A career nadir

Despite the good news about my meeting with the shrink, I have a sad news to break to. I have been laid off from my active band Overhung. It was rather unceremonious. The two band members who are in Mumbai called me up for a rehearsal. Instead of rehearsing, they let me know, in the best way they could, that they are looking for a new bass player.

I took it well. I have been expecting something like this for some time now. I wished them well (really, I do wish them well) and went back to work. This practically means that my active musical career is slowly coming to an end. Shor Bazaar is not active. Cirkles is barely so. My dream is slowly fading. I won’t have a record with my name on it.

(PS: Coincidentally, the Shor Bazaar’s song “Hello, Hello!”  video for the FedEx ad is now being played on VH1. Although I haven’t seen it myself, I have heard about it from a few friends of mine. Oh, well!)

Delhi and Mathura with Overhung

Over the last  year or so, I have had the opportunity of playing with a few bands and artists. I have enjoyed almost every time I have gotten on stage. Off the stage, however, things have not always been that great. Musicians have egos, probably bigger than that of average individuals’, and hence, the off-stage chemistry has been of variable quality.

Overhung has been an exception. Despite the musicians being seasoned pros, there are hardly any ego clashes and the off-stage experience has been thoroughly enjoyable. Fantastic individuals, all of them, and the jokes just keep on flowing.

I visited Delhi and Mathura with Overhung this weekend and experience was thoroughly entertaining. I look forward to playing more gigs with them. Here are some of my status updates from the time I spent in Delhi/Mathura, which truly depict my overall levels of enjoyment.

• So my band was playing 'Sex Machine' and this dilliwallah was jiving with his 8-year-old son! Beat that other cities!
• So this drunk friend of mine comes up me and asks me to dance with him. I refuse. He asks me 'So, what if you are gay?’
• Being sober is the best way to enjoy the hilarity with a bunch of drunk folks!
• Incredible sound check scenes at Mathura, where they insist that it is a 'rehearsal' and not a sound check.
• Ruling the Mathura crowd with popular numbers!
• Crazy post-gig scenes in Mathura! Crowd swarming us! Kids wanting numbers and autographs!

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!

A mixture of everything

It was a crazy day. Lack of proper sleep thanks to a band photo shoot sort of ruined it initially. But the workplace always brings the smile back to my face. So far, so good, I said.

Then I read the e-mail about the new dress code policy at work. There it was - 't-shirts and shirts have to be tucked in'. I reluctantly tucked my small t-shirt into my already undersized (thanks to the weight that I have put on) jeans. Portliness was showing.

I had to even go check in the mirror how fat I looked. Well 'not fat, healthy,' I said to myself, trying to calm myself. People commented on my portliness. And despite all that, I chose to slice the work day into two with an episode of bingeing on three separate biriyanis.

I had to sort of work faster so as to make it to a rehearsal in time. Yet I reached late by half an hour. Then came the surprise. At the jam pad, I met the bass player who I replaced. He was jamming with the band when I made my way in. Quickly he unplugged his gear and let me plug mine in.

I aksed him 'Hey, howz it going?' and he said 'It's not happening man. They aren't giving me the visa. I am here now.' Then it struck me. Was I eating into his bread? Would the band get him back on board? What will I do, then?

All through the jam, he was there in the jam room, probably carefully analysing what his replacement was doing. Insecurity, self-esteem issues, a feeling of inadequacy - everything was creeping in. I was uncomfortable throughout and fucked up almost every song.

And then it rained. No, it poured. Pre-monsoon showers? Who knows? Anyway, a slice of heaven on earth, but only for those not needing to travel. Once the jam was over, I felt like rushing home and being inside. Safe, comfortable, secure, albeit with a desire to improve and to overcome my insecurities.

The cheeseburger of my life

Performing at the Hard Rock Café Mumbai is a thrilling experience for me. For the first three years of my Mumbai life, I used to be a regular among the audience there. I always used to dream about performing there.

Six years into Mumbai, and three years into professional music here, I have performed several times at the venue. The excitement is not as high as it used to be. But the thrill of consummating my relationship with the Hard Rock Café special cheeseburger lives on.

Every time I'm at the Hard Rock Café, I look forward to having the juiciest burger in town. I believe it is the best in Mumbai. Ah, the perks of being a musician!

Direction sense of random Puneites

Today, I went on a road trip for a gig at the Pune Hard Rock Café with one of my bands (Overhung).

Getting to the Mumbai-Pune Express highway was easy. But getting off it and heading to Koregaon park in Pune, where Hard Rock was located, proved to be much tougher. We tried to use GPS but Vodafone’s GPRS was crappy enough to not let us do that.Whomever we tried asking for directions asked us to go straight to the left, straight ahead from the signal, straight from the Railway station, straight after turning right.

One guy said this: head straight until the signal. Then you go straight until the intersection, from where you go straight. After that go straight for another couple of kilometers until you reach the Pune Railway station, from where you go straight.

We got very tired and frustrated of this ‘straight’ business. I mean what's wrong with Puneites?

A busy Friday

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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!