Rocking the scene

A third-year electronics and communication student of Cambridge Institute of Technology, Darshan decided to learn the guitar while he was in his pre-university days. His favourite song ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ and his group of friends, whom he calls the ‘metalheads’, inspired him all the more. He started going to an academy for classes and once he picked up the basics, he decided to pursue guitar on his own.

With the help of his seniors, who were well-versed with the instrument, he became even better at it. He started looking for the chords of different songs online and practised for four hours everyday. All the hard work paid off as Darshan is now the guitarist of one of the leading bands in the City, ‘Errorz’. He has also been conducting classes for a few students for the last six months and loves teaching part-time as he feels that the more he teaches, the more he learns.

His inspirations are ‘Lamb of God’, ‘Megadeth’ and ‘Iron Maiden’ and he first wanted to learn the drums but couldn’t afford a drum kit. “To expand my horizon, I try even Carnatic scales on my Western guitar. It’s not tough at all. It is actually a lot of fun. After all, music is divine whether Indian or Western and there is a lot to learn,” he says, enthusiastically.
He has played at a lot of events like ‘Garage Jam’, ‘Freedom Jam’ and various college fests. His best moment was when he played with his band in Kerala in front of a crowd of 4000 people. “I felt like a rockstar that day,” he happily recalls.

With the City hosting more EDM concerts, Darshan hopes that metal, too, is revived again soon. He also hopes that youngsters have more places to jam at. “A lot of artistes play at gigs for free which shouldn’t be the case. It is okay if it is an up-and-coming band as they need to get a platform but when managers don’t pay artistes for their work, it can get really insulting.”

Though it’s hard for him to juggle between classes and music, he doesn’t want to give up. He has composed a Western song using Indian instruments. “Imagine a combination of metal beats and classical Indian instruments,” he says, excitedly.