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.
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