Comments
When it’s time for the silent song at The Piano Man Jazz Club in New Delhi, the audience is quiet, the bar is closed. On Saturday, the song the Big Bang Blues plays is a departure from the everyday themes of love etcetera.
“Why are the children’s bags being checked?” asks the song, simply titled ‘Thoughts’. Other lyrics are more direct, “People deciding which god is the best/ While the trees are being cut to build their nest.”
The band opens with a captivating instrumental piece, delivering both blues and rock. Yet, even as it brims over with talent, its lead singer nudges audiences, half-jokingly, to go and like them on Facebook.
“Music is always a struggle.” Take it from Diyatom Deb, who, among his many avatars, is frontman of the Big Bang Blues.
Deb has a voice that will make you sit up and listen. At 31, he is already recognised by fans at airports, and in his native Shillong, where he has a loyal fan base — young and older kids stop him for autographs.
“That’s one thing that The Stage does,” he says, speaking of the reality show that gave English-language vocalists like Deb what it promised: a stage, and an audience across India. Deb made it to the Top 9 finalists in Season 3 of the show, which aired on Colors Infinity. Following a North-East tour with the Big Bang Blues, he continues to attract fans to live music venues such as the Piano Man.
Another tour kicks off this month, taking the band to Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and back to Delhi/NCR. Making it to the small screen may seem like a singer’s ultimate dream, but making a living out of music is a more difficult task. Deb’s Twitter bio says it all: “I sing. It does not pay much but I love it.”
For the members of Big Bang Blues, as for many others, this means taking up several acts in different bands, playing various genres of music, and teaching music at schools.
Sushant Thakur, guitarist and the band’s founder, says this is because “India has not accepted originality in the indie scene.” Bands like Junoon, Euphoria and Indian Ocean broke the mould in the ’90s, finding an audience for their music. Today, bands find it easier to stay afloat by copy-pasting the more marketable Coke Studio or Bollywood formats.
The Stage is a step in the right direction. Often, attempts at bringing indie to mainstream have succumbed to, what Thakur calls, the ‘Bollywood monster’, such as the 95 FM Morning Breakfast Show , an all-Western music radio station that turned all-Bollywood.
Even loyal fans have offered well-meaning advice: “Try fusion.” “It’s not technically wrong,” says Barun Sinha, bassist, and the youngest member of the band, “It’s just not what we want to do.”
Interspersed between classics like BB King’s ‘3 o’Clock Blues’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Heard It through the Grapevine’, the Big Bang Blues offers originals at Piano Man. ‘Easy’, written by Thakur, falls soft on the ears, while drummer Akhil Kumar’s ‘Betrayal’ is angsty like Delhi’s recent storm-and-thunder. Deb owns and performs each song with commendable honesty. And for the silent song, the band backs up Deb’s ‘Thoughts’ every bit. They may differ on other notes, but they all believe they can take their music to the masses one day.
“In time it will happen,” says Kumar, citing a number of music schools that shape an appreciation for various genres of Western music — Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music in Chennai, Global Music Institute in New Delhi, True School of Music in Mumbai.
“My parents didn’t want me to listen to English music,” says Deb, whose initiation to Western music involved secretly listening to John Denver’s Greatest Hits on his Walkman. Years later, his mother is proud to see him crooning English songs on TV. It is for such moments that music is made. “It’s so much fun,” says Sinha, “that it doesn’t matter if the money is coming or not.”
For every musician in this four-piece band, music is a calling. Making it big may be hard, but making music is what Chet Baker would call ‘Easy Livin’.
‘Thoughts’ will be released on YouTube and social media on May 25. Also coming up is an album showcasing new southern rock and blues rock tracks.
Chitra Kalyani is a Delhi-based freelance writer covering arts and culture
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.