Avial Website Launch at Blue Frog, Mumbai

What a great start to the New Year!!! Well, preparing for this was no less than fun unlimited! Mumbai - The city that welcomed me 21 years ago as a body bathed in blood , fresh with dreams , not knowing that eventually I would never be part of it while growing! My mom always says that I and my sister were lucky to be born at B.A.R.C. for the kind of facilities it offers especially since my Granddad and mom worked there. Throughout my childhood we used to visit Granny every year and all my memories have to do with the traffic and pollution and an ice cream shop called Yankees! Now, I was returning back for a gig of Avial's to Mumbai after 10 long years!!

Nagumomu ganaleni, the evergreen composition of Saint Thyagaraja is something I've been singing since my early teens. I don't know how and when this happened but the krithi came running into my mind abruptly. And that was the exact moment when I knew I had to do this with Avial. So, when I initially discussed the idea with the team they seemed to be skeptical about it as none of them are too familiar with Indian Classical music. I did give them the confidence to experiment with it, and eventually then agreed with a big smile :)

Mumbai is super polluted minus traffic (Guess we were lucky those 3 days!). All of us went for a radio byte to Radio Mirchi 98.3 soon after lunch only to be entertained by the RJ himself! The poor guy who was trying all tactics to make us feel at home was quite surprised to learn despite us being rock musicians, happen to be so silent and subtle in behavior! It's quite a common notion that rock musicians are cool people who talk cool, walk cool, speak cool... but it's not so. In fact, there are many times when I saw youngsters come up to the band members, showing them a 'yo' and they speak words that are considered to be abusive in the dictionary. Anyhow, after the Radio session I had an amazing master class with Rex and Binny who were playing their guitars. Quite interestingly I got to see how the scale changes can be easily understood with certain techniques that are also practiced in Indian Classical system.

Sound check was a bummer in the beginning as the guitar levels were too low and the drums were too high and there was no feedback, etc. With a lot of testing and playing on the stage, eventually got to a point where everyone was content with the sounding. We got back to the hotel for a quick bite and then off to Blue Frog. I was quite surprised to see the kind of artists who perform there. These are the times when I count my blessings. Susheela Raman, Talwin Singh and the likes were the ones who were performing in the days to come. Talwinji for present for our concert. A very jolly human being who was 24/7 praising each and every member of the band.

Ehsaan Noorani inaugurated the concert and sat throughout. The gig opened with 2 acoustic versions of Aanakallan and Kaithola and continued with 'Ayyo', the new song. People went literally berserk every time Tony would speak. I was all skeptical about Nagumo because I was attempting Carnatic after a gap of 1.5 years on stage! Also, the audience was rock oriented, but there were hopes of them accepting it. It was a huge success and I really need to thank God for giving me the power to sing like that! At the end of it all, Chekele was the most-in-demand song and was played again on the stage only that this time; the crowd was singing it :)


So all's well that ends well. It was a fantastic gig, thanks to Mumbaikers and Blue Frog was making it look and sound so pretty. You can take a look at the website here : www.avial.in

You can have a look at the other pics HERE.

Avial Gigs at Blore and Delhi

It all happened so soon that I myself got no time to think over the phone call. The moment Rex gave me a call I was too excited already..Thinking how I should go about it. Honestly I was not excited about performing for the Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week but the whole adrenaline pump that was happening inside me was for the fact that I was finally getting to jam with one of my favorite bands AVIAL !! Well, like I have always believed... my work spoke for itself. Amidst the whole commercial music scene I was getting a little restless about the work I was being offered that too with hardly any remuneration. It's frustrating but fortunately the motivation to work harder never died in me. But today I have to accept that remaining focused is the most difficult job ever! Anyhow, the Blore Avial concert was at the NIMHANS organized by the KEA (Kerala Engineers Association). Right before the concert there was flower (pookalam) competition after which the concert took place. Audience was literally throwing flowers at Rex and Tony for their jamming... it was insane!!! I performed Karukara with Tony and did an old black and white track 'Garjat Barasat ' too.

Delhi ... my first time... reminded me of the clean Muscat. Pragati Maidan looked big and the sets inside for the Fashion week looked even grander. Those guys were just amazing with us. Everything from diet coke to beer to chicken rolls were available there and on the other side we had cranky models who were so tired that they could drop dead right there ! Our designer, though quite tiny in size, is quite intelligent especially when he told us about how he conceived the whole idea of getting a Kerala Band and influencing that culture in his designs too. Hats off to Varun Sardana! It was exciting as we also got to meet Karsh Kale whose pretty cool apart from being a fab musician. In fact he was performing with us on the same day but for a different designer. Nevertheless the experience was fantastic and I would like to thank Avial and everyone who gave this super big opportunity so early in my career !! Here is a glimpse of what we did for the Fashion Week ..I apologize for the poor audio quality though CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO