and the D-day comes close(r)

I understand this is not a regular blog, or so it appears.

Well, maybe I'm jittery to report progress. Being a strong follower of Murphy's laws maybe pushes me to not do a few things. I try and avoid being in such an awkward situation.

I guess (and hope) that updates would happen now, more often.

Well, hello to all the folks who took time to read this. Make sure your friends know about us. They better know now that we'll be known soon :P

About 6 years of the inception of the band. Band members came and went. But it stood all tests of time and geographic locations. Interests still remain the same. Idea and goals still remain the same. Only delay is with the execution of things, which, I feel is trivial compared to the driving force behind it.

I can now safely make a statement that we are coming out with an album. 6 years. Not many happening shows. Not many crazy fans. The thought of the album, as I recall was born as early as 2008. Neither did we have the resources nor the gear. Only thing that has continued to be with us is the love and support of well-wishers and friends.

Again, playing around, I'll not reveal much details about the album right away. I feel its all like making a movie sometimes. Maybe its more difficult than that, but the problem here in this country right now is the utter callousness with which music is seen. Its always 'music' that compliments the movie, 'background score' for a movie, 'item songs' for the mass, etc. There is a fraction of people who can really appreciate music, and I'm glad to know that that fraction is increasing in size. Can we all come together and actually support new and original music in today's times? With media being so strongly used, with social networking providing for ample support and publicity, with language barriers cutting across music in live concerts, I sincerely hope we do.

Let me keep the blog short for now. I'll just say the recording is happening, quite on a leash. Things will be made known to public when they are ready.

More soon.

A Celebration!

It so happened, that on the third anniversary of BlendzZ, I was in India, but for some myriad reasons, but nothing much happened. As fate would have it, I was in India in the last week of September, through mid October and the exact day of the birthday of Vinay, happened to be a musical celebration of sorts.

Like it is said, things that happen by chance have a far more touch of intrigue and excitement than what would happen as per plan.

It was mere coincidence that I landed in India, in the early morning hours on the 26th. Later that day, I get to know that Jairaj also, was in Bangalore on a vacation. 27th was Vinay's birthday. We thought we'd go and surprise him and boy! Was he surprised! It took him 2 seconds to come out of the trance and actually recognise me and Jairaj near his house.

It was at that instant, that we decided that come what may, it'd be a sin and a blunder we'd regret for the rest of our lives if we didn't jam atleast once. Come on! It was for the band, for the time, for the 3 of us being there at the same time!

Without much fuss, (and only Vinay's usual delay, that happened "by chance" that day (too) :P) we started jamming. Jairaj's tabla was totally in a mode that couldn't be played, he compensated for it, with his dhol, Vinay's faithful guitar still obeyed his fingers, my keyboard still made a noise and we'd a new entry for company. The Macbook Pro, on which I'd later record and edit songs and realise how easy it is to do so. It was unfortunate that Sandeep wasn't there, and the two critics who were in Bangalore at that time, couldn't be a part of it.

All said and done, the jamming session didn't produce any masterpiece. Hell, it didn't even produce a full song. It was apparent that each one of us lacked practice and the obvious moments were given a miss. I guess its over time that our mind runs faster than what we can actually do with instruments, and for that part to be realised, we don't have enough time to spend on the instruments or amongst ourselves. But I realised that there is one thing that we needn't devote much time to. The camaraderie. Jairaj may not have spent enough time on percussions along with his MBA. His boisterousness remains. He can come up with an infectious rhythm and keep us going. Vinay and I, realised this thing between us even during our last jamming of 5 minutes, during my previous visit to India that we needn't sit down together for days to understand each other musically. Still, he goes to a random, out-of-the-scale chord pattern and I hit the exact same note while singing, all this without plan.

The 2-hour-or-so jammin session of BlendzZ (well, partially) after an year or more of lull. It was excitement, happiness and feelings that cannot be conveyed by words. I guess that is what music does.

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Yeah, coming in a little late but. :)

The previous June, Blendzz completed her two years of formation. This blog was intended to come in a few weeks earlier, but i thought what the hell, anyway!

Ok, for the recent updates, Jairaj is in Mangalore, doing his course in Management, Vinay is in Bangalore, busy doing his computer courses, I'm in Texas, doing my Post-Graduation. The band's new find, Sandeep Nataraj, is also in Bangalore. For the record, he's the new guitarist who jammed with us, unfortunately for only a couple of times. 

Plans were made, plans went awry and I would say, its all time. Time is the best judge in the court of life. Till THAT fortunate time arrives, no matter what decision is taken, no matter how it is taken, it won't get realised.

So, two of us in different directions, what would happen to the band? Frankly, we didn't give it a thought. The band is very much still on, still together, and I fervently do hope that there would be loads of things to look out for, when we get together. There were moments of uncertainties and moments of awkward discussions between the band mates as to what would happen after this short term break. I'd like to give this stage in life and music a term called TEST. A TEST for compatibility, a TEST for endurance, a TEST for music, itself.

I'm sure you'd agree with me that when you see a visual, a song video, or a movie, listening perfect music that would go hand in hand with that feeling or expression that the song conveys teleports you to some place divine. The mere thought of we, trying to create something out of nothing gives me a great turn on, which again puts in more thinking into my mind to living upto the standards we mentally set for ourselves.

All this wouldn't be possible with constant criticism and encouragement from the PANEL members of the band, criticism about voice modulation, about string section, about lyrics, about the feel, about the guitar chords - almost about everything. I'd like to call them secondary music arrangers. :)

So much for now, we've come a long way, for which i'm glad, all of us are. We've a long way to go, live through this TEST and wait and see what time has in store for us!

La confusion! La confusion! Pourquoi?

Like one of the lines of the song that was written.. '..change is the only thing that's constant., the way of life survives on it...' Change is totally inevitable. The best thing is to perceive it, is to believe that whatever happens is for the good.

Blendzz and Nevermind. 2 bands that came together lookin' forward to have a great time. The result? NO. This not a predictable hindi movie. Yes, we did have a great time together. Many great songs were born, many good friends were made, lots and lots of new ideas were thought of. Yeah, i know you are sensing a 'but' there, but there ain't one! :P

We created a fusion of the bands months ago. Things were fine till we realised that it would be best if we actually concentrated on what intentions the bands were made with, rather than plain and simple jammin'. That led us to 'part ways' and make sure the thoughts didn't tangle with ourselves!

The most general notion that anyone would get when someone mentions a 'parting' or a 'split' is that someone was pissed, someone fought, or someone broke someone's tooth :D. For those who are wondering which of these happened between us, i'd like to say 3 words, BALLS TO YOU! If you can't understand how a split can occur without a bad experience, yeah, you are at the right place to realise it - this is how it can be done. :)

We both are still there, to help each others out in any situation, and i really don't know why even the mention of all this is necessary! ;)

So, here we are, the rejuvenated bands, trying to get experimental with new stuff. Lookin forward to some great music, and some great shows too.

The journey

i've never made blogs.. never had written account for the things done.. but one year and more, (and still counting) into blendzz, i just thought lemme just put few things down.. it all started when vinay shantagiri and i started weird jammin sessions (if we can call them that!) at the hostel in SIT.. with rubarooo.. luka chuppi.. and the some-chord-some-rhythm-some-vocal pattern we did spontaneously.. gosh! all seems like yesterday! having had no contact with aravinda, managed to find her, (thanks to orkut) and my idea of years was few weeks away from reality.. 'ok.. we are a band.. what next??? who'll give us shows?? what kind of music should we play??? do we have enough people??' were quite a few questions that plagued us.. all thanks to kiran and aravinda, we thought it was a lot more relaxing to not concentrate on all those issues now.. it was decided we'll make new songs.. no matter how difficult it'd be.. frequencies matched, 'mahaganapathim' was rehashed.. 'inspiration' was made.. 'pyaar' was made (of course, the intention was to make a song on world peace.. that changed to friendship, which then changed to love! :P) 3 songs old, and the band started growing.. individual talents started blossoming.. jairaj joined the band.. he kept the percussions going.. the 'nevermind' duo karthik and shankar joined us too.. lots of new songs came up.. solo compositions started showing too.. i can't remember all the compositions, but the ones that have stood out are 'geLeyare' that was made like spontaneously for the tumkur show that never happened, (shanky, the lead rocks) 'eternal flow' that is so deep, 'teri yaad' that is wonderfully mellifluous..

there have been a zillion changes since 22nd june.. i bought a yamaha psr e 403, (fully knowing how limited my keyboard skills are! ;)) we performed once at the JN Tata Auditorium, we found lots and lots of people - amit, ramya, rohan, we opened up our minds for various genres, karthik started writing lyrics, vinay started writing and composing, (well, if he keeps making songs like hope, he can release an album all by himself in a few days :D) shankar made a song called 'just like you' which, i feel belongs to that 'special' genre, oh.. and i started writing too :D, THE find is definitely NITIN.. the drummer with whom all of us gelled instantaneously.. the brother band - 'nevermind' blossomed - with the recent show at koramangala, karthik bought some super guitar.. (i'm a guitar illiterate.. wouldn't know much about it :P)

So far, so good.. lookin forward for some more songs and music.. and of course, more shows.. :)