Hi all,
Here's hoping everyone is doing good, or atleast trying to (please note, Good is not the name of a person, not anyone I know at the very least)!!
Well, I just got back from Kolkata, after playing a couple of shows there. I feel extremely grateful for all the support that is extended to me by my family and friends, and I feel it is only fair that they should have an idea as to what is going on.
For those who don't know, I was asked by Kolkata based band _RoCKBAaJ_ to join them as their guitarist. Now normally I am very reluctant to leave the comforts of my home for anything, but somehow I managed to convince myself to go see what it is all about. Another major reason that persuaded me was that they had a very prestigious show in the offing: A chance to open for MOTHERJANE. Now my knowledge of the Kolkata music scene was extremely limited, so I really didn't know what I was getting into. In terms of pure facts, _RoCKBAaJ_ have played 16 shows in the last 2 months, to the extent that I am able to live off of my own money, and that wasn't about to happen anytime soon, since I decided not to join Infosys. The stage experience is invaluable, and I'm pretty sure that if my bandmates from previous bands were to play live with me, they'd find a major difference.
These are amongst the upsides, and the magnitude of this is extremely significant, especially in the knowledge that I am working my way to being a professional musician. I am getting paid for my services, and getting paid to an extent where I can provide for myself and survive without turning to family coffers. The thing about being a professional musician is, that I could be sitting at home and making great music, but I'd just be a musician then, you can only become a professional musician if you get paid for what you do.
The reason why we get so many gigs?? To put it bluntly, we are a good band with good musicians. There is another major reason however. We play commercial music. Quite simply, we play the songs that people want to hear. The scene in Kolkata is such that the most famous bands there aren't their metal or jazz gods, but the bands singing in bengali and making money by the truckloads by playing live shows with hefty performance fees. So we exploit that and play the famous songs that they want to hear, and they don't have to shell out 1.5 lakh per band to listen to songs, since our fees are considerably lesser. We're playing Hindi, Bengali, English songs each set depending on what the crowds ask for. The percentages are such that Bangla tops, followed by Hindi and English.
My friends might ask me, why do you need to do this? You never played such things in school or college. To them I say, guilty as charged. As a matter of fact, I haven't heard half the songs _RoCKBAaJ_ play on stage, I just asked my bandmates what the structures are, in terms of chords and stuff, and I play my own solos. So why do I do it?? Well it is quite simple really, this business is one of endless struggle, where one has to balance one's hunger with one's dreams. I am simply trying to find that balance. I am not ok with living off my parent's money and making the music I want. I want to be self sufficient, so I shall continue playing this music, so I can earn and eat, and hopefully have enough to fund my own music, and all on my own, without having to beg. The next phase of course is when _RoCKBAaJ_ makes original music, we hope to make music that is relevant and shall find the same popularity that the top bands enjoy.
So this is how it stands as of now, we are playing shows and earning a living, and the small amount of goodwill and fame that comes with it. The time for pretensions is over and hard decisions have been made, believe me, I spent days pondering whether this was something that I wanted to do or could do with conviction. Anyway, the decision has been made and I am sticking to it for now.
Thanks to all of those who have taken the time out to read this, and to those who always take time out for me. It means a lot. \m/
