You often have heard them stringing the guitar, or dashing some crazy beats down the corridor when books alone couldn’t keep the long nights going. The pilgrimage of the rock, jazz, death metal, classical and alike finds its way through the biggest music band competitions across engineering campuses resurgent and kicking. A true haven to the headbangers’ call…

Although a jangle of words cannot capture their undying musical spirit, roll on to see what keeps the music buddies thirsty and wanting for more. 

DEVIANCE

Progressive/Thrash Metal

Band Members

Vishnu : Vocals

Arunabh : Lead guitars

Shrey : Rhythm Guitars

Aditya : Bass

Deepanshu : Drums

Having struggled across a variety of band splits and ups and downs, Deepanshu is a survivor. The uncanny drummer with a laidback smile but quickest chat responses bares all. “We had the most depressing first jam and suddenly one day we got a phone call, “Macha…we’ve got our first gig tomorrw”. ..We pulled it off OK and the crowd cheered.  We played an encore for them and to tell you the secret, we only made two songs. I suppose that’s how new bands start. In just two months of our existence, we were asked to prelude Riviera, the official VIT fest in the Headbangers Ball. Each second is becoming so competitive but we love it as at the end of the day you get to play your music.”

SEVEN SPOKES

Alternative Progressive Rock

Band members

Saurav: Guitars/backing vocals

Shreyans: Bass/backing vocals

Jaideep: Drums

Anand : Vocals

Joshua: Keyboards

To rise above the stagnant music scene and create heartfelt original music sans genre restrictions, it was these guys who pooled in their creativity to create 7Spokes back in August 2008. Saurav, the guitarist, who keeps finding ways to make chords sound weirder with influences ranging from John Mclaughlin to the likes of Opeth and Porcupine Tree. “Nothing beats the feeling when you see that music you are making is living soul for many,” he chips in. While recalling some of the moments of glory, he said, “After having performed in one of the local college competitions, we were mobbed down by the audience who kept asking how they can download our songs and where we are playing next. We almost felt like celebrities. Sometime later we heard the organizers of that college had ripped our songs off from our myspace account and were distributing our songs among their friends and that we had built a huge fan base.”

POINT BLANK

Hard rock/Metal

Shailanchal : Vocals

Kaushik : Guitars / Backing Vocals

George: Guitars

Shiva : Bass

Sanjay: Drums  

Having experimented with different genres, mixing and matching heavy metal, reggae and hard rock as they went along, Point Blank still remains very much in love with their fans dedicating creative music pieces in return. Shiva, the band’s bassy and electrician and Mr. Literary, says, “We've also had really bad shows. Once during a competition Kaushik's guitar's tuning went for a toss and we had to retune in the middle of a song. In Jipmer, Kaushik turned around to encourage Sanjay when Sanjay lost his grip on his drum stick and it went flying and hit Kaushik straight on the head.  Shailanchal also whacked me with the Mic stand once (Trying to go Freddy Mercury). But I suppose the reason we've gotten through all these bad patches together is because we sit together and work harder each time to improve as Musicians and as a Band.” Shiva prefers to shrug off the goof ups as creative liberty.

ALAAP

INDI-POP

Manmeet:  Vocalist 

Shishir:  Guitarist

Kabir: Guitarist

Abhishek:  Bass

Kalpesh:  Drummer

Vaibhav:  Drummer/ Coordinator

A drummer who worships the likes of Steve Harris and John Lennon never thought that his kind of music would only gather a few cheers at a Music band Competition in his city. For past three years that heavy metal and rock bands are mushrooming in small cities, the bands find few opportunities and even fewer takers. “Apart from a couple of College competitions and a few cultural fests around the town, our successful performances are limited to metros. We give what listeners want and keep experimenting songs and mix match ROCK in Hindi. Many times people mock us but we feel what’s the harm in playing what people want!”, says a candid Vaibhav, the drummer. A runner up at BATTLEWIRE- Rajasthan’s biggest rock fest, Alaap is by far the most commercialized band of Rajasthan with a soothing folk flavor pepped up by rock. Reminiscing, he adds, “Perhaps our best performance has been VANDE MATARAM….we LIVE this song every time we play it.”

The music band movement in technical colleges can very conveniently be defined as a pure student initiative with colleges shying away when it comes to organizing them. As George Francis (Committee Coordinator- Pro Shows), who recently brought Motherjane to perform for Riviera- ’10 in VIT, comments, “While organizing a music event of any scale, space is never a constraint in most technical colleges and internet is a free of cost creative marketing instrument.  However, since music is not something that college will readily pay for, we look for roping in companies that sell music or its tertiary companies like Furtados or Reynolds for sometimes they even sponsor the prizes along with a decent sound and lighting package.”

The challenges can be many and pulling off a band takes more than just a good show. Sayon Pramanik, the Guitarist of Crusades band from Jaipur, laments, “Just to keep our passion and skills alive, from registration fee to travelling expenses, all are covered from our own pockets while going for an event. Not to forget the no- relaxation policy of colleges as far as attendance is concerned.” Talking of the mega music events in campuses, he says, “They’d rather invite Bollywood singers than a simple band like Aryans who can still be referred to as a decent band.”

All we can hope is for some more headbangers and a little more compassion from the colleges themselves. Taking the dimension of college music events a level ahead, the Livewire (Mood Indigo, IITB) last year reached out to even the regional colleges by holding a Delhi and Bangalore leg apart from the one in Mumbai to shortlist candidates. “The enthusiasm was reflected in the 204 teams that applied, out of which 60 were shortlisted,” reflects Rishi Sharma, the CG Member of Livewire and Pronites. “Even though the prize money might be low at times considering the finances, where we score is when we let the winning bands prelude pronites. This is in itself a grand opportunity for upcoming bands a gigantic crowd puller.” There is no stop their spirit and hence music lives on, even if its Nothing matters in a small shady room of the hostel or death metal across the corridor.