<p>Music styles change as fast as fashion fads — here today, gone later today. Before one could say, “Let’s boogie-woogie to disco, punk and new wave,” these had already waved their goodbyes. <br /><br /></p>.<p>But rock music is apparently made of sterner stuff. It has proved to be more stubbornly stable, starting out in the early 1960s and surviving through several passing genres and generations.<br /><br />“Rock will never die. Rock music is like a strong pillar that will be there for a long long time. And I am not saying so just because I play this kind of music,” says Subir Malik of Parikrama, one of India’s pioneering rock bands.<br /><br />Subir further elaborates on his theory of rock. “We have been playing for 22 years now and have seen different styles of music come and go. Even in India, there are music styles like grunge, techno-based music and Indi-pop. But rock is the only music that is always there. It might take the form of peripheral styles that are based on rock, like Hindi-movie songs that use rock tunes and instrumentation.”<br /><br />Poetic tune<br /><br />If someone were to tell you, “Don’t worry if you are experiencing Whiskey Blues, for, Open Skies is not far away, and it just means you are in orbital revolutions,” you would probably refer the person to a good psychiatrist. But if you are a Sanskrit lover, you will know that Parikrama means orbital revolutions. And if you are a Indian rock music lover, you will know that Whiskey Blues and Open Skies are two of Parikrama’s hit tunes.<br /><br />Parikrama started out as an ordinary rock band back in 1991, featuring Nitin Malik as lead vocalist, Sonam Sherpa on lead guitar, Saurabh Choudhary on guitar, Subir Malik on keyboards, Gaurav Balani on bass guitar and Srijan Mahajan on drums. They also got a little help from their friends, Imran Khan, who added his violin virtuosity, and Shambu Nath his tabla and percussion sounds, to the ensemble.<br /><br />Even as starry-eyed teenagers, the band members had spent their time wastefully, listening avidly to the sounds of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. They decided that when they grew up, they would be just like their hard-rocking heroes, mistreating their instruments and torturing their parents and neighbours with high decibel attacks.<br /><br />Over the years, after a little soul-searching and a lot of sound-searching, Parikrama evolved into a bigger and better band. For instance, their early songs were of the classic rock variety, but more recent tunes like Tears of the Wizard have a more metal feel to them. This change in style was triggered by the band’s United Kingdom tour. They discovered that the music scene in the UK was heavier and more metallish. And that’s how Parikrama ended up as a classic rock band ‘with shades of metal’.<br /><br />And 22 years later, they are still rocking their fans in an ever-changing music scene. And the changing face of Indian music is a good thing, thinks Subir. “In the 1980s and 1990s, there were very few rock bands in India. But today, there are loads and loads of bands, which is a welcome change. The biggest change of all is that musicians are playing their own music, instead of doing just covers of other bands. <br /><br /> Another big change is that the age of musicians is reducing by the day. There are brilliant 12-year-old guitar players and excellent drummers who are 14.” And what is behind all these dramatic changes in Indian music? Subir says the reason for this is that there are tons of great music schools, international-standard equipment available in the market and online, and one is able to learn music from internet lessons and YouTube, thus making music more accessible to everyone.<br /><br />Distinction<br /><br />But what really sets apart Parikrama from the mundane is its unique, non-commercial attitude towards music. Instead of scrambling to record, release and reap the rewards of commercially produced studio albums, the band encourages fans to download songs for free from their website. And Subir explains how this happened in the first place. “In the 1990s, the audience for English music was limited. And fans of rock music were even more scarce. So how many CDs could we sell? About 1,000 or 2,000? Even if we sold 5,000 CDs, what would be the point? It would not be commercially workable. So instead, we decided to try and make our live shows profitable.”<br />In Europe and America, it’s a different story — a band’s success is usually measured by its merchandise-marketing abilities. But in India, this is not an organised industry. So, as a generous gesture, Parikrama decided that at every show, they would give away memorabilia, CDs, videos and t-shirts for free.<br /><br />And how do they get away with giving out free stuff? “That’s because music is not an earning source for us, we play because we love music. We encourage fans to download music from our website or from our Facebook page. That way, our fans will be able to organise songs into a one-of-a-kind album, according to how he or she perceives it,” says Subir. <br /><br />And giving away free music is not the only unconventional thing that Parikrama does. If there’s one thing most musicians shy away from, it’s politics and controversies. But Parikrama’s song But It Rained was something they felt strongly about — the kidnappings in Kashmir by extremists. “If someone is killed, one comes to terms with the event. But if someone is missing, people who are left behind suffer a terrible world of uncertainty. That’s what the song is all about,” explains Subir.<br /><br />“...the waters in the seas are high<br />and all the sand castles have drowned…<br />How I thought the sun would shine tomorrow <br />But it rained…”<br /><br />A bit pessimistic, but that is part of the karmic charisma of Parikrama.<br /></p>
<p>Music styles change as fast as fashion fads — here today, gone later today. Before one could say, “Let’s boogie-woogie to disco, punk and new wave,” these had already waved their goodbyes. <br /><br /></p>.<p>But rock music is apparently made of sterner stuff. It has proved to be more stubbornly stable, starting out in the early 1960s and surviving through several passing genres and generations.<br /><br />“Rock will never die. Rock music is like a strong pillar that will be there for a long long time. And I am not saying so just because I play this kind of music,” says Subir Malik of Parikrama, one of India’s pioneering rock bands.<br /><br />Subir further elaborates on his theory of rock. “We have been playing for 22 years now and have seen different styles of music come and go. Even in India, there are music styles like grunge, techno-based music and Indi-pop. But rock is the only music that is always there. It might take the form of peripheral styles that are based on rock, like Hindi-movie songs that use rock tunes and instrumentation.”<br /><br />Poetic tune<br /><br />If someone were to tell you, “Don’t worry if you are experiencing Whiskey Blues, for, Open Skies is not far away, and it just means you are in orbital revolutions,” you would probably refer the person to a good psychiatrist. But if you are a Sanskrit lover, you will know that Parikrama means orbital revolutions. And if you are a Indian rock music lover, you will know that Whiskey Blues and Open Skies are two of Parikrama’s hit tunes.<br /><br />Parikrama started out as an ordinary rock band back in 1991, featuring Nitin Malik as lead vocalist, Sonam Sherpa on lead guitar, Saurabh Choudhary on guitar, Subir Malik on keyboards, Gaurav Balani on bass guitar and Srijan Mahajan on drums. They also got a little help from their friends, Imran Khan, who added his violin virtuosity, and Shambu Nath his tabla and percussion sounds, to the ensemble.<br /><br />Even as starry-eyed teenagers, the band members had spent their time wastefully, listening avidly to the sounds of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. They decided that when they grew up, they would be just like their hard-rocking heroes, mistreating their instruments and torturing their parents and neighbours with high decibel attacks.<br /><br />Over the years, after a little soul-searching and a lot of sound-searching, Parikrama evolved into a bigger and better band. For instance, their early songs were of the classic rock variety, but more recent tunes like Tears of the Wizard have a more metal feel to them. This change in style was triggered by the band’s United Kingdom tour. They discovered that the music scene in the UK was heavier and more metallish. And that’s how Parikrama ended up as a classic rock band ‘with shades of metal’.<br /><br />And 22 years later, they are still rocking their fans in an ever-changing music scene. And the changing face of Indian music is a good thing, thinks Subir. “In the 1980s and 1990s, there were very few rock bands in India. But today, there are loads and loads of bands, which is a welcome change. The biggest change of all is that musicians are playing their own music, instead of doing just covers of other bands. <br /><br /> Another big change is that the age of musicians is reducing by the day. There are brilliant 12-year-old guitar players and excellent drummers who are 14.” And what is behind all these dramatic changes in Indian music? Subir says the reason for this is that there are tons of great music schools, international-standard equipment available in the market and online, and one is able to learn music from internet lessons and YouTube, thus making music more accessible to everyone.<br /><br />Distinction<br /><br />But what really sets apart Parikrama from the mundane is its unique, non-commercial attitude towards music. Instead of scrambling to record, release and reap the rewards of commercially produced studio albums, the band encourages fans to download songs for free from their website. And Subir explains how this happened in the first place. “In the 1990s, the audience for English music was limited. And fans of rock music were even more scarce. So how many CDs could we sell? About 1,000 or 2,000? Even if we sold 5,000 CDs, what would be the point? It would not be commercially workable. So instead, we decided to try and make our live shows profitable.”<br />In Europe and America, it’s a different story — a band’s success is usually measured by its merchandise-marketing abilities. But in India, this is not an organised industry. So, as a generous gesture, Parikrama decided that at every show, they would give away memorabilia, CDs, videos and t-shirts for free.<br /><br />And how do they get away with giving out free stuff? “That’s because music is not an earning source for us, we play because we love music. We encourage fans to download music from our website or from our Facebook page. That way, our fans will be able to organise songs into a one-of-a-kind album, according to how he or she perceives it,” says Subir. <br /><br />And giving away free music is not the only unconventional thing that Parikrama does. If there’s one thing most musicians shy away from, it’s politics and controversies. But Parikrama’s song But It Rained was something they felt strongly about — the kidnappings in Kashmir by extremists. “If someone is killed, one comes to terms with the event. But if someone is missing, people who are left behind suffer a terrible world of uncertainty. That’s what the song is all about,” explains Subir.<br /><br />“...the waters in the seas are high<br />and all the sand castles have drowned…<br />How I thought the sun would shine tomorrow <br />But it rained…”<br /><br />A bit pessimistic, but that is part of the karmic charisma of Parikrama.<br /></p>
