JOIN USThe regional finals of the ‘Hard Rock Rising — Battle of the Bands 2013’ were recently held at Hard Rock Café (HRC).
The competition has been an ongoing one. First, the public voted for their top eight bands using a song-download contest, while the ninth one was selected by the judges themselves. There was a weekly competition through March, where by random selection, three bands each would perform and one from every round found a spot in the finals.
The top three qualifiers for the regional finals in the City — ‘Space Behind The Yellow Room’, ‘AKS’ and ‘Divine Raaga’ — fought it out and the earthy sounding Indian rock band ‘Divine Raaga’ emerged the winners. Keeping the format of the 30-minute-slot to play three songs, they started off with a new song they have written named Khiloney, the lyrics of which spoke about how one can change their destiny with the work one does.
Banjara, a soft rock song was next, and the last was ‘Brothers’, an optimistic song on the unity between India and Pakistan. “It was very special for us because exactly a year ago, we performed our first live gig for the same competition but didn’t make it. Over the year, we have gradually improved and are really proud of ourselves. It feels really wonderful for the band to win and represent India,” shares Ananyabrata Chakravorty, a representative of ‘Divine Raaga’.
“Our main competitor was ‘AKS’, which is a really big name in the scene. It was a strong competition, but I think what did the trick for us was our flautist, who was outstanding, and our vocalist, Buddha’s crowd interaction,” he adds.
The band, along with the finalists from the five other HRCs in India, will go on to compete with close to 100 other bands from around the world. The overall winner of the competition will win a world tour of HRC venues, a music video, $10,000 in new gear and an album recording.