Posted on: Aug 29, '08
ROCK ON!!
Peechle Saath Dino Mein:
Ever since i was a kid, music was in my family. Randomly we use to have music sessions with my uncle playing the "dholki" and his friends singing. It was like a small jam session after work to remove stress and to keep the mood cool and enviromnent happy. They used to sing some filmi songs and all, sometimes my grandmom used to sing some "kirtans" and "abhangs"
I was not born that time, these were all me and my brothers bed time stories my mom used to tell us every night. It was great fun to listen to stories of your own people. Gradually the music scene in my house was always refreshing and really entertaining.
Socha Hai:
My grandmom got me my 1st percussion instrument called the "DUMROO" from Bandra Fair. I used to randomly bang it anywhere, anyhow...bas kya "2 saal ke bacche ko kya 4 by 4 beat aayega" So, years passed and all music scene became thoda thanda at home, coz the joint family stared living seperately coz everybody got married and all so "privacy chaiye na" Jam sessions used to happen but now on a 2ice in a week basis. We also got a new house and started living seperately. So now my music was my cassette player. I used to listen to lots lots of filmi stuff and pop stuff and all....totally into music during my school days. I had also won 1st prize for solo singing in my school in my 8th std. OK enough of school giri and bachpan ka talks.
Rock On:
After my 10th std, i was like...lets learn how to play drums. I joined classes and all, learned basic and proper drumming for 1 year. Since i was into western music, i always wanted to play an western instrument just for fun. So drums it was. Then started listening to songs and tried working on them. That time my music influence was all pop stars [MLTR, Backstreet Boys, Westlife, etc] One day my younger brother got a CD from a cybercafe in which there were bands like NIRVANA, METALLICA, PANTERA, MEGADETH. He told me that listen to this CD and give it a shot on drums. Play any song u like. I choose Nirvana's Come as you are, and BANG!!!! that was it. Chucked the pop culture out of my life and got into ROCK. Of course nobody is a pro or a 1-1/2 shaana whose into rock. Everybody has gone through that rookie, wannabe, amateur phase. Thats how rock thing came in me and i was like a wannabe rocker. Got in a rock band as a drummer. Sucked at the start but somehow we became a great band and played huge fests like UMANG, MALHAR, I ROCK, GREAT INDIAN ROCK. check my band's website www.tripwire.in so it was all super cool and all. Got chicks after gigs and all [yes we scored]
Zehereelay:
Since rock genre to an extent is powerful and aggressive, you need to get a rocker look. So it all started, ear piercing, growing hair, rugged look with so called chota chota beard. Matlab full on wannabe giri. Black tshirts of SLIPKNOT and CRADLE OF FILTH and METALLICA and weird bands you have never heard of. So now I was moulded from a pop guy to a rocker. OK, now alcohol was a friend whom you could ount on all the time. I was always against smoking so that funda did not work on me. Alcohol was a thing which was pretty cool with my friends and all. Coming home late from rock shows, getting drunk, eating street chinese, this was all shit but for us it was like yeah dude, its cool, we are rockers!!!! Its a fact. Bunking college, pretending to be different in college by wearing black converse, black rock band tshirt and all. It was weird but at that time it was cool for me. Trippin' on lsd, weed etc was so cool that time, it made me really different and felt like i have done it and i'm a rockstar.
Yeh Tumhari Meri Baatein:
Got a job in my 1st yr BA, so used to go to college in the morning followed by work at 10:00 a.m. I used to work as a game tester, so job was another piece of cake for me. No rocket science or economics or maths or commerce. Just play games and earn lots of $$. So all of my habits were cut down coz next day i had to get up early morning and rush to college and then work. Now the money power was in, corporate place, new ppl and learning process was awesome. College was on secondary thought then. Completed my BA [somehow] in Philosophy major with my job in hand and lots of learning process. So now my band was on a huge sucess level, a decent job, money power, hanging out in good rich places. No more bottle mixing of alcohol and street chinese [blame the pocket money] met my girlfriend in a mall in a video game section. I'm a game freak. I eat, breathe, sleep games and so does she. Thats how we got connected. So apparantly i became a mellow chilled out person who used to trip on acid and weed and get drunk but in a limit. I had responsibilites now. HOUSE and OFFICE. I could not screw up at the age of 22. Since i am in this industry from last 4 years people did not talk to me about college and my furture but they used talk professional now.
Tum Ho Toh:
From my school time i had lot of friends, i was a social freak at that time. Met these 2 guys in my life Terence D'Souza and Sharad Shah. Both ware wannabee's like me so you know its pretty simple, one wannabe can understand the other one. hahahaa. Used to meet up these guys after college sometimes. Used to hang out outside NM college, having Dosa and VADA PAV full on butter maarke. We had lot of fun. One day Terence asked me that will you play drums for my band and i was like "of course" so without wasting any time we began listening to lot of nu metal stuff and all like linkin park, limp bizkit, RATM stuff like that. Sharad was a choco boy in college with lot fo girls around him and all the time talkin about friendship, love, happiness etc. He was not at all cool with the nu-metal band thingy. So we took a break about the band thing and concentrated on our lives. Finally we all decided to play Hindi stuff like covering recent bands and old classical songs in a new rock style which would be refreshing and little different. We all 3 agreed to it. So now we had 2 guitarist/vocalist and me as a drummer. We wanted a bassist in the band to complete the profile and the look. So my bro jumped in the bus and there it was we all 4 formed a new band. No name, No style of playing, we were all again rookie and amateur but not wannbe now. We knew what we wanted to do in life and with the music. But things were not quite working our way. You know right, random obstacles in life.
Sindbad the Sailor:
We 4 use to meet at random places like CCD, Barista or any food joint...talk about the band and music and play guitar and practice some cover songs. One day Terence made couple of original songs and it was like OHH MY GODD!!! we were so god damn excited about the band coz now we had 4 originals. We started jamming at my place and made these songs. Our boat sailed on a good speed and we enjoyed every bit of it. We were like "doston we have 4 songs ready, chalo mast mein college shows play karte hai thoda fame lete hai and lets enjoy the moment" we started making band profile, photo shoots, business cards. We kinda thought professional. We use to meet up and decide on the bands name. We had lot of names in mind. COLORS, VIPERS, RAGE, etc but it was not suiting the bands image. We all had different music taste and influences which we got together in the band. So we all decided to call the band RADIO. Check this link www.myspace.com/radioreligion and www.radioreligion.blogspot.com and thats it Radio was formed on August 5 2007. It was Friendship Day. So on that day we all decided that we're gonna rock the world and live as rockstars forever. The show that changed our lives. Mithibhai college's festival Kshitij 2007. It was 2 major bands playing that day. One was RADIO and the other was PENTAGRAM. It was a huge show with about 1000 kids jammed and crowded and enjoying the concert.
Phir Milenge:
We get a call from EXCEL ENTERTAINMENT saying that we have selected your band to act in the movie ROCK ON! by farhan akhtar. We were like OMFG....what is this. At 1st we were awesomely excited and it actually blew everybody off when we told this news. So then the shoots were dated and we were called for the performace [act] at FILMCITY. Thanx to Randolph from pentagram who told farhan to take RADIO in the movie coz we had that alternative bands image and the look at the same time. Being in our 20' 22's we were like F#&K this is a huge break. These guys heard our song and called us for the shooting. We got the best treatment full on superstargiri. it was all new to us so we were accepting everything that came in our way. We enjoyed every bit of our shooting moment. Once when the shooting was done, they gave us a celebrity image which we always wanted. We were on with it for sometime and somedays but still we were happy and living with it. Eating at the best places, drinking the most happening liquor. Partying all night with a responsible life.
It was just yesterday when we saw our performance in the movie ROCK ON!! Man believe it or not, we were sitting on the same seat with Naseerudin Shah and Javed Akhtar. It was like a premier of the movie, we got the best treatment and a celebrity image. After watching our performance of colege gigs and random gigs on a 17' inch monitor we were stunned to see ourselves on a 70mm screen. It was just a ROCK ON moment for us. Met the actors of ROCK ON, Farhan, Luke, Prachi, Purab and Arjun. It was mindblowing. I know it a freaky lengthy BLOG but I believe this is it for us. Just wanted to share my story with you guys for the success of ROCK ON YEH HAI WAQT KA ISHAARA.
Tags: rock on
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