The Real Groove

While reality shows continue flooding your television sets hunting for singers,here’s a latest entrant searching for an entire band. Rock On with MTV is the latest reality series,which is on the lookout for musicians across genres and age groups,to come together in a band. Ashish Patil,GM,MTV India says,“Rock has been perceived stereotypically but it’s the new gharana. It’s about making music,that is the next thing to look out for.” This is why it is also about instrumentalists who play anything from the guitar and violin to sarangi,and from drums and the tabla to the dhol. “We plan to put the best musicians together and create a fantastic band taking rock culture a notch higher,” says composer Ram Sampath,who will be judging the talent alongside singer Kailash Kher and VJ/DJ Nikhil Chinapa. The four-city auditions will be held in Delhi on July 15 at Ambedkar Bhavan,apart from Kolkata,Bangalore and Mumbai.

10 bands of five to six members each will be formed initially and then be given music related challenges. “It could be anything from creating a cover version of a popular song or making an acoustic rendition of a popular folk song,” says Patil. And the winners will get an album deal with T-Series and a music video produced by the channel,and an international platform to perform for the considerable prize money of $20,000 (Rs 9,55,000). “So while there are so many groups out there,we’d actually love for them to come as a band and audition,” adds Patil.

So if you’re a beat box or know how to make music out of even a container,the audition might be a start.

For more information log on to http://www.mtvindia.com