Kathmandu:

It seems this happens mostly with the famous and the Indian rock band too ‘lost’ luggage in flight to Kathmandu. So, one could get to talk with just three of the band members — Subir Malik, Nitin Malik and Sonam Sherpa — while the rest were busy at TIA in their quest to find their missing luggage. But despite the tension, the three were cool with no ‘rocker attitude’ which people usually assoiciate with rock stars, especially the ones who have shared stage with international rock legends like Iron Maiden, Incubus, Metallica, LimBizkit.

The band is here in the Capital to perform for the Nepali rock music fans.

They recently performed at Download Festival 2007 sharing stage with legendary rock bands and made history for being the first Indian rock band to perform at Download.

“We’ve been in the music field for the last 17 years and it’s been a very exciting journey. We have seen lots of changes in the rock music scene,” says Subir Malik (key board and synthesisers).

Elaborating on the Indian rock scene he says, “Its getting better and bigger everyday. We can see more and more pub gigs and festivals going on.”

To which the band frontman Nitin Malik adds, “The audience are giving importance and demanding original compositions: that is not only a positive change but also very encouraging.”

Apart from the two, the band has Sonam (lead guitar), Saurabh Chaoudhary (guitar), Chintan Karla (bass guitar and back vocals) and Srijan Mahajan (drums).

Despite performing non-stop around India and abroad, they manage to give a different performance every time. “We keep record of the songs performed in every gig and ensure that we don’t repeat them again anytime soon at the same venue,” says Subir. He

is confident that they won’t have to worry about their choice of songs for their performance in Nepal as the last time they performed here was almost a decade ago when they visited in 1998 and 1999.

They feel that audience response during the show is very important to enable the musicians to give their best. “Crowd reaction and enthusiasm is 100 per cent important for a rocking gig, and at the same time it’s our job to make sure the crowd enjoys it. It’s a give-and-take relationship,” says Nitin.

They basically prefer performing their original numbers as those are what they stand for. Nitin, who is also the lyricist, says that their lyrics are inspired by life and its experiences. “Anything and everything inspires me. Songs are about expressing yourself, and what can speak louder than your experiences. So our lyrics whether it is on the Kargil war, deforestation and even the one that I wrote after The Lord of the Rings have some connection to life experiences.”

They have a long list of favourite artistes and bands they wish to play with. “Coldplay, Porcupine tree, U2, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, I can just go on,” admits Nitin. He confesses, “The biggest challenge is the first two minutes on stage. It’s always overwhelming with all the visual and audio extravaganza and then and there you decide how you going to rock the crowd.”

Talking about the Bollywood flick on rock music Rock On and any changes it has brought in the way people view rock music Nitin says, “I have not watched the movie, so it will be unfair to comment on it. But I feel that to some extent it has brought awareness among the parents that their children involved in rock music are not doing anything wrong.”

Subir adds, “The struggle shown in the movie regarding deals with music companies is true to an extent, and the movie has brought rock music to the people who preferred only commercial Bollywood music.”

About their gig at Jawalakhel Grounds on November 8 (from 3:00 pm onwards), Subir says, “We wanted to come and perform earlier but were unable due to the unstable condition of the country; this time it was not the organisers who contacted us but the other way round. So Nepali rock fans will feel the enthusiasm in our performance.”

The Pulsar Rock Mania with Parikrama is presented by Lotus Entertainment with Annapurna Post as the official newspaper.