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27 Dec

The Big Pik of the Month

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Zee’s Umeed works, musically at least!
Zee TV has closely collaborated with its creative agency Draft FCB Ulka to develop their new corporate brand TVC. Produced by Equinox, it captures the protagonist in the TVC—the girl-child—and her desire to succeed. Quoting them, “It’s a metaphor for the woman, echoing the emerging paradigms with fresh beliefs and a zest for life.” Lending credibility and her soulful voice to this tribute along with noted playback singer Kavita Seth, is Snithi Mishra, the young girl from Orissa who is also a Sa Re Ga Ma Pa prodigy. The film is directed by one of India’s highly acclaimed ad film-maker, Ram Madhvani while the hummable music is composed by Rajat Dholakia. We may not agree with the packaging of the logo design, but the alongside jazz with this soulful song definitely got us sitting up and taking notice!

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28 Oct

The Band that Grew up

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Three decades later, 4 Tune Kookies makes a comeback with two new music videos. Back with a bang, their classic rock flavour is more mature; we catch up with frontman Ronnie Desai to find out what the band’s been up to.

One of the biggest classic rock cover bands of the 70s has regrouped, albeit in a different avatar. Theirs has been an interesting journey from fulltime professional musicians to ordinary people, and then back to musicians; time has spoken – these musicians are here to stay.

 

Babu (Saiprasad) Choudhary - Lead Guitarist

Babu (Saiprasad) Choudhary - Lead Guitarist

Way back in the 70s, four young lads in their early 20s ditched everything for rock and roll. Frustrated by an ever-changing line-up that had people walking in and out, they chose to be called ‘People’; unfortunately the name stuck even after the line-up was standardized. This band had Ronnie Desai as frontman, Babu Choudhary on lead guitar, Hosi Nanji on bass guitar and Ranjit Barot handled percussion.  Playing every major college event and festival across the city; ‘People’ was a highly sought after band.

 

While they did have some original tracks, ‘People’ mostly covered contemporary artists of the 70s – The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd – on popular demand. They always had a surplus of gigs lined up and made just enough money to keep them going; during these years they worked wholeheartedly as professional musicians with no other source of income. Sadly, a little money is never enough and at the end of the 70s, their performances drew to a close.

 

When their glory days as ‘People’ were waning, this crew decided to put a decade of music behind them and began looking for the kind of jobs that would not only pay the bills but also make their lives a little more comfortable. Ranjit Barot was lucky enough to retain his career as a professional musician by moving into a better paying industry –Hindi film music. The others were forced to get ‘real’ jobs; Babu Choudhary went into his family’s textile business, Hosi Nanji set up his own business and Ronnie Desai ventured into advertising as a copywriter; little did he know that this would bring his band back together several years on.

 

Derick Gomes - Drummer

Derick Gomes - Drummer

Working as a copywriter took Desai into some of the major advertising agencies of his time; he began with Lintas (which is now called Lowe), he then worked at Chaitra (now Leo Burnett) and finally Enterprise (now Bates). Being involved in the composition of several jingles he was well acquainted with the ad fraternity and gradually decided to move back into the music industry. “I noticed how much money was being wasted in hiring studios to produce our jingles” explains Desai, “I realized we could have better options.” As soon as it was possible, Desai and two other partners set up a studio to cater to the sound recording needs of the ad industry. This studio did so well that Desai was able to open a string of studios, with creative names like Sound Bar, Ear Drum, Band Wagon and Sound Slap, within the next ten years. Today, Desai and Choudhary run a production company – Musica – that caters to several high profile ad agencies and bigwig Bollywood film producers.

 

Having their own studio made it easy to produce tracks and the original members got back to making music once again. That is, all except Ranjit Barot, who had to be replaced by Derick Gomes, due to his other commitments. Back together, they called themselves 4 Tune Kookies to reflect the quirkiness of their band.

 

4 Tune Kookies is aware that that the 21st century has arrived, so their promotions carry their flag with a nifty whiff of ‘viral’ action to help them set sail. This tech-savvy band began by creating a net presence with the release of their first song, ‘I Don’ Need’ on YouTube. As a first release, this cute, fresh, animated video with hippie culture tunes, introduces you to their mellow, laidback sound. Their lyrics are spattered with renewed teenage angst and feel-good flavours.

 

The introductory video was followed up by a hilarious song that takes a peek into the life of an overworked, underpaid ‘Bade Kompany’ employee. This spunky video quickly garnered over 7,000 views and allowed the band to interact with the adoring public through the video channel’s comments section. “With every music video, we gain more fans and more people get introduced to our music” says Desai revealing that the next video is in the pipeline and should be out within a month.

 

Going the modern way of digital distribution, 4 Tune Kookies released their music on Sa Re Ga Ma’s online store for as low as Rs. 9.50. “Although we will collect a statement from Sa Re Ga Ma at the end of the year, we probably don’t expect to make a lot of money through online sales” Desai explains, “Our videos are being aired on popular music channels like VH1 and on radio channels as well, we’ll probably earn much more in royalties than through sales.”

 

With a classy new age strategy in place, what’s next for this classic rock act? This band is constantly writing music and they plan to produce new songs and videos consistently. Watch out for ‘Pakistani Spy’ – their next video and their next six to eight tracks – which will be released through the course of this year; and who knows, may be they’d be performing at a stage near you very soon.

 

18 Oct

On the Menu – Avial

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Carrot, Potato, Beans, White Pumpkin, Peas, Egg Plant, Coconut, Green Chillies, Red Chillies, Cumin Seeds, Tamarind Paste, Salt, Yoghurt and Curry Leaves combine to create this tangy dish relished by the people of Kerala. Off late a newer version of this all time classic dish has emerged and people seem to love the taste. This one however is for the ears and the sound is provided by the association of Tony John, Rex Vijayan, Mithun Puthanveetil and Binny John. Together, they are best known as Avial.

Avial

Avial

“We sing in Malayalam so we never felt the need to have a name that was English, so to speak” says Rex Vijayan who handles guitar playing duties for the band. “Still a lot of people who aren’t from Kerala thought Avial is not a very Malayali sounding name.  Even when we go abroad, people always want to know what it means as it sounds very global” he says.  Within Kerala the idea that a much cherished eatable was going on to represent a band didn’t go down too well at least initially. “Our friends were questioning our seriousness of it all. To them Avial seemed like a fun name and we are pretty easy going people so they felt we were simply carrying that image forward with the band.”

Avial catapulted to fame across the country after their first single Nada Nada was released in 2003. They also shot a music video for the song and it was released by SS Music. The tremendous responses they received to the song egged them to go further and continue in the same vein. “The fact that we sang in Malayalam is what helped us get that success initially, and those who do not understand the lyrics look upon the vocals as another instrument that accompanies the song” says vocalist Tony John.  The guys within the band knew each other even before they came together to form Avial and Rex reckons that it was natural that they sing in their mother tongue. “There was never a plan to sing in Malayalam before but whenever we met even just to jam and chill out, we used to sing old Malayalam songs. Also we like how poetic it sounds, very unique for someone who hasn’t heard it before.”

Avial - In Performance

Avial - In Performance

Their conviction to continue to sing in a language that cannot be understood by majority in the country has only strengthened as the years have gone by. At a time when most Indian bands are trying to ape their western counterparts, bands like Avial strongly feel the need to get back to their ethnic roots.  “I listen to Italian, Brazilian or any other kind of music that sounds good. A song like Macarena for example finds a connection because, end of the day it is the music that matters” says Tony.  Avial’s faith in the local language seems to be well placed and one wonders if it offers any guarantee of success when compared to the English speaking fraternity. “I can only say that it’s best to do what comes naturally to you. For us it happens to be our mother tongue and there are bands who are really big in India today and have made it through singing in English” says Rex.

Avial do not write the lyrics for their songs. They like to borrow folk songs from the past or in what can be described as a first for a band, have specialists who write raw, folk sounding lyrics around which the band weaves its tunes. This rather uncommon method is preceded by the band members helping their writers out with a theme and even pictures to help them grasp the vision that the band has for a song. “These people are mostly our friends and they happen to be very good at writing these songs. When you come to think of it, Folk music and Rock music have this very raw feel to them, which is why we feel that it is good to combine both. Also we are particular about how the lyrics sound to the ears when sung, and the people who work with the lyrics have a very good understanding of these requirements which makes it good for us” informs Rex. Most of Avial’s songs are reality based and are related to the political and social happenings within the country.

Avial

Avial

Avial released their first self titled album in 2008, four years post coming together. This was an extraordinarily long time by any standards and their second album is still in the making as we are made aware by Tony John while he speaks on the subject. “The thing is, we are all very lazy people by nature! (A fact which was also corroborated by Rex) We don’t go in with an intention to produce a song, it is all very instinctive. If you ask me how much of the second album is made, I would say probably up to thirty percent of it has been put together in some shape or form!” he says.  Going by that it would possibly be easier to estimate the delay rather than the arrival, not until mid 2012 would be our guess. “We normally jam and then have a tune and the grooves in place” says Rex. “But, when you get back to these things after a few weeks, they may not sound as appealing as they did when you came up with it. So in order to move ahead, the music that we do must surprise us.” Tony’s house serves as the unofficial ‘headquarters’ of the band and the band normally prefers to hang out doing nothing too productive on most days. “Most of the stuff we do, we keep changing it and then finally get tired and delete it!” he says. One glance upon their Facebook page, or the comments on a video suggest that the pressure to release a second album is steadily building but they remain determined to do it their way.

Prior to the release of their very first album, they were a five member band.  The powerful, booming and raspy vocals heard on most of their first album (except two songs which had Tony’s vocals) were sung by former vocalist Anand Raj Benjamin Paul. His departure certainly left many of their fans somewhat discontent. “It was sad. He got married to an American and is now settled in the US. However Rex and I had put a lot of work into the production of the album, we couldn’t have stopped there” says Tony as he reminisces back to the sudden and possibly the only really difficult time of the band’s journey so far. “Post his departure, it was tricky for us because people heard his voice on the album and mine when we played gigs. However I believe that our fans are fiercely loyal and have shown it by sticking with us. Yes there are those who are hardcore fans of Anand’s voice, and they’d miss that element but there isn’t much that can be done about it” Rex feels that not too much needs to be made of the differences as there are some differences which are basic in nature too. “For example Anand looked very rugged himself, and that went along with his vocals too! Tony is more sophisticated when it comes to the stage presence and looks you could say but as a vocalist, though different, I feel that he pretty much nails all of our stuff.”

The latest to come from Avial is a song called Aana Kallan (Aana means elephant in Malayalam and Kallan means a thief, which translates to elephant liar or big liar) as part of the Malayalam movie ‘Salt N Pepper’. The response to this song has been phenomenal in Kerala and there is a feeling of content within the band. “We actually bought a book which had folk lyrics in it and Aana Kallan appealed to us and then a tune was born” says Rex. While Rex was quite happy to lend their music to the movie industry based in Kerala, not everyone in the band shared the same opinion. “I was hesitant at first” says Tony. “I thought it was bullshit to be honest but Aana Kallan related to this character in the movie and we had the song written, it just had to be worked upon before we had the final product ready.” The success of the song has helped them gain a mass appeal within Kerala. While Avial was already popular with the people who followed the scene, it was still a band that was left wanting mainstream recognition. “The man on the street possibly got a taste of Avial the band” says Rex. While this might surprise many who read through this article, there has always been a feeling within the band that they were better known outside of Kerala rather than within their home state. This makes the success of Aana Kallan dearer to them.

Avial - Tony John, Rex Vijayan, Mithun Puthanveetil and Binny John

Tony John, Rex Vijayan, Mithun Puthanveetil and Binny John

Their popularity outside of Kerala is demonstrated by the sheer numbers of people who can sing along the choruses to their songs which are sung in Malayalam. Also they are one of the very few bands who have managed to perform abroad. “One of the fondest memories I have is of a Mumbai college which was full of Gujarati students singing along to our songs” says Rex. He couldn’t recollect the name, and hence we stick our neck out to say it could have been Narsee Monjee or Mithibai in all likelihood. Aadu Pambe with its monstrous guitar riff and masterful arrangement remains the bands favorite song to play to any crowd. “I really like to see the crowd jumping along to that one” says Tony. “There are other favorites too like Chekele, Karukara, Ettam Pattu, etc.”

As they are about to sign out, we are tempted to ask what they prefer more – the band or the dish? Both Rex and Tony declare their undying love for, take a deep breath – the dish! “We all are big Avial (the dish) fans, so it is unfair that you ask us to choose! In fact you cannot ask this question to any self respecting Malayali!” they say.

Well, we prefer the band too. Nada! Nada! Nada! Nada! Nada!

 


Article by Vignesh Iyer

07 Jul

Jamming with the Star!

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Nikhil D'Souza

Nikhil D'Souza

There are countless number of youngsters and adults alike who harbor dreams of making a career in music. Though more often than not, we stop short of converting these dreams to reality. Yet, there are some who cherish these dreams and are heard humming Pink Floyd tunes or tapping their feet while typing away on their computers at work. As Yosef Hayeem, a budding singer and guitarist puts it, “I am going to be a musician someday. Not a rockstar – a pure and true musician. I am just waiting for the right time and the right opportunity to come my way. After that, it’s just going to be me and my music!”

Jamming with the Star

Jamming with the Star

Well, here came the opportunity. Dream Makers Entertainment, an entertainment & artist management company came up with a contest wherein all that one had to do was record a song (in English) and mail it across. The entries were to be screened by the singer/songwriter Nikhil D’Souza himself.

So why did they choose Nikhil D’souza of all the artists? On this Tanya Seth from Dream Makers Entertainment says, “Well, apart from Nikhil being one of our clients, he is open to such events and collaborating with fresh and new talented artists.”

Nikhil D'Souza

Nikhil D'Souza

The finale which took place at Blue Frog on 28th June, 2011 saw a set performed by Nikhil and like always, had the audience engaged and excited. However, the highlight of the evening was the announcement of the winner Rohan Rajadhyaksha. On what really made Rohan stand apart from the rest, Nikhil says, “I was going through the email entries and I came across Rohan’s which said that I am a 17 year old boy and I like writing my own songs and composing them. I knew I had to open this email and listen to him.”

Performing his very own composition, the 17 year old humbly speaks of his feat, “I am of course very excited. This was quite a surprise as I never expected it. I didn’t think of winning as I thought there would be many more talented and experienced people apart from me. This is of course a great chance and platform for me to learn and gain valuable exposure.’

Apart from getting a chance to jam with Nikhil, Rohan has also won himself other perks such as a solo show at Candies, Mumbai, Gift Vouchers worth Rs. 11,000/- , an exclusive photo shoot and an Artist Management deal from Dream Makers.

The contest received a great deal of response and the team at Dream Makers Entertainment hopes to host more such events in future. The concept is unique and provides an excellent platform for upcoming artists to showcase their talent and at the same time interact and perform with an experienced musician, thus helping them learn and develop their skills.

And how was it working with Nikhil? To this, Shreya Naik, the Founder of Dream Makers Entertainment says, “He has been extremely co-operative. It was fun working with him. We hope to do more of such shows with him in the near future. Nikhil is a rising international star today and we only expect his popularity to increase greatly in the coming days.”


Article by Divya Naik

 

14 Jun

The Big M meets Ehsaan at Palm Expo 2011

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Guess who we met at the Palm Expo 2011? Ehsaan features on The Big M’s latest issue & he personally dropped by to sign a few copies of The Big M for his fans! He was all praise for The Big M magazine and it was a pleasure to see him drop by.

Did you get a chance to grab one of The Big M copies signed by Ehsaan at The Palm Expo 2011? If yes, share your experience with us by writing to us at feeback@thebigm.co.in or by posting your experience on The Big M wall on Facebook!

Ehsaan Meets Big M

 

 

Ehsaan Meets The Big M

 

 

Ehsaan Meets The Big M Team

Ehsaan meets The Big M

 

The Big M At Palm Expo 2011