suraj mani- the singing sensei

While you have the time.

Just came back from a practice session at Kochi with the guys. First practice this year and it sounded real nice.

We were looking forward to the IIMA gig on the 26th of Jan and the IIMB gig on the 1st of feb at bangalore. The IIMA Chaos 2008 gig got rescheduled due to a tragedy at campus. Its hard when you are the person that a tragedy happens to, especially something like a death in the family.

All one can say to the sufferer is that , "this too shall pass". And it really has to be said. I've often met people who have lost a family member and who are shattered by that moment. It has always been and always will be difficult to offer consolation to someone at such a moment and i have often felt inadequate with the  solace i could offer.

I still force myself to go up and tell them that things will be fine and that they should take courage and move on as best as they can. I've been in that situation myself and even today i take comfort from the memories of how a few loved ones, friends and even strangers gave me a pat, or held my hand and said a few kind words.

Not saying what you can, (whatever it may be), will always leave something incomplete in your relationship because you did not have the courage to stand by a loved one, when maybe all that he/she needed was only the comfort of your presence.

The solace you will offer to someone at the time of loss, may seem out of place at that moment but someday it will provide exactly the sort of relief that is needed.

Believe me, no one is spared.

Perhaps more importantly,the most urgent thing that one learns after facing death is this- it makes you understand that the best time to turn around and tell the people you love, that you love them, is right now.

While you have the time.

Early 2003- Rex Leaves. 2005- Deepu joins motherjane

 

We were on top of the world. Everything and anything seemed possible. Big plans were being laid by the members of motherjane.

 

That was when Rex chose to leave! He wanted to pursue a different type of music and since we could not help him, we decided not to stop him either. (He is now part of an exciting new band called “avial”, which is making waves with their first release in the offing!)

 

We were at a very tough phase in our journey. Indeed, the journey itself was at threat.

 

We managed with Sunil from ‘evergreen’ helping us out for a number of shows and even Mithun (one of  motherjane’s founding members) joined us briefly. We grew tough, during those years and we became one of the most sought after live acts then.

 

We did just one show with Mithun, IIT Chennai- 2003. It still remains an awesome moment for the band and the 10,000 odd people who took us into their hearts that night. There were people buying tickets in black that night and the queue stretched all the way to the main road. Life was rocking.

 

However the most important thing that a band should be doing was evading us…. making new material. Though Mithun was a wonderful guitarist, the kind of music he liked was markedly different & the vibe was never really there. I already had about 5 or 6 songs written and was waiting for the band to be ready. I couldn’t fathom what it was that we were waiting for.

 

After 3 years in the wilderness, motherjane found what we were waiting for in the form of a new guitarist called Deepu V.S, late in August 2004. Deepu had returned after 10 odd years of playing guitar with 13 AD in Dubai and joined us as a stand-in guitarist for one show a Hyderabad.
 

Then came IIT Kanpur, then BITS PILANI, a pub gig with RSJ in Delhi and the vibe was back. In the 2006, the band was talking again, planning, plotting and moving with an intensity and enjoyment that reminded us why we were really doing this.

 

I started writing the remaining songs. motherjane had just started a new phase on its journey and the seeds of “Maktub” were being planted.

The songs start flowing (no 7,8 & 9)

The next song we did was “Soul corporations”. I remember how we had some sort of a fight in the band , when we were at a friends music school where we were supposed to perform. There was an uncomfortable silence and John decided to break it by getting stuck into the rotos attached to the drum set there. It was that different tone that set us off on the riff and the accompanying chords. I already had some lyrics ready and I started singing along.

 

The inspiration behind the lyrics was a conversation that I had with Sudheer (my partner Sunil’s brother) at a get together. He was in the advertising industry and was making a clever observation of how the cross has become one of the most recognizable brands in the world and how the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ took it all around the world like marketing managers. It was an interesting, maybe even slightly inflammatory observation. (If you are a devout Christian, relax, no offence was meant. Christ himself said so many things that were considered inflammatory in his lifetime. The rest of the song was built around my reaction to the hype and manner in which the Ayodhya issue was still being used to create and divide our wonderful country along communal lines. Another song was getting ready.

 

But it just wouldn’t finish. Soul corporations was a good example of how sometimes a song will make you wait until you are ready for it.

 

 

We decided to try other things. Baiju played me a riff one day on his guitar. It had a time signature that I still don’t understand! He very sweetly asked me if I could sing anything in it? I abused him roundly and affectionately and that was the end of that song. (at least I thought so)

 

In 2001, sometime in May I moved to Bangalore for my business. The logistics involved in making even a practice session happen were horrible. Making new songs was getting to be very challenging without being in the same room.(it still is.)

 

We kept at it because we had 6 originals then. They were the children that kept us working at our marriage even as we suffered one inconvenience after the other.

 

I kept writing. That was something I could do independently and I did so. “Soul corporations” developed a lyrical bridge as a result of the writing process. Luckily for all of us, Baiju called me one day and said he had some chords that he’d like to play before launching into the solo. My musical bridge had appeared. Serendipity strikes once again!

Song no. 7 had reached motherjane.

 

I was driving home one day after work in Bangalore. It had been a bad day and I was in no frame of mind to accept it at that. While taking a turn around a round about near the cantonment station, the lyrics for the chorus in “Walk on” came to me.

 

It seemed to fit exactly into the riff that Baiju had played to me earlier a few months back. I sang the melody in my head and drove the next 2 kilometers home with that melody so that I wouldn’t forget it. I reached home, called baiju, and sang the tune asking him if it would fit into his crazy riff. It did. “Walk on” was written that very day and I was ready with the song when the band met for the next practice. The drum patterns & music for that song was composed after I went back to Bangalore. I heard it at a practice session organized just before our next show.

 

 

The show was NLS 2001. We were widely tipped to win the entire fest and the organizers actually asked us to play at the end of day 1 prelims, so that we could have a little longer time on stage. We were all excited and ready.

 

On the day of reckoning, a faculty member was found dead on campus. The show was cancelled. We were devastated.

 

It was the best thing that happened to us!

 

As we walked off the campus, we decided that there was no point in playing endlessly at all the competitions happening in the country. The future lay in finishing our album and recording the same. From a semi–pro status, motherjane instantaneously graduated to a professional act. It was a decision that made us face the necessity to invest time and money in getting a studio album ready.

 

I wrote "Ssh.. listen" around that time and for a seemingly long time, that song also chose to make us wait. It was a blessing in many ways, because that was when we changed the chord sequence of “Maya” and the song became what it is as we play it today. Ssh.. listen was also readied in the same session and we ran into the studio with the last 3 songs of insane biography and started recording.

 

It took us almost a year to record and release our first album called, “insane biography”.

We were so broke and studios were so expensive that we recorded for 6 days at first, went broke, waited for 3 months and then recorded for 3 days. Went broke again and sent it for mixing and mastering to Didier Weiss after 6 months.

 

In 2002, motherjane released “insane biography” , won the award for best Indian rock album and was touring extensively as a result of the album popularity.

The last lines in insane biography are something that reflect what I had always told my mates in motherjane when all that we were attempting was just a distant dream in our minds.

 

“And listen to the insane prediction

Reality wavers in the face of conviction.”

The songs start flowing (no 4,5 & 6)

We set off on a pilgrimage of all the competitions that the country offered. With every outing, we emerged bigger and stronger than before and our fan base was growing. More importantly, so were the number of our originals

 

Somewhere during our trips, I found myself on a bus trip with the band and my wife achu tagging along. We were talking about life in general and how pain sometimes keep revisiting you after that moment has passed. She fell asleep on my arm somewhere in the middle of that conversation leaving me with a sudden urge to write.

 

I started scribbling thoughts that came to me on a small scrap of paper that I had in my pocket. It was pitch dark, no lights and a moving bus. The next day in the morning, I couldn’t read what I had written!

 

But as I stumbled thru those jumbled words that I had scribbled while half asleep, I remembered what I had wanted to say. The song “Questions” was written for my wife and I still tend to dedicate it to her whenever we perform it. (Something that is normally accompanied with many “oohs” and “aahs” and “so sweet” by the female section of the crowd!). She still has that little piece of paper and won’t give it to me.

 

We played this one at the Ancient Mariner and I remember Nithin saying that it sounded something like a “Vanchipaattu”. (a style of songs associated with the fishing folk in Kerala)

 

I was now hooked on the band and attended practice regularly. Between work, marriage and music, my life was full. One day I remember coming home with some problem on my mind. As a result of that I missed a very important smile from my wife. Later with better perspective (which is always easier when the problem has disappeared) I realized my folly and out of that came the song “Prison chains”.

 

It still remains one of the harder songs that we have, where melody has not been given much importance, maybe influenced by the frustration that the song talks about. If you have been at a motherjane show, you may have heard me say, “this song is to remind you that work  is an important part of life, not life itself”

 

Then came “An ode to life”. I remember how I had gone to Trivandrum for my aunt’s funeral. I was sitting outside near the grave yard, listening to the priest giving a sermon. It seemed to me that I had heard the very same words being repeated some15 odd years after my mother had passed away. It was ironic how life keeps replaying so many scripts and how none of us are spared of the inevitable ones.

 

I remember writing down 4 lines that seemed to say it all for me. I never thought it would become a song really. However, a few days later I had gone to AM for practice and Baiju was playing some classical piece on the guitar and saying that it was something that just came to him and that he didn’t know what to do with it. I said , “just play that again”. He did and I sang the following four lines into it.

 

“Death continues to stalk us

Sometimes gently, mostly not

I’m at the age when loved ones die

And as I live, I understand why.”

 

 

To be continued

motherjane at NLS, 2000- “Strawberry Fields”

We were there! It was a new feeling for us. We were the only band from kerala and we were seeing guys from Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and all over India. It was overwhelming and exciting as hell. We met and made friends with all the bands that were staying with us at the NLS hostel.

 

Next day we were on stage! We had an early slot, being one of the unknown bands then. Most of the bands playing before us looked like bands! They had attitude and flaunted it with a confidence that spoke of lots of practice. We were getting jittery and feeling slightly out of place. I remember telling the guys that what we had in our favor was the way we played and our music. We decided to concentrate on playing well and forget about everything else for the moment.

 

motherjane got on stage, took a look at the small gathering of long haired metal heads and music lovers there and started its set. 2 min into our set, people started popping out of the woodwork! The third song we played was our original “Mindstreet” and suddenly we were connecting majorly with the guys out there.

 

motherjane walked off that stage to an entirely different world that day. People started walking up to us and talking to us. At the end of day 1, we were known and looked upon with liking and acceptance by a lot of the musicians and audience there.

 

We were also learning fast. We watched all the other bands and started to sub consciously pick up important tips from the way the other more experienced bands behaved. We knew that we would be much better off the next time we got on stage,… if we got the chance.

 

We did. We scraped thru into the finals scoring with nothing more than a quarter of a point over another band. motherjane was in the finals along with four other awesome bands -Threindoy( the ultimate winner), Zero (who are still around as one of the top bands in India today), Cryptic and  Angeldust

 

We were the first to play and played with a lot more confidence than the prelims.The audience loved us. We then got into the crowd and watched the other bands play. We were learning again. (We have never stopped since then!) Each one of those bands taught us something new and gave us food for thought.

 

That year at Strawberry fields, Baiju won the prize for best lead guitarist and Rex won it for the best Rhythm guitarist. The band experienced its first taste of recognition outside of Kerala. Most importantly, our originals were rocking and a new phase of our journey as a band had begun!

Feb 1st- Unmaad 2008 (IIM Bangalore)

Hey there,

Bangalore, motherjane is going to be playing at IIMB on the 1st of feb at Unmaad 2008.Time 7 pm

We are gonna give it all we've got so lets rock the shit out of the joint.

Entry is 100 bucks (which in todays context is free!) keeps out trouble makers so that u can have fun!

be there.

If you would like to sing along with us (& we would be honored), please download the award winning motherjane album "insane biography"  on this link.

regards

suraj

Jan 26 - Chaos 2008 (IIM Ahmedabad)

Hey everyone,

just wanted to let you know that motherjane will be performing live at IIM Ahmedabad's fest Chaos 2008 on the 26th of january 2008.

Now I guess you would have to be an adult or at least used to adult timings because the show will be at  12.00 am (midnight).

This will be followed by a rock competition and general madness i presume!

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

It would be awesome if you could sing along and this here is a link to download motherjane songs from the award winning  "insane biography".

guys and girls, lets rock!

love,

suraj

Join the Motherjane mailing list

Dear everyone,

If u want to, you can join motherjanes mailing list thru my blog right here. You can also give us feedback as to how we can improve our contact with you.

warmest regards

suraj mani

 


 

Song no 2 & 3.

After we finished “Disillusioned”, I felt a different sense of satisfaction. I mean, for me it was the first song that I had ever been involved in creating. There is a sense of wonder whenever you do something like that for the first time (and if you are really lucky, you will feel that wonder every time you are involved in anything creative.)

 

We kept practicing “Disillusioned” over the next few days, each time polishing it further and casually playing it between our set list that boasted mainly of songs from Iron maiden, metallica, dream theatre etc.

 

We had a small group of friends (Nithin, Ravi, Dan, Niyas, PP etc) who would hang around the Ancient Mariner and who gave us that initial encouragement that emboldened us and encouraged us to make another song.

 

The second song that I wrote was a song of social relevance which also held an undertone of personal realization. On the surface, it is a song about the Indian girl child and on a deeper level, a song about how we abandon our special talents in our race to lead a normal life as defined by society. (Check out, “I meet my maya” for the inside story)

 

“Maya” was in our initial opinion a slightly unimaginative song. All of the guys in the band thought it was boring with a few good moments here and there. The song never really had a melody that worked as a chorus. (This “defect” was rectified a year later during a jam session where we attempted a chord change that brought about what has now become the chorus.) Today it is one of our most requested songs at any show that we do! Just goes to show that in the creative process, one should not throw out the baby with the bath water.

 

We now had 2 originals, which was a pre requisite to perform at “strawberry fields”, a prominent national music fest held by the National Law school. We decided to go for it.

Practice involved songs like Aces high, 6’ O clock, Master of puppets, 2 min to midnight, Disillusioned & Maya. One day after practice, we were winding up and Baiju suddenly played a small piece that Rex had played sometime earlier. Rex immediately started playing some clean chords to back up the piece and Clyde happily joined in. I started humming a melody and we were moving along nicely. I think John got irritated with the predominantly melodic piece, because he walked back to the drum kit and completely changed the time signature of the song with a 4/4 beat that contrasted almost brutally to the 7/8th

pattern we were originally in. The immediate response from the guitars was to launch into a distorted riff and suddenly the skeleton of a song was ready.

 

We were all a little surprised at what had happened and I went home with the tune running thru my head. I wrote the lyrics for a song that night. The words just came tumbling out. Next day, I was at AM (ancient Mariner) with the lyrics and trying to sing them along with the music. I went along nicely and then got stuck at the chorus. I remember asking Baiju, “can you change the riff so that I can sing along?” He told me, “can you not layer the chorus over this riff without getting distracted by it?” I tried and “Mindstreet” was ready! The only thing left to do was to put in a solo. That took a day.

 

We had one more original to take with us to NLS. Things were suddenly getting exciting around motherjane!

 

“Let’s make a song” – how we did it the first time.

We all met at the ancient mariner at the appointed time. John, Baiju and Clyde (the established 3 of motherjane) , Rex and I (I think both of us thought of motherjane as their band, since we were so new.)

 

Opinions came out. 5 different opinions, from 5 different people. What made it painful was that the opinions were on how the other person should play. I for example got a pretty big hint that I was to attempt singing trash style.

 

It was crazy. It happens with every band.

 

I remember asking no one in particular, “what about lyrics?”

 

Pat came the answer, “Write anything. Nobody really bothers with lyrics”

 

My dear readers, do tell me otherwise. If you are a person that takes joy in reading lyrics, please comment on which of our songs you like. I now take unbelievable pleasure in writing & it’s one of the duties as a motherjane band member that I love! If you are a janehead who likes our lyrics, I must thank you for giving me this wonderful job.

 

Way back in the year 2000, sometime in August or September, I had to mentally nod my head in agreement with that observation. In fact, I rarely bothered with the lyrics of a song myself. Except for the odd one, that became part of my psyche.

 

Well now that I had to write, I found myself wanting to do the best that I could. Problem was, I didn’t even know what to write.

 

I sat down at one of the tables and stared despairingly into the backwaters that surrounded the ancient mariner (which eventually swallowed it up as well). John walked by and said, “why don’t you write a song called Disillusioned, you look disillusioned!”

 

The words started flowing. They flowed because of how appropriate they were to express and not because they were intended to impress.

 

The band regrouped around this central concept and “Disillusioned” our first original made its way into this world. Somewhere at the core of that song, motherjane as a band celebrated its differences while working together towards a common goal.

 

It remains an easy concept to understand and at some particularly tough moments, a challenging one to practice. 

 

I can’t resist quoting the first lines that came to me with this wonderful band that I now call my own,

 

“ I have a dream that consumes me.
I bring along a simple question.
Can your perceptions be my reality?
Will mine become an intrusion?”