It seems that my attempt to start blogging weekly clearly didn't pull through. I am getting a little better, even if I do say so myself. A few days over a month since the last post. Things have happened, and not happened since then. Maybe the events are slower, but one is able to dissect them, and understand actions and consequences better.
As it happens when one gets back from a vacation, life tends to move on in the only way it knows how to, forward. This may not necessarily forward is good, or progressive or anything of the sort, its just a Move On.
The problem with not having something full time to do as yet is that 1 day sort of merges into the other and you tend to lose track of the day to day events and scheme of things. But the significant events, the ones that make your world go round, always stand out and are etched in your memory quite clearly.
There was a certain Hindi Psychedelic rock project that I was working on. It was all hush-hush as the chief zealot was quite a paranoid albeit very driven chap who was under the impression that someone would steal his idea and milk it for millions. Well to his credit, it was good work, he achieved the project top-secret status and my full on involvement in it. Somewhere down the line, I was sort of unceremoniously dropped from the project, as they did find someone more suited to the role of vocalist and (my predecessor in the same role being Siddharth Basrur - funny that this should happen a 2nd time : we were both considered one after the other to front Dream Out Loud after the departure of Suraj Jaggan). What got to me was not that I had been axed, but that there was so much wastage of time and effort. Fact is, I'm not the best person to front a hindi band, with my apparently slightly anglicised take on the vocals and lack of familiarity with singing in Hindi. I had mentioned this ages ago, consider it carefully, if it doesn't work out, tell me sooner than later. But no, went unheeded. It was distasteful an experience enough for me to say not much else other then " Ya man, its cool, whatever works , should always be that, cheers". Didn't bother with any unpleasantness or anything of the sort, because frankly, i thought that kind of behaviour wasn't worth it, because even if they did find someone who worked for them later as opposed to replacing me sooner, don't really tell me as an offhand by-the-way, give it to me straight up and don't be sheepish about it, that's what creative licence extends to!!!! Ah well, sour taste, but nothing that some dark chocolate couldn't cure.
HELLWIND (<em>pause while I say <strong>JYEAAAHHHHHHHH</strong> like Hetfield really loudly with \M/</em>) !!!!! finally played the Bombay debut gig at HRC(<em> the original event was bought out by the famous Indian Ocean - manager can suck ass</em>). It was loud, intense, crazy, completely MAD and fun!!! We played the latest Hellwind original called Metal From Above. It's about the kind of person who does just about anything for a little bit of fame , very Fallen Angel - Poison concept type thing. Well received by the critics, who paid attention. The O.C. score is now up to 3 for Hellwind; Taste of Metal, Legends, Metal From Above. There are also another 1-2 in the pipeline.
We did piss off some metal heads with our grand finale teaser Djent version of Backstreet's Back, they just fucking walked out!!!! HAHAHA!! that was just mental!!! Some decent lights, a great photo album by Whats The Scene, and it seemed like quite a kickass show!!! Random jams on The Wall and HIgh to Hell. I also added boots to the wardrobe, yes, a first ever, something I never really saw myself buying at this stage.
Gigging, as always, is nothing short of addictive, and with Hellwind, even more so, and I'm supremely pumped up and looking forward to the next, because it will hopefully NOT be a Bombay gig.
While Spook has dwindled down to effectively Anis Gandhi and myself, with Michael Lee on lead guitar duties, but Tmmy Verghese taking a break for a few months because he reached 3 strikes ; New job, New Wife, New house, and it was a little tough on him, there's been a bit of a mad whirl when it came to re-organising , rescheduling, and re-mapping of the album plans.
Vaibhav Wavikar was unable to manage time for jamming on the songs AND recording, so we decided to scrap that plan despite visiting a few studios, and them being kind enough to work out some really nice deals for us. Going in unprepared was just NOT going down well, its a lot of money that we just don't have. Instead, we got Kishan Balaji (<em>Caesar's Palace, Extinct Reflections, Galeej Gurus, Bhoomi etc</em>) to track drums for us. Wilson Kenneth (<em>Kenny from CP, SDC, Moon-Arre</em>) served as co-producer as well as album bass player)
I spent a week in Bangalore, stayed with my cousin, the all-knowing Mihir, and his wonderful wife, Yashodha(the first 2 days were spent with Anurag and family, it was great to see them after quite a while). I made about a 30-40 km hike across the city with Kenny in his faithful Maruti Van to record at Kishan's place on his kit. 9 songs, 3 days, just left me more and more charged up to get to the next stage, just fully aware and assured and more driven than ever, that we were on the right track. He played very inspired 3 day, 9 song session. Not once did we stop pushing, and some songs, which I was at quite a dead-end with, just opened up and how.
Next week, Kenny hits Bombay, and we push forward with Bass, Guitar, Keys and lead guitar tracking. Home setup at the powai house. We will figure out how we do the vocals after that. Maybe i'll keep blogging through it.
Currently titled Lyrical Cynic, the album will be a 9 song full length studio effort, with a combination of a lot of DIY and professional stuff. It will be a co-produced effort between Wilson Kenneth and Spook.
Working with Kenny sometimes can be akin to attempting to prove that your head is stronger than a brick wall, that being said, this co-producer role is something I just haven't done before. As Chief conspirator, ring leader, over-enthusiast, and just simply not satisfied till we've gotten better and progressed maturely, this should be nothing short of interesting, and I'm pretty sure there will be lots to talk about.
Throw in an early set the next week at the Blue Frog, a soon to be launched crowd-funding campaign for Lyrical Cynic, these next few weeks should make for a rather decent amount of entertainment.
I always seem to have more to write about than I believe. I'm always a little more driven, inspired and enthused to write than I think I am. Maybe its just a little laziness (since its not physical/manual labour), combined with questions of whether you folks out there where actually read any or all of this. Either way, every day, its about gaining a little more perspective on life, things around you, things about you, the things that make you, break you, and drive you on. Its about learning a little more about yourself everyday, and then making it all worthwhile ;
<em><strong><span style="font-family: Arial">If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run</span></strong></em>
Then everything is just yours for the taking (<em>modification of the last two lines, couldn't help myself</em>).
For now, and not for too long hopefully, signing off,
Beast
As it happens when one gets back from a vacation, life tends to move on in the only way it knows how to, forward. This may not necessarily forward is good, or progressive or anything of the sort, its just a Move On.
The problem with not having something full time to do as yet is that 1 day sort of merges into the other and you tend to lose track of the day to day events and scheme of things. But the significant events, the ones that make your world go round, always stand out and are etched in your memory quite clearly.
There was a certain Hindi Psychedelic rock project that I was working on. It was all hush-hush as the chief zealot was quite a paranoid albeit very driven chap who was under the impression that someone would steal his idea and milk it for millions. Well to his credit, it was good work, he achieved the project top-secret status and my full on involvement in it. Somewhere down the line, I was sort of unceremoniously dropped from the project, as they did find someone more suited to the role of vocalist and (my predecessor in the same role being Siddharth Basrur - funny that this should happen a 2nd time : we were both considered one after the other to front Dream Out Loud after the departure of Suraj Jaggan). What got to me was not that I had been axed, but that there was so much wastage of time and effort. Fact is, I'm not the best person to front a hindi band, with my apparently slightly anglicised take on the vocals and lack of familiarity with singing in Hindi. I had mentioned this ages ago, consider it carefully, if it doesn't work out, tell me sooner than later. But no, went unheeded. It was distasteful an experience enough for me to say not much else other then " Ya man, its cool, whatever works , should always be that, cheers". Didn't bother with any unpleasantness or anything of the sort, because frankly, i thought that kind of behaviour wasn't worth it, because even if they did find someone who worked for them later as opposed to replacing me sooner, don't really tell me as an offhand by-the-way, give it to me straight up and don't be sheepish about it, that's what creative licence extends to!!!! Ah well, sour taste, but nothing that some dark chocolate couldn't cure.
HELLWIND (<em>pause while I say <strong>JYEAAAHHHHHHHH</strong> like Hetfield really loudly with \M/</em>) !!!!! finally played the Bombay debut gig at HRC(<em> the original event was bought out by the famous Indian Ocean - manager can suck ass</em>). It was loud, intense, crazy, completely MAD and fun!!! We played the latest Hellwind original called Metal From Above. It's about the kind of person who does just about anything for a little bit of fame , very Fallen Angel - Poison concept type thing. Well received by the critics, who paid attention. The O.C. score is now up to 3 for Hellwind; Taste of Metal, Legends, Metal From Above. There are also another 1-2 in the pipeline.
We did piss off some metal heads with our grand finale teaser Djent version of Backstreet's Back, they just fucking walked out!!!! HAHAHA!! that was just mental!!! Some decent lights, a great photo album by Whats The Scene, and it seemed like quite a kickass show!!! Random jams on The Wall and HIgh to Hell. I also added boots to the wardrobe, yes, a first ever, something I never really saw myself buying at this stage.
Gigging, as always, is nothing short of addictive, and with Hellwind, even more so, and I'm supremely pumped up and looking forward to the next, because it will hopefully NOT be a Bombay gig.
While Spook has dwindled down to effectively Anis Gandhi and myself, with Michael Lee on lead guitar duties, but Tmmy Verghese taking a break for a few months because he reached 3 strikes ; New job, New Wife, New house, and it was a little tough on him, there's been a bit of a mad whirl when it came to re-organising , rescheduling, and re-mapping of the album plans.
Vaibhav Wavikar was unable to manage time for jamming on the songs AND recording, so we decided to scrap that plan despite visiting a few studios, and them being kind enough to work out some really nice deals for us. Going in unprepared was just NOT going down well, its a lot of money that we just don't have. Instead, we got Kishan Balaji (<em>Caesar's Palace, Extinct Reflections, Galeej Gurus, Bhoomi etc</em>) to track drums for us. Wilson Kenneth (<em>Kenny from CP, SDC, Moon-Arre</em>) served as co-producer as well as album bass player)
I spent a week in Bangalore, stayed with my cousin, the all-knowing Mihir, and his wonderful wife, Yashodha(the first 2 days were spent with Anurag and family, it was great to see them after quite a while). I made about a 30-40 km hike across the city with Kenny in his faithful Maruti Van to record at Kishan's place on his kit. 9 songs, 3 days, just left me more and more charged up to get to the next stage, just fully aware and assured and more driven than ever, that we were on the right track. He played very inspired 3 day, 9 song session. Not once did we stop pushing, and some songs, which I was at quite a dead-end with, just opened up and how.
Next week, Kenny hits Bombay, and we push forward with Bass, Guitar, Keys and lead guitar tracking. Home setup at the powai house. We will figure out how we do the vocals after that. Maybe i'll keep blogging through it.
Currently titled Lyrical Cynic, the album will be a 9 song full length studio effort, with a combination of a lot of DIY and professional stuff. It will be a co-produced effort between Wilson Kenneth and Spook.
Working with Kenny sometimes can be akin to attempting to prove that your head is stronger than a brick wall, that being said, this co-producer role is something I just haven't done before. As Chief conspirator, ring leader, over-enthusiast, and just simply not satisfied till we've gotten better and progressed maturely, this should be nothing short of interesting, and I'm pretty sure there will be lots to talk about.
Throw in an early set the next week at the Blue Frog, a soon to be launched crowd-funding campaign for Lyrical Cynic, these next few weeks should make for a rather decent amount of entertainment.
I always seem to have more to write about than I believe. I'm always a little more driven, inspired and enthused to write than I think I am. Maybe its just a little laziness (since its not physical/manual labour), combined with questions of whether you folks out there where actually read any or all of this. Either way, every day, its about gaining a little more perspective on life, things around you, things about you, the things that make you, break you, and drive you on. Its about learning a little more about yourself everyday, and then making it all worthwhile ;
<em><strong><span style="font-family: Arial">If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run</span></strong></em>
Then everything is just yours for the taking (<em>modification of the last two lines, couldn't help myself</em>).
For now, and not for too long hopefully, signing off,
Beast
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