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.”
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