The band of boys

Since 2005, adding colourful contours and silently shaping up the music scene in the City is the four-piece ensemble ‘Ministry of Blues’. Their music is routed to the classic, soulful tunes of blues yet the band is quite unconventional in their repertoire. The band uncovers legendary songs by Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix and Robben Ford in their own style and they add modern rock elements to classic blues music. The quartet sees a burst of energy and excitement in every concert that they play at. Over the years, ‘MoB’, as they are fondly called, has grown in quality and received a bouquet of appreciation from fans across the City.

Their current line-up includes Philipe on vocals and lead guitars, Vinoo on bass, Rauf on vocals and keyboard and David on drums.

It is evident from Vinoo’s chirpy voice that the love for the pure, acoustic genre is what has made the band stay for long. He says, “There may be other genres like electronic dance music which people are very interested in and want to dance to at weekend parties but the blues will always stay. It is a tactile genre that people look for as it connects to the heart. Other genres may come in as bolts of lightning but blues has a few universal elements which appeal to all.”

Their lyrics are directly connected to their life experiences and sound like they promise happy little trips to the world and back. Vinoo adds, “Our guitarist wrote a song on how he hates to work a 9 am to 5 pm job while I wrote a song called ‘Deep in debt’ when I was deeply in debt.”

He is also extremely happy that the audience reception to the blues has been increasing dramatically and that more bands who play blues or sub-genres of it have come up.

One of the age-old ensembles that has witnessed the ups and downs of the music industry and it’s changing faces overtime, Vinoo is happy to talk about the music scene today. He feels that it is a lot easier for youngsters to take up music professionally and distribute their music because of the increase in opportunities. He explains, “Musicians made money by selling records in the olden days. Now, one distributes songs on the internet so people look to make money through live performances.”

He adds that live performances are still popular despite the growth of the internet and recorded albums. “The experience of a live performance and listening to recordings are very different. Bengaluru’s live performances have grown to a large extent that one is actually spoilt for choices. A live performance carries a high spirited energy and audience interaction which fans look for.” However, despite the changing tunes of the music industry the only fact that remains constant is that these trailblazers will continue to show their love for blues in style.