Barley Waters Band

This story goes back to the late 90's folks, where the metal culture in Bangalore city was brewing into a hot soup of emptiness. As avid lovers of live concerts, each one of us had grasped the direction of band cultures and the blind following of these bands into mostly superficial 'coolness' associated with participation. It is not that there was a hate for metal but the sheer hollow feeling about it had killed the desire to be its audience. Thus was born the interest in Blues, Rock and Spanish sentiments and a revisit to its gloriness........THE BARLEY WATERS BAND - 1999.

The band when formed initially started with two parallel origins. Kunal and I started jamming together when we discovered we could play a bit of guitar and have some fun and about the same time Rohan who enjoyed singing, wanted to form a band to participate in the annual college fest. It turned out that Kunal was a friend of Rohan's and when they learned of each others interests a trio was formed....Rohan, Kunal and myself. We realized at some point that while two of us were playing rhythm, there was a need to have bass and drums to get into the rock groove...Viren, the first bass guitarist of the band and Sudeep, the first drummer for the band. Frankly, we sucked on our debut with bad equipment and lack of skills in guitar and drum techniques. The embarrassment we felt after the show was to be the constant accompaniment for many other shows but slowly fading in its presence as we grew more adept at what we did and also because we got so used to it.

It might have occurred to anyone who has tried playing music from the glorious 60's that there is indeed an emphasis on the C Am F G progression with minor modifications of their order and addition of a whacky bridge or scale change. It started to become a joke when we as a band tried to crack the lead and chords of the covers almost guessing correctly that it was the same damn progression in our first hearing. Strangely enough, whenever we tried to compose individually, we inadvertantly ended up with either C Am F G or the same steps on another scale. As a recommendation to beginners, I suggest that these chords must be learnt first as they are the key to the stupendous vault of rock music. Another progression with comparison in fame is the Am G F E which has a tinge of sadness about it....good for those soulful compositions or nostalgia numbers.

Probably the best period which gave us immense exposure and satisfactory learning was when we were at Bowring club, Bangalore. A lot of credit goes to the "Chief", Mr. Babulal, for his interest and support to involve music as an integral part of the club. We were thrust into this room with reasonably good equipment (a guitar, a keyboard, drum set and two powerful amps). We played Labamba on our audition at the club which later turned to be the Chief's favourite. Black was the drummer for the band at that time as well as the chief's consultant for music room requirements. A little should be said about Black here...a good drummer crazy about Pink Floyd and techno if I remember right, hates bass guitarists in general and has a penchant for intoxicants. Kurian, the most technically sound dude played keys and was the major architect for most of the compositions. His fill-ins and leads seemed like the perfect missing component earlier on.