Shor Bazaar is on MTV!

Yes, we are now on MTV as well. I don’t quite know if we are on the regular playlist or some selective indie set. I got this info from my friends who sent me messages on FaceBook and WhatsApp.

Now I can say to my folks – “Hey look, I’m on MTV!” By the way, the video is for the song “Hello, Hello” that we wrote for a FedEx ad. Here is the video if you would like to watch it.

Thank you everyone! Thank you Shor Bazaar!

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!)

The Shor Bazaar video

About a couple of months back, Shor Bazaar was invited to write a jingle and act in a video for a famous brand. The video shoot was last month, when Joe was here, and it was pretty cool. We were supposed to talk nothing about it or post anything about it. Today, this photo, taken after the video shoot, was posted on FaceBook.

So, this is the snippet. Wait for the full video soon!

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.

It's finalized!

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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!

Queer Gear for the Straight Ear at the Carter Road Amphitheater

Yesterday’s ‘Queer Gear for the Straight Ear’ event as part of the Queer Azaadi week celebrations was a grand success! For the first time ever, I performed with three separate bands on the same stage (Shor Bazaar, Cirkles, and Ideat Savant). The crowd was about 150 strong at best but was supporting all the acts who performed (including MH04, Alisah Batth & Alisha Pais, and Amar (Sax) and ??? (xylophone)).

Shor Bazaar performed ‘Rasili’, ‘School’, ‘Savita Bhabhi’, ‘Nikamma’, and ‘Pagli Ladki. We got a great response for ‘School’ and ‘Savita Bhabhi’. Ideat Savant performed ‘The Rainbow Song’, ‘Living Your Dream’, ‘What I Have Lost’ and ‘The Prayer Inside This Song.’ We didn’t get much crowd response, probably because the crowd had thinned out and we were playing originals. Cirkles played ‘I Want To Break Free’ and ‘I Will Survive’ to a 30-strong cheering group of supporters!

But the highlight of the evening was the fantastic performance by Alisha Batth and Alish Pais! Wow! I can’t describe how beautiful, vibrant, and energetic they sounded! Notable covers they performed were ‘I Alone’ bye Live and ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen.

This event got covered the Hindustan Times. They story, which can be found here and here, quoted the chorus of ‘The Rainbow Song’. This is such a proud moment in my life – when my lyric got published in a national newspaper.

All in all, a super success!

Thursday's gig

In two days, I will be making my debut as a singer/songwriter with a five-song of Ideat Savant (http://myspace.com/ideatsavant) set at the QAM Pride-related event in Carter Road amphitheater. The details of the event can be found at this link. Alongside, both Shor Bazaar (Noise Market) and Cirkles (Shoonyas) will be playing sets. So, it is a very special event for me, where three of my projects perform at the same stage. Apart from us, Alisha Batth & Alisha Pais and the band MH04 will be performing.

The rehearsals have gone pretty well. I hope that the event will be grand success. Wish me luck!

FaceBook event page
http://queeerazaadi.wordpress.com

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?

The beauty of people

There are some people who are beautiful, not because they are blessed with attributes of widely-accepted social criteria of beauty, but because they are charming and graceful in their own ways. Many people around us - chaiwallahs, shopkeepers, rickshaw-wallahs etc. - are beautiful. Some narrow-minded people, especially straight men in my experience, find it hard to comprehend such beauty.

Take the case of the chaiwallah across the road from my apartment. Last winter, after a rehearsal, my bandmates and I went down for naastha at the mucchawallah dosawallah who operates across the road from my building, by the side of this chaiwallah. The chaiwallah, a typical Mangalorean man, with classic charms of a man from that region - the smile, the warm expression, the humor, the shyness, and the shine in the eye - was handing us our glasses of cutting chai when I suggested to my bandmates how beautiful/handsome the chaiwallah was and how good looking he must have been when he was younger - not that he is not handsome anymore!

One of my bandmates started laughing - not just laughing, but he was laughing at me and my observation and my judgement - it must be a coincidence that he called me as I was typing this blog post on my phone waiting for my bus. I tried to present my points but I couldn't get it through him. He was obstinant and stubborn, and in my opinion, narrow-minded. I gave up soon and I was left to wondering if and when the beauty of the world will open out to people like him.

The same is true with a lift operator in my new office complex. By his looks and accent, I think he's from Delhi. He has a charming smile, a graceful presence, and exudes warmth. He welcomes me in the morning with a hearfelt 'good morning' and makes polite enquiries about work whenever the occassion suits. Tonight, as I was getting out of the office building with my gorgeous friend AK, I was lucky to catch the same lift that this liftman was operating. There was the usual - a smile, a warm 'good night' and the works.

I thought twice before asking AK if she too thought that he was beautiful. Then I realized that she's a wonderful woman with little pretension. I asked her and she concurred. In the brief conversation that we had, she mentioned another sweet liftman and his 'beauty'. I walked out of the office complex with a smile on my face remembering the conversation with my bandmate. Maybe my friend wil open out to the wonderful world of 'beauty' soon too!

Thank you - I am back

The winter might be wreaking havoc up north and in the West; I too experienced its bite when Shor Bazaar went up to Gulmarg to perform for the New Year's bash arranged by the J&K government to usher in the decade of snow tourism, but the hell-freeze capturing my mind seems to be thawing. It's interesting to note that the pure whiteness and sheer beauty of the virgin snow up on the slopes exists almost symbiotically with the unyielding bitterness of the cold. When I was up there, I wished if my mind were wiped clean off all what's done and those not won, of all the pain and those not gained, of all what's lost and those who caused.

I have survived once more, almost by a miracle thanks to the one and only soul who stood by me all along, albeit half the world away, the two women who took care of me gastronomically, a set of seven musicians in two bands who were generous enough to bear with my thymic chorea (out for which two, you and you, who have helped me the most), and a generous set of friends who have reached out with their heart more than once, so touchingly, and finally, a wonderful set of colleagues who have adjusted to me like how glove adjusts to a surgeon's hand. I must not forget to thank my shrink (Dear. R) who prescribed an SSRI, an anxiolytic, and anantipschyotic that are making me stay mellow and warm.

This year has begun wonderfully well. I have renewed hope. I truly hope that I have turned the biggest corner of my life and am running away from the past! For all of who who have helped me, thank you! I wish you a wonderful and happy new year!

The Circles of Life

The gig at Hyderabad was wonderful. It felt really good to be performing on a big stage in front of a sizeable audience. But even more important for me was my life had completed a circle - one that had started in Y2K.

Back then, I was in Kerala, was in my Final year of MBBS and I had been playing guitars for a couple of years. S. was studying in Kochi and I had gone to visit him. S. took me to meet his friends from the band named Evergreen. We had gone up to their rehearsal pad - a room on the fourth floor of the building in construction that had been converted into a cozy jam pad.

I still remember standing (and in due course, sitting) in awe at the professionalism with which the band was doing their rehearsing. The drummer sounded like a metronome, the guitarists were playing on fucking huge amps, and the bassist was trying to pen in some lines - right in front of me!

I was mesmerized by what I saw and was inspired enough to make me feel that I too needed to reach this level of musicianship and professionalism. This, somehow coincided with the demise of the music TV channels from not just my life, but from our entire generation.

 

Thankfully, I found an immensely satisfying replacement in WorldSpace, the satellite radio service that had infiltrated majorly into my life. I was a big fan of - I still am - the modern rock station BOB. I was listening to Linkin Park, Nickelback (the good old days of the Canadian band), and Coldplay.

Around the same time, I heard a compilation CD called the Great Indian Rock. That CD featured the song PSP 12'' by the band Zero. That was the first time that I had fallen in love with an Indian alternative rock song. It reminded me of what Indian rock music could do – make groovy modern rock. Suddenly, things fell into place. I wanted to write songs like that - I did actually, not quite the same standard, but that's beside the point - some of them are online!

That song was written by the drummer of the band - the multi-talented musician/comedian, Sidd Coutto. Ironically, I hadn't realized that until really late, from the horse's mouth actually, on one night when he was performing at a gig in Mumbai this year.

Now, how does the friggin' circle get completed?

At the Hyderabad gig, I performed on the same stage with both Evergreen and Sidd Coutto (with the band Ankur Tewari and the Ghalat Family). Not only did I perform, I drank, ate, fooled around - all with my rock idols, who inspired me to be what I am.

Now, isn't that sweet!

I'd like to take this opportunity to credit all the idols/icons who I've performed/played with or shared the stage with, in the order idol-hood attainment:

• Rex Vijayan (Avial, former Motherjane)
  
• Sunil and Evergreen (the entire band band)
  
• Sidd Coutto, Bobby Talwar, Rajiv Talwar (from Zero)
  
• Jai Row Kavi, Johan Pais, Sidd Coutto (Helga's Fun Castle)
  
• Teemer Chimulkar, Aniket Waghmode, Janus Sayal, Gilroy Fernandez(Sceptre)
  
• ZomB Menon, Sheldon Dixon (Metakix)
  
• Tony John, Rex Vijayan, Mithun Puthenveetil, Naresh Kamath (Avial)
  

Thank you all for inspiring me me and making me realize my dreams. I hope I can inspire someone to be/do something someday. I'd love to be tagged if you decided to write about it!

The irrepressible Sun

I've always wanted to write - bestsellers, preferably in the Asimov mold. I, unfortunately, can't. This title is dedicated to that dream. If you are wondering WTF - I'm at Hyderabad for a gig with Shor Bazaar and I have just come back from soundchecking under the blistering sun. I almost had a heat stroke. This gig brings my life down another circle - I'll explain that next time. Now, however, lets get me back to the only thing I'm really good at - lamenting.

Once my good friend Dennis had said a decade or so back: 'You've got to be extensively-read to start writing, Kris'. I had nodded, albeit in part-disagreement - I hate being told I'm not good enough - it reminds me of my childhood, when everything about me was judged by performance at academics. 'Son, the only reason why we are proud of you is because of your scores and otherwise, you are just a bag of shit'-type comments plague me still, you see.

I had been forced to fall prey to the sleazy educational system and my conservative lower-middle class upbringing, where the only goal in life was to score well in exams. On top of that, I chose something - I must confess that I love Medicine and Orthopedics, but they are just too restrictive - which wrecked any chance that I had to explore the loopholes in the system.

Now, I'm staring down the hill, with the best part of my life over, with very few memories that I can cherish and carry forward. I have a pathological uneasiness to get into discussions with others about books, music, paintings, movies because I feel ashamed to have not read/heard/enjoyed/watched them. I have self-esteem issues and am pathologically approval/attention-seeking and depressive.

The message is this - please choose to have better childhoods.

Shor Bazaar's Savita Bhabhi (video preview)

It's here! The "Savita Bhabhi" video directed by Varun Agarwal (from Last Minute films) has just been uploaded on FaceBook. We don't yet know how to upload it on YouTube. Until then, here's the link.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=234123750370

I think too much of my yellow teeth is showing. But I still love it! What do you think?

Jai Arjun Singh on today's Business Standard - Shor Bazaar & Savita Bhabhi

My blog-dost jabberwock was gracious enough to refer to me, Shor Bazaar and our new single "Savita Bhabhi" on his article on Business Standard. Read the article here.

Thank you Jai!

:)

Shor Bazaar - Savita Bhabi on CNN IBN

Shor Bazaar's own "Savita Bhabhi"

Shor Bazaar, my band, have just released a single based on the porn comic strip heroine "Savita Bhabhi." Personally, I believe Savita Bhabhi.com is a very genuine and creative concept - at least, from the point of view of our society. I see her as person who defied the stereotype of an Indian woman, always bound by restrictions and rules, suffocated of a right to express her feelings and desires.

It is unfortunate that our Government decided to ban the website. I feel that the echoes the discrimination towards sexual minorities. Hence, this song feels like a liberation - a tribute to freedom of expression, the freedom to be yourself.

Shor Bazaar's "Savita Bhabhi" is out for free download all over the internet. I'll list a few sites below. I request all of my fellow blogger friends to listen to the song and if possible, talk about it.. on blogs, forums, networking sites etc. If you do, please send me a link so that I can share it with the band and the rest of our fans.

- Shor Bazaar Blog: http://bazaarshor.blogspot.com

- GimmeSound.com: http://www.gimmesound.com/ShorBazaar/
- ReverbNation: http://www.reverbnation.com/shorbazaar/
- MySpace: http://myspace.com/bazaarshor/
- MyBand.co.in: http://www.myband.co.in/Shor_Bazaar/
- Chordvine: http://chordvine.com/
- SoundClick: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=927184

Also, these are some links to Shor Bazaar on the internet. Again, please feel free to send these across to your friends and families. Promote free music. Promote freedom!

- Twitter

- MySpace

- Shor Bazaar Blog

- FaceBook Fan Page

- FaceBook Group

- Orkut Group