Tag Archives: Prakash K.N

The Explosive TAAQ Sizzles The BFlat Bar, Bangalore

Thermal and a Quarter is arguably one of Indias most successful and talented bands. Success of course doesnt come without hard work and boy does this band work hard! Bruce and the gang who recently got back from their Singapore/US tour are recording their new album called Three Wheels Nine Lives and are playing explosive gigs such as the one in BFlat on 16 June 2012. I must say that I was one of the privileged few to have experienced such a mind blowing performance. I ran into Ramanan Chandramouli, LA Music Academy graduate and a faculty at Taaqademy, who acknowledged that this was the best Thermal gig he had witnessed in recent times. The sound at BFlat was marvellous as always and beautifully complimented the bands technical versatility.

As I was sitting at the bar counter waiting for the gig to start, I saw Bruce Lee Mani get up on stage armed with his guitar and ready to belt out a tune all by himself. The floor was jam packed with TAAQ fans eagerly waiting for the show to begin. Bruce dedicated the first song Terrible Trouble to his wife who was among the audience. The song was about his father-in-law, who belongs to a very different cultural and religious background from Bruce. The lyrics were funny and showcased Bruces tasteful song writing skills. The amazing Prakash K.N and the dexterous Rajeev Rajagopal joined Bruce and the mighty Thermal and a Quarter took stage. They played a mix of old and new tunes such as For the Cat, De-Arranged, Mighty Strange, Aerodynamic and Billboard Bride. The band had performed For the Cat (a tribute to Cat Stevens) and Billboard Bride’ last November when they had played at this venue and one gets a feeling that each time these songs sound even better. The number of people in The BFlat Bar seemed to be exponentially increasing and every single one of them found themselves grooving to the irresistible Bangalore Rock sound of TAAQ.

Next up was If Them Blues, a song which was preceded by an amazing guitar and bass jam. Then, Thermal belted out their rendition of the classicRoxanne. The breaks in this song were particularly noteworthy showcasing the fascinating tightness the band is famous for. Chainese Item was up next and the band started the song very differently as compared to the studio version. The breathtaking stacatto solo was backed by immensely powerful drumming. After this song, Bruce wished all the people who were celebrating their birthdays before launching into the next tune, Birthday. The rhythm section during the guitar solo section of this song was particularly interesting as Prakash played chords on his 6-string bass guitar remarkably complementing Bruce. It was interesting to note that the audience consisted of people from varying age groups ranging from college kids who were standing right in front of the stage to 50 year olds who were comfortably seated in sofas.

By the time the band started Jupiter Cafe, the crowd was in full swing getting steadily high on Thermal. TAAQ plays Jupiter Cafe differently each time they play it and I strongly feel that this was by far the best performance of the song by the band. The trio started the song with an elaborate jam session with Prakash playing a lot of harmonics on his bass while Rajeev displayed some very clever use of cymbals. The crowd sang the entire song, including the solo section, along with Bruce. Next up was Meter Mele One and a Half, a song whose opening lines were three wheels and nine lives. This song with a dangerously catchy chorus is about auto rickshaws in Bangalore. The versatile use of the cowbell by Rajeev impressed the audience and Bruces stegatto solo in this song was par excellence.

Thermals music cuts across boundaries and reaches across to a vast audience creating a cross cultural connection. The band has received tremendous success during their US tour making them one of Indias very few acts to have won accolades overseas. The band proceeded to finish the set with Wont stop, In the Middle and Dangerous Mind. I must say there were a couple of awkward pauses in the last song which gave one a feeling that somebody had messed up something but the trio quickly covered up their mistakes.

When it was finally time for the band to call it a day, the crowd did not let Thermal leave the stage. After a few minutes of loud persuasion, the band finally gave in and played Chameleon, the last song of the night. The gig was an exhilarating experience which will linger in my head for a long time. Long live Bangalore Rock!

Anand Kumar

Anand Kumar plays bass guitar with a few Bangalore bands on and off. He is a coordinator with Songbound - a music outreach initiative that uses singing to reach out to Indias most impoverished children via collaborative projects with schools, choirs and professional musicians worldwide. His other interests include discovering new music on YouTube and computer programming.

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Bhoomi, Caesar’s Palace and TAAQ at the Bengaluru Habba 2012

First things first – What a venue! The open air amphitheater with the UB City tower looming majestically in the background, and its big bright blue horse logo looking down upon us was quite an amazing sight! And what’s more – for a city perpetually stuck in traffic jams, its habba started dot on time.

The line-up on this particular evening comprised of metal aficionados Bhoomi, the multi-genre, Bangalore based Caesar’s Palace and Bangalore rockers Thermal and a Quarter who made a surprise entry later. All three of them, veterans of the Bangalore rock scene, took to the stage with the promise of a great Saturday evening and they sure lived up to it.

First up was Bhoomi, one of Bangalore’s oldest and best metal acts. They started the evening with their renditions of rock classics like AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’ and Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’, and smoothly drifted into Deep Purple land with Jason Zachariah belting out the keyboard solo to Deep Purple’s ‘Highway Star’ and then Tony Das belting out the guitar solo from ‘Burn’, both playing them absolutely perfectly. Though I’m a fan of bands covering songs their own way rather than playing it exactly like it is, I have to admit that Bhoomi’s version of ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ did seem a tad out of place and unnecessarily heavy. Tony Das sang the next song ‘Burn it Down’, a very bluesy number with some great guitar licks. This was followed by another cover, Mr. Big’s ‘Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy’.

They finally went into their originals, starting with ‘Inside Story’, a song about the press today and its obsession with the personal lives and affairs of celebrities. It had some great harmonies between Tony and Jason and ended with a really cool guitar-hero solo from the former. Next they played ‘Uncultured’, a song about riots with some really powerful vocals. It had a great vibe and had me replaying “Come help us fight…War without reason” in my head even after they finished. Their last song was ‘The Game’, a song about playing music live (I loved how Sujay bonded with the audience by explaining each song before playing it. Tony thought the better alternative was to chug some beer before each song. I loved that too!) The final track had a great riff, fierce drumming from Kishan Balaji and very eerie vocal harmonies, a powerful song to end their performance.

The band announced their new album set to release later this year, which is being produced by Neil Kernon, of Queensryche and Nevermore fame. When asked if this is the next big step for Indian bands i.e., to have internationally produced and marketed albums, frontman Sujay replies, “Definitely. It’s already happening. Not only international producers, but there are also many Indian producers with very good technical skills. In a few years, the Indian rock scene will be self-sufficient and we won’t have to look to the west for everything.”

Next up were Caesar’s Palace a rock/funk/blues/soul/jazz/disco/phew! band from Bangalore. They played a very groovy, almost dance-y set of songs. They started with a cover of RHCP’s ‘Readymade’ and soon went into originals starting with ‘3 hour love affair’. The bassist Kenneth Wilson’s getup with his hood and shades (at 8:00 in the night) looked exponentially less pretentious with each note he played as he got them grooves going. ‘Stare’ had some funny lyrics about the cliche` of thinking deeper. Unni, the frontman then announced that they were going to cover Bappi Lahiri and frankly, I was disappointed to know that it was a joke. This is one band that could actually pull it off! They did come close to it though as they played a very 80s disco style original called ‘Get Your Mojo On’. By this time, Kishan Balaji had begun to look like some medieval war hero (read madman) behind his drums. He and Jason Zachariah had battled and conquered every style from heavy metal to funk and now even disco, both of them having played for both Bhoomi and Caesar’s palace.

They continued their brand of funk with a sense of humour with ‘Wol Chod’, which had some cool slap bass and screeching wah. ‘Dreams’ had a groove that got the entire amphitheater swinging their heads from side to side and had some interesting guitar and bass harmonies. The song ended with a great keyboard solo. They then went into a very well done medley of Michael Jackson’s ‘Smooth Criminal’ and ‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’ followed by Tenacious D’s ‘Tribute’ that ended with the outro of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ which Unni pulled off perfectly. It was great to see how open minded they are to different genres of music, and not just open minded, but also technically proficient enough to pull off all these varied styles.

The highlight of their performance was ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ by Ray Charles, done in a modern John Mayer style. It ended with a jugalbandi of sorts between the guitar and keys. Jason then played a beautiful piano solo that quietly blended into ‘Swim’, a lovely ballad. They ended with ‘Bittersweet Mind’, a typical 12-bar blues song but with some exciting odd-time signature twists to it.

The night was already going on a high when Unni announced that Thermal and a Quarter was going to take to the stage next and caught everyone by surprise. Thermal and a Quarter or TAAQ , as they are popularly known, consists of Bruce Lee Mani on vocals/guitar, Rajeev Rajagopal on drums and Prakash K.N on bass who happen to be Bangalore’s favourite power trio. This was proven by the fact that despite the fact that it was getting late and terribly cold in the open air amphitheater, the audience didn’t seem to want to be anywhere else.

The trio kick-started their set with ‘Can you fly’, a typical TAAQ song with jazzy guitar playing, great vocals and a powerful rhythm section. Their second song was ‘Meter Mele One and a Half’, about the auto-rickshaw drivers in Bangalore. As Bruce Lee Mani sang about the woes of the average Bangalorean, I couldn’t help thinking that the band’s music IS indeed the sound of urban Bangalore. They do sound like UB City at night, like the traffic jams, like Masala Dosas, like an auto-rickshaw’s faulty meter, like Cubbon Park, IT parks and all things Bangalorean.

They continued in the same spirit with some “tapang-blues” with ‘If Them’ and ‘For the Cat’ which got few audience members even doing some tapang moves in the front row, as Bruce himself cheered them on! Quite impressive on the part of the dancers I’d say, considering the fact that ‘For the Cat’ had many time meter changes.

Their next song ‘Birthday’ was dedicated to Rajeev’s mother as it was the eve of her birthday. And apparently it’s no ordinary birthday song. As Bruce explained, “It’s about wanting my birthday to be a space and not a time. Very deep…very deep!” This was followed by one of my personal favourites – TAAQ’s rendition of ‘Hey Jude’. It amazed me to see how they could take a classic as popular as ‘Hey Jude’, turn it upside down and change it around completely and still maintain the feel of the original. TAAQ’s version of the song has to be heard to be believed! Their last song ‘Chainese Item’ sounded like the theme song to a spy movie where everyone’s running behind a plate of chow mein, for some reason. Or maybe the ridiculously cold breeze was finally getting to me!

Thermal and a Quarter were undoubtedly the heroes of the evening, captivating the audience with their distinct sound and energetic performance. Overall, a great gig and a perfect Saturday evening, all three bands providing three different versions of that rock and roll sound we all love.

The moral of the story at the Habba’s rock fest seemed to be that rock fests no longer mean copying the west. As the three veterans showed us, rock music in Bangalore today is more about ourselves and all the things that affect us in our lives. It’s more personal and easy to relate to than ever. I think it’s this quality of the music that made it so enjoyable and is making an increasing number of people turn up for concerts like these.

Abhishek Prakash

Abhishek Prakash is a Bangalore based guitarist and is a third of local act Groove Chutney. He loves jazz, street food, Woody Allen movies and often pretends to be a writer.

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Thermal And A Quarter at The BFlat Bar, Bangalore

Before reaching The BFlat Bar on 29th of October 2011, where Thermal And A Quarter were set to play that evening, I was on a different kind of high having witnessed an exhilarating football match. I caught up with TAAQ’s vocalist/guitarist/frontman Bruce Lee Mani who acknowledged BFlat as one of TAAQ’s favourite venues. There was a slight uncertainty about drummer Rajeev Rajagopal’s whereabouts near the start of the gig and naturally, manager Divya Joseph appeared a tad concerned. However, after numerous sightings of Rajeev which could now be confirmed as positive, TAAQ took to the stage with Bruce surrounded with an arsenal of three lovely guitars, the “little guy” Prakash who did a quick tune-check of his bass and Rajeev behind the drums. There were no supporting artists to assist the trio this time, so it was an evening of pure, unadulterated TAAQ.

The band started off with a new number, ‘De-Arranged’ while a crowd gathered right in front of my table and I had to stand for greater parts of the show to actually see the band. The song had a groovy interlude and pithy lyrics which has become an integral part of TAAQ’s songwriting process. Before their second number, Bruce brought into context all those people in Delhi who were robbed of the Metallica show, a day before. That second number, ‘Sorry for Me’ had a fantastic guitar solo and the band expertly demonstrated their signature tightness. The sound was perfect and had few differences from the sound in their recent studio releases.

After the warm up, Thermal belted out another new number ‘Meter Mele One and a Half’, one of the standout songs of the evening. I would give it a 11 on 10 for songwriting simply because the band brought to the fore through their music, most of the emotions related to the titular quote that Bangalore rickshaw drivers use. A chorus in 6/4, a solo with a sporadic burst of notes and an absolutely amazing drum solo were the hallmark of the song. And some cowbell! This song is dangerously catchy however, and you should be well-warned to resist singing this while actually travelling in a rickshaw.

By this time, I noticed that TAAQ’s songs have brilliant chord transitions and an expert usage of multiple scales. The amazing fact is that there is very little similarity that you could find between TAAQ’s music and that of any mainstream western band. The music is unique and very Bangalorean indeed. The band showed great volume and tempo control using them effectively to convey a message. Rajeev’s drumming was crisp and his use of the right sounds to complement the rest of the band is worth a mention. The band was a tight unit and also sounded full with just three members. This is a testament to Prakash K.N’s surreal bass fills and his superb ability at keeping the pulse of the song running.

And then there was Bruce Lee Mani who isn’t just one of India’s greatest guitarists, but also a superb vocalist. His voice is an essential component of TAAQ’s sound. He belted out a brief falsetto in their next song, a Beatles cover, ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ which had elements of reggae in it. Another standout song of the evening which had received a roar of approval from the now-packed BFlat, was ‘Bangalore Flowers’ dedicated to the women of Bangalore. The crescendo towards the end of the song got everyone to their feet and cheering!

After a song in 6/8 blues, TAAQ went on to cover Bill Withers’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’. Bruce ornamented the song with a Mayer-style fingerpicking intro and Prakash contributed with some slap bass in the interlude. The band improvised around the “I Know, I Know” line and Bruce even indulged in some twinning, scatting as he played the notes on the guitar! Prakash followed that up with a stylish bass solo of his own. ‘Billboard Bride’ was up next for which Bruce played a surreal legato solo with his Gibson Les Paul.

The evening progressed with numbers like ‘Birthday’ and ‘For The Cat’, the latter being a tribute to Cat Stevens. One of the last numbers was ‘Holy Jose’, a funky number which was probably the longest song of the set. Bruce used his whammy bar to support a bass solo by Prakash and Rajeev rounded off the song in a drum solo that included a run at the double bass pedals! And some cowbell! TAAQ strangely went on to cover Nirvana’s ‘In Bloom’, but I’m glad that they did it like TAAQ while retaining some of the essential grunge elements of the song.

TAAQ ended the evening with ‘Bend the World’, ‘Galacktiqua’, ‘Paper Puli’ and ‘Hey Jude’. Towards the end, Bruce seemed to ease into the songs while also letting the crowd handle some of the lyrics. He duly acknowledged the crowd’s rapturous response at the end of these songs.The band left the stage to a thunderous applause that lasted quite a while. If not already, the band has further cemented their position as one of the premier and most unique rock bands of the country. I could safely conclude that this was the ONLY thing that could have eclipsed the high I was talking about at the start.

Ganesh Viswanathan

Ganesh Viswanathan is a musician, a designer and sometimes both at the same time. Caffeine is known to derive its energising properties from him. Nobody knows the exact moment when he dismantles an idle mobile phone or steals food from another plate.

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ILM Unplugged at TOIT, Bangalore

We were late. 2:30 p.m. on a Sunday just can’t be viewed as a strict time to start anything, so we rocked up well into Allegro Fudge’s set. They were really in the heat of it and quite an audience had already assembled.

You really can’t underestimate the power of The Beatles, and after ‘Colours Fly’, Allegro Fudge truly erupted with ‘Hey Jude’ – was it ‘Gay Dude’, or did we mishear? They filled up the 40 feet ceiling of Toit’s central area: sound guys got stuff down tight! Sahaas was in his element more than I’ve ever seen him before, heavily involved with an adoring audience. The rest of the evening was no different, the crowd today was really happy to be there, loved everything, and waited patiently for more. Allegro had a new bassist as well: she hasn’t confirmed joining them full time, so I guess we hang tight and wait for the big news. A bass change could be fairly significant in the long run as we’ve already seen with TAAQ quite recently.

Toit of course, has the best pizza in a 100 km. radius (they’re slipping a touch, but still), and a stage that has been dying to be played on. It’s set about halfway up a three storey open plan which sets itself up for a very relaxed jam atmosphere. The frontman though, has to end up targeting five to six different audience locations. It is heaps of fun to watch, and I imagine it’s an absolute joy to play. What they’ve entirely ignored: any lighting whatsoever! The announcer keeps calling the event “unplugged”. It’s anything but for a music school they’ve sure got some basic terminology mixed up. Semantics aside, we do need more mini-festival type situations. Sunday arvo jam time!

Toit is also quite scattered over the three floors and they’ve done what I’ve always hoped someone would do: covered each separate area in speakers so there’s sound from everywhere instead of just from the stage. Gives people a chance to spread themselves out and just chill on an overcast Sunday. They even separated sets with some Sufjan Stevens – new music, in a Bangalore pub, you’d have to be there to believe it!

I’d never heard Illuminati before, so the incredible rock-voice threw me entirely off guard. The man packs a punch. ‘Joker and The Thief’ was close enough to them kicking the door in, breathing fireballs and blowing the windows out. Sadly, they lost track with Porcupine Tree where neither the vocalist nor the drummer seemed comfortable at all. Their own stuff was where they settled back in though. Funk groove, nonchalant vocal line and a guitar midriff that was just tough as nails. I think they may have you believe they also have something to say. The band hiatus finally showed through with ‘Roadhouse Blues’, which ended up being entirely off, but well, entertaining nonetheless and everybody was happy to sing along to an old favourite. They peaked at ‘TNT’, where all their dangly bits come together for the perfect storm of no-nonsense rocking like our forefathers intended. They even threw in a super slow bounce version of ‘Killin’ In The Name Of’, and a rock version of ‘Come Together’ (Beatles again!). If they’re really on a comeback I’d watch them again, but they need to buckle down and work at it.

Side rant: There’s still a tendency in India to call things “own comps” rather than run with it as a natural part of a show. It’s a small thing, but it recognizes the idea that Indian bands writing their own stuff is still out of the ordinary. We’re past college festivals; we’re all grown up now and can handle new, original music from local bands.

People on the top floor seemed more at ease and on their own trip: the band kept them entertained when conversation slipped. All in all: “This is just, such a cool Sunday evening!”

With Matthew stuck in traffic or otherwise delayed, Naveen picked up bass and toyed around for a solid ten-minute bass solo with acoustic backing. Everybody was really just out to have a good time and Mr. Thomas really can’t disappoint. Galeej Gurus setup the way I’d hoped, tall chairs along the front and an added acoustic guitar – a little more personal, connected to the audience and living up to the “unplugged” idea. Matthew took longer than expected though and an hour and a half, a ‘Redemption Song’ and ‘The Boxer’ later, you’d be forgiven to believe a late evening family sing-along was in full swing.

And bam! The bassist was in and the whole band kicked in for real. They were doing great acoustic kickbacks of their songs, giving the “unplugged” name some juice. They have been my favourite Indian band for years now, so there’s nothing but school-girl like adoration from me. They continually make me want to be a bonafide rocker myself. Nathan oozes cool, even sitting down, and incidentally makes the best burgers in Bangalore (he owns Hole In The Wall, Koramangala). Listen to them lots, and go eat there, I command you!

Acoustic Guitar Man turns out to be a fantastic addition. A superb set of backing pipes and he tears through solos as well. If he’s permanent, they’re setting up to really do some damage. And if there’s anything that would prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt, it’s them doing ‘Use Somebody’ in the middle of the set with the entire, and I mean entire, packed-to-the-friggin’-rafters, crowd singing along. We got through an entire first verse courtesy audience happy-singing.

And Thermal and a Quarter. I think they’re an interesting case study. It’s very complex music, they’ve been doing it for quite a while now, and Prakash is only adding more twists: changing old feel-goods into epics, even bordering on self-indulgence but lovable no less. In a city where the single English music radio station puts out the most inane crap the world has to offer with a mere smattering of some golden pop a year too late, it’s truly refreshing to have a pub-full scream for smooth sax jazz over Thermal signature anti-gravity blues. The best drummer I know, of course he can play away physics.

Thermal is on quite a metamorphosis, this is the point where you catch all the gigs you can – it’s all building to something and you don’t want to be missing out. A saxophone really suits them and it looks like they’ll be able to have a lot of fun with it, so I hope they can add Sax Man on more often. Or maybe a horn section. Any brass would do it.

The cops turned up at this point. The neighbours weren’t fans of any of it and Toit does bump uglies with residential Indiranagar, so I can’t imagine this is going to go away easily. There were troubles with an open space – noise spread. Mr. Complaining Neighbour, just wait till the metro starts.

“There’s a saying Milo – If it’s too loud, you’re too old.”

Tell me you know what flick that’s from.

Ashim D'Silva

Ashim D'Silva is a grinner. He's a lover. And a sinner. He plays his music in the sun. He daylights as a web designer, bicycles everywhere, and bought his first real shirt last year. You should bring him a sandwich. With bacon, and avocado.

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Interview with Thermal and a Quarter

Priyanka Shetty Priyanka Shetty Priyanka Shetty Priyanka Shetty Priyanka Shetty Priyanka Shetty

Thermal and a Quarter is a band based in Bangalore, notable for their focus on original music at a time when the nascent Indian rock music industry focused on cover songs, and their innovative use of the Internet to reach out to new audiences. Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ to the impatient) is: Bruce Lee Mani (guitars & vocals), Rajeev Rajagopal (drums) and Prakash K.N (bass). WTS had an hour-long chat with the band and famous flautist Ravichandra Kulur at Hard Rock Café, Bangalore and here’s what they had to say…

WTS: Your music is truly Bangalorean, yet it appeals to people from other cities as well as other parts of the world. What do you have to say about that?

Rajeev: Music is not limited. Any form of music that’s done with passion, with a lot of love, will not limit itself to one community or one area. It will really transcend to all kinds of people. I remember we played in Cochin once, at a.. it was like a fish market kind of place, with folk people over there…

Bruce: It was in port Cochin, in a place called the ‘Chinese fishing net’ and the majority of the people in the audience there were fishermen. There were probably about five people there, who spoke English as a first language kind of thing… We played an hour long gig. It took a little while for people to sort of settle in but after a while they were all grooving, all of them were like clapping along!

Rajeev: And it worked! It works in a place like HRC where the whole format is understood, it works in a corporate office, in colleges, in different countries…we’ve been to Islamic countries to completely western countries. Any kind of music for that matter! A lot bands come here also, who play different music in different languages, who play only instrumental.

Bruce: Exactly! That’s the whole point of music, music is supposed to transcend!

WTS: You “unfailingly surprise listeners and critics alike” – looks like you’d hate to be slotted! Is that a conscious effort you make while coming up with songs?

Prakash: Not really, but then after we’ve made the song we sit back and think, now what is this it has some reggae it has some rock, some progressive parts, so there is no label we ourselves can put to it.

WTS: We thought its Bangalore rock!

Rajeev: Yeah that’ what we call ourselves now!

Bruce: That is our label now! For the longest time, people had great difficulty in categorizing our music. You know… you had to put your CD on some shelf! Where do I put it? Do I put it in jazz, or rock, or pop, or jazz- funk-rock-pop-blues- something? Is there a shelf like that at all? Doesn’t exist, right? So we figured that if somebody had to come up with a label, it had to be us. I think we are a very Bangalore band. All of us are Bangaloreans. We’ve been here for a long time and there is a strong identification with this city and everything it stands for – the hangover British thing, the very cosmopolitan nature it has ,the kind of people who are in it and out of it all the time… so the label that we sort of put together is “Bangalore Rock”.

Rajeev: And actually you are probably the first media/website to hear from the band directly that “Yeah! We’re called Bangalore rock!” So yeah! Good one! This is truly historic! (laughs).

WTS: Rhzude sadly had to part with the band. So how that affected the band and the kind of music you make considering the fact that he was a part of it for 11 years? Must be a big void that he’s left?

Bruce: Ah well! I wouldn’t call it a void because big man is sitting over there right now. I must say he has very, very ably picked up what we do. I think as a band, it’s definitely different with somebody new like that coming in, especially when you had someone playing with you for 11 years, which is a long time by any standard. We are really lucky to be able to play with Prakash. As an accomplished bass player, he’s been able to fit in with what we do almost effortlessly. It’s gonna take a while for us to develop a new sound with him. Right now we’ll have to work out all the old stuff, and then slowly progress to writing stuff with him. That’s happening again organically, which is the way we like to keep it! It shouldn’t be anything forced or put upon. It should come naturally. And that means a lot of playing together and that’s what we’re doing!

Rhzude…well, he was with us for 11 years and it was a choice he had to make, simply because, I guess In everyone’s life there is one time when u have to decide that, “Hey! Am I gonna keep doing things this way, or another way”, and it also depends on what stage in life you are at that time. Rhzude’s much older than the rest of us and we figured that it’s a different stage in life that he’s in right now. It didn’t make sense for him at this point to do this and the job and things like that…it was a call he had to take.

Rajeev: It’s not easy for the band…We’ve had this feeling twice- first when Sunil Chandy left the band. It was suddenly this, “Folks! What’s gonna happen now?” Well, it was much, much more difficult. The beginning of this year and the end of last year… we knew there was a transition in place. It was a tough phase.

WTS: Was it a spontaneous decision to have Prakash on board or had you guys been planning on it for a long time?

Bruce: When Rhzude couldn’t make it for a few gigs, Prakash is like the first call bass player in Bangalore. People want a bass player, they call Prakash. He’s just the dude. We worked with him a couple of times and it was a good experience. Which is really great! Our music isn’t the easiest kind of music to learn immediately. There we say so ourselves again (laughs)! He was first on our mind. He can probably tell you how he felt. I don’t know if he was like “Oh no! Not them!”

WTS: Quoting from your website, its about one of your CD covers. It says, “The magnificent roach is a metaphor for determined longevity, the stubborn grit to be there in the future” – an impressive analogy – what is that one thing that makes you tick?

Bruce: I dunno…Ravi how many years have u been playing?

Ravi: Playing flute? Umm…Probably 26 years.

Bruce: Wow! Ok! That’s almost as long as we’ve been alive! (laughs) So have there been times when it was really difficult for you?

Ravi: Always! Sometimes it’s great sometimes it’s not very great! It’s all a part of any good musician’s journey. He has the power to go on!

Bruce: Yeah! So there are down times and there are up times – like the cockroach! There are times there when no one’s squishing you, there’s lots of food and it’s comfortable, and sometimes there isn’t and you have to survive! And survival takes tough skin. Takes determination. I think Sting put it really well – ‘It takes this sheer bloody-mindedness’. I just gotta do it. I don’t care! I don’t care what you say, I don’t care what you think. I’m just gonna keep doing it, then you survive!

Rajeev: You know the thing about the roach is, sadly everybody hates the roach. It’s really sad. (everybody laughs) I mean it’s just another thing there! Why should everybody look down upon something that’s so amazing as a creature! You nuke the whole planet and the cockroach will still survive! There are ways to look at things, so that’s how we looked at the whole roach thing!

WTS: You guys seem to be a part of a lot of initiatives! Like ‘Shut up and vote’ and ‘One Small Love’. We don’t see many bands doing that. Do you use music as a medium for addressing social issues?

Bruce: From the beginning we’ve always tried to do so through our lyrics! The bands that turned us on, the bands that we all looked up to, they told stories, talked about typical music topics – love, falling in love, falling out of love, rebellion, rock, things like that. People like Bob Dylan, people like…umm… Pearl Jam wrote songs not just about every-day topics but also things that resonated strongly with a social message, saying that this is wrong, it should not be done this way or there’s a better way to do something. Music is very powerful that way! A song can stick in someone’s head and maybe it can change some aspect of people’s behaviour just because it’s so powerful. For us it’s always been important to try and be relevant.

People like Cat Stevens, I can quote from almost any of his songs. He wrote them 40 years ago. But even today the lines will mean exactly the same. They will still be as relevant now as they were then. That is something very special. It’s not something that u can enjoy for 6 months and after that it’ like, “Ah, that’s old!” It’s gotta be something that not just transcends race and language, but also time.

Increasingly in the entertainment industry, the way the people consume music evolved, there is this tendency to go for the short shelf-life but really high selling commodity. That’s what makes business tick, but through all this, there is still this undercurrent of music that’s been selling for the past 50 years and does not stop selling…it’s a small thing but it’s ALWAYS there. And they call it “the long tail” nowadays. It’s like, you might sell very few but you continue selling for a very long time. That just makes sense! I guess that’s what we’re at… we’re trying to be relevant, to sing or communicate in a way that people 10 years from now will say, “I can still listen to that song and it still makes sense!”, and not say, “Oh! That’s so ’96” or “That’s so ’85!” It’s gotta be “That’s so …true!”

WTS: “TAAQ is not just about the music… it’s a bubbling revolution waiting to take shape.” How do you intend to stir up a revolution?

Bruce: It depends on what kind of revolution you’re talking about! We’re not asking people to get up in arms or trying to tell people to sack their government or do things like that I think the revolution is more in your mind, its about being open to lots of new things. The world is shrinking and shrinking, everybody’s mixing with everyone else and as Russel Peters said, soon we’ll all be brown! (laughs) Increasingly, people have to become more open minded they cannot hold on to racial, cultural, ethical, religious boundaries, they are all blurring and getting more mixed up. It’s sad in some ways, cos some people are losing things that they held close to them but it’s inevitable because evolution takes its own course. For us the revolution is more in your head, to open up and accept and do what you do best!

Priyanka Shetty

Priyanka Shetty is the founder of What's The Scene? Follow Priyanka on Twitter @priyanka_shetty

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