywood and SRK n Priety zinta wannabe’s ( she is hot by the way J , so was Janis Joplin , ever heard her ? ) . Rarely do I see a 16 / 18 yr old coming to shows with the passion of rock music .Its all about pop, remixes, half naked chicks in music videos which everyone is into. The whole rock n metal scene in India will have a hard time in the coming years if this new generation or the coming ones fail to accept it. As for me and people who I know since I was 16 visiting shows, encouraging bands to do their shit, we will hopefully stay loyal for years to come and in our 30’s still go to shows like we do now and yes after some years probably let our kids listen to metallica, nirvana, slipknot, PDV, Demonic resurrection and do their own thing and keep the whole thing alive for years to come.

Rock on \_/