High Bass

At the recent Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards,they won the ‘Best Emerging Band’ title. They were surprised. “Because we weren’t expecting it. We’d gone there to support Ruell,who had been nominated in the ‘Best Bassist’ category. Out of the blue,they called out our name!” recalls Levin. While this did rake in quite a bit of publicity for the band before their city gig,it also raised the expectations. “Many who had not heard of us before,came in for the gig. It’s a challenge now. We can’t keep playing older material. We’ve got to come up with new stuff that meets the expectations set by our previous work. It’s a good thing – gives us something to look forward to,” the drummer adds.

Bob is influenced by old school hip-hop and rap,Chandu by reggae and Ruell and Levin by experimental jazz funk. “We jam once or twice a week. One of us comes up with something new and that becomes the main hook for us to create something around. If Bob has new lyrics,we come up with the music to fit those lyrics into and vice versa,” Levin says. At their Friday performance,they even played a new track – Happy People ,inspired by African roots. “Puneites have always been an incredible audience. The indie scene here is just growing. People are open to new stuff,” he adds. In fact,the whole country is musically blooming. “True that,” says Levin,adding,“It’s more to do with online media,more access to new music,better live venues,music festivals and television shows. There are ample opportunities for upcoming acts now.”

In Mumbai,Bombay Bassment has created a collective of musicians called Funk Fraternity. “For two gigs at Blue Frog,we’ve collaborated with different musicians of Funk Fraternity,like a saxophone player,a trumpet player,a rapper,a beatboxer and also a church choir,” Levin says. The response has been good and they may bring this experiment to Pune. But before that,their focus for the next quarter of the year is on releasing a new album of 10-12 songs.