New computer, new songs

I sent my band mates at Bad Influence a few songs that I had written previously – the songs that are on the playlist on the right sidebar on the blog. They were happy with some of the songs and they wanted to take some songs and perform them as a band.

This inspired me. Or should I say “inspires” me? I had already taken up the assignment of writing one or two news songs for the band in two weeks time ending this Sunday. So, after work, I came home and I sat down with the guitar and I recorded two melodies/songs over chords on my computer.

Since buying my new computer, which has Windows 7, I have been unable to record how I used to previously – multi-track recording with Cubase SX. I only have Audacity to work with and I can’t record more than one track without latency issues.

I’m hoping to fix things up soon and record recordings whole songs on my computer. Here’s to the fruition of that plan!

Bad Influence

This is a project that has been lurking in the background for a few months (almost a year now). We are still in search of a permanent drummer. We thought we had found one, but he was too busy. The other that came along weren’t good enough or again were too busy.

Finally, we asked a dear friend of ours, Sheldon Dixon, the drummer from Overhung, to see if you would be interested in playing with us. He agreed. We are yet to jam with him, but this promises a lot of stability to the band.

Yesterday, we were supposed to jam with him, but our guitarist called of the jam at the last moment citing some emergency. Instead of jamming, we went and had dinner over drinks with Sheldon. Apart from sharing stories and lots of laughing, we discussed our future plan. And Sheldon was an integral part of it.

So, here’s to you, Sheldon Dixon. Hope Bad Influence lives its dream.

I’m over it, I tell you!

My LCD monitor crapped on me yesterday. Today, I took it to service. They told me it could take days. In the afternoon, they call me back and say that there was a power issue and they had fixed it. The downside, I am 2K down. Yet, in the middle of all this, I go ahead an buy this beauty – the Tech 21 Sansamp VT Bass Deluxe!

Finally, I have some balls. For the past two years, I have been chickening out on investing on something. Now, I have turned it around. :) I have my monitor back and have the bass processor pedal in the market!

Shor Bazaar, Cirkles, Overhung, Bad Influence, and Ideat Savant – you guys are in for a treat!

Hectic Week

This week was one of the most hectic weeks that I have had in recent memory. Full days at work and rehearsals with one of the bands during the evening every single day. This was so exhausting. I think I’m going to need a lot of sleep over the weekend. That means my Kala Ghoda festival visit and other plans are going to go for a toss. Well, let it be. Let me enjoy the weekend relaxing.

More Music Than Music

Things are really going well with my music life.

• My solo project Ideat Savant has taken off well with the three performances last month. I’m writing songs regualarly and I’m on the verge of setting myself up a decent recording setup at home.
• Cirkles is playing shows regularly.
• Shor Bazaar has disassociated with the manager that we were working with (because of differences) and are once again independent. We kicked off our independence with the gig at the QAM week celebrations at the Carter Road amphitheater. We are working with a couple of drummers and things look good. There is another gig coming up for us on the 13^th of February at Bandra Fort. We are playing with Ehsaas.
• Bad Influence, despite not having gotten on the gig scene yet, is shaping up well. I’m recording bass for songs in Zomb’s private project (erstwhile Zomb and the Agenda).
• Pralay—well I’m not quite sure what’s happening with them, but still…
• On top of all this, I have been requested to play bass for my friends’ superband Overhung. We had a first rehearsal tonight and I thought things went well. I hope to have more shows with Overhung in the coming months.

This is a lot of music and I’m enjoying every minute of it. Wish me more luck than ever to manage my social and official life with all these six projects!

Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon - Part 2 - and more

After waiting for nearly three hours, watching some not-so-professional performances from the other bands, we finally got on stage at around 10.45 am. After plugging in and doing a preliminary soundcheck, we started off playing our 'legendary' medley of 'We Will Rock You', 'Pichle Saat Din', 'Saare Jahaan Se Achcha', 'They Don't Really Care About Us'.

Before we could finsh our first (medley) song, the police came over and asked us to stop performing. We had no other option to pack up and leave. That was a total disappointment, and had gotten us mentally tired on a Sunday that was supposed to be rejuvenating. From there, we took the train back to Andheri, checking out the pictures that our friend had clicked.

Rob and I went together to his place to rehearse the songs that I am performing at the Queer Azaadi March-related event on Jan 27th (Thursday) evening at the Carter Road Amphitheater in Bandra. However, our rehearsal was cut short by the Shor Bazaar project to try and make a background score for a B2B movie/video. A lot of time was spent on that and that drove me even further into boredom.

By around 5 pm, we finally managed to complete the draft that we intended to make. But at that point, I was mentally, and perhaps physically, drained. I came back home, checked my e-mail and social networking updates and decided to take a nap. That nap, starting from 6.30 pm, carried me well into the early morning. I woke up at 3.30 am trying to figure out what had happened.

I had to take my pills, I remembered. I did that and spent an hour online catching up with my lovelies, including Bruno, the lovely Franco-Italian professor. After an hour or so, during the time I met another wonderful man from Virginia at SilverDaddies.com, I went to bed hoping that I would wake up in time.

Today showed me how frustrating a musician's life can be. From the highs of the jam with Bad Influence to a 'no show' with Cirkles to a boring backround score making session with Shor Bazaar (Noise Market). That's how a musician's life is - full of ups and downs. Well, that's how life in general is, is it not?

'Goosebumps' moment

Music makes me happy. Very happy. That is the main reason why I’m on a sabbatical from surgery, pursuing a career in music which seems rather optimistic and utopian. There are occasions during which I get pleasantly reminded of the reason behind this sudden diversion in the career path. Live performances to a packed audience, a studio/recording session where everything seems to ‘click,’ a brilliant songwriting moment etc.

Rather more uncommon, however, is the goosebumps experience during a jam session with a band when you get everything right – when you can’t quite believe that the music that you are hearing is being performed by a bunch of people that includes yourself. When that happens, it’s like an orgasm with a loved one (I’m not talking about sex with a random person, mind you).

Yesterday, one such moment happened. It was with my new band Bad Influence. We were auditioning my friend Mik for the drummer’s slot. Mik and I are friends through our freelancing work with the band Pralay. On our menu was the song ‘Sober’ by Tool. It is a relatively difficult song for a drummer, which our previous drummer wasn’t quite able to ‘play.’ Mik arrived, played, and conquered! It sounded simply amazing!

When I left the jam room, I had a big fat smile on my face. Dear world, this is why I’m doing what I’m doing. :-)

Bad Influence

I don’t have a clue how many readers I have in this blog. But at least some have requested me to update them about the situation with the new band, Bad Influence. Well, at the moment that I’m writing it, we have had three rehearsal sessions. Overall, it has been a good experience. But we need to tighten up a little bit more and may be requiring some personnel changes for the same.

We have already started working on our original compositions. Of course, this is what inspired me to get back into songwriting, which I had done last weekend. I hope to do so in the New Year’s weekend too!

Writing songs again

Being part of the new band Bad Influence has kick-started my desire to write songs again. I only wish I had a better recording setup at home. This weekend, I spent a lot of time doodling around the guitar, trying to create riffs and hooks. I wrote some lyrics as well, which I will post soon. I’m glad that I have restarted songwriting again. May the force be with me!

A new band

I'm waiting once more at the jam room. But this time it is different is a different jam room. And it is a different band. In fact, it is the first jam of a newly formed band - a band that could very well prove to be what I have been looking forward to be in all my life.

I reached here much earlier than the time slot that we had booked, and I have some butterflies in my belly. I am trying to spend time listening to the songs that we are supposed to rehearse. But the expectancy is overwhelming. Could this prove to be a memorable day in my life? Let's sit and wait and watch!

(PS: Even though the drummer didn't turn up, we had a good jam session. We went out for drinks afterward and are calling ourselves Bad Influence!)