Rocker Road

For years,Indian rock music has been referred to as filmi rock. Worse: it has been often rubbished by most hardcore rock music enthusiasts.

For years,Indian rock music has been referred to as filmi rock. Worse: it has been often rubbished by most hardcore rock music enthusiasts. Still,RIO,which claimss to be Indias first Hindi hard rock band,have chosen to popularise this genre and launch of their debut album called Raaste at Hard Rock Cafe on Tuesday. Their objective is to provide the Indian listener with the ultimate international rock experience in a language they understand.

After hours of research and homework,we realised that there wasnt a noteworthy hard rock Hindi band in the country. But there were plenty of good English rock bands. We had to take up a genre that would make people sit up and say,Hey,thats something new. Let me see what they are all about, says Vishal Rajan,who founded the band along with Vinay Lobo.

While Rajan is the lead vocalist,who doubles as a keyboardist,and Lobo is the supporting vocalist and lead guitarist. Drummer Ian Enthiado and Vishal Lobo on bass guitars complete the band. From the beginning,Rio has decided to make music without any Indian instruments like the tabla or the sitar. That is not our expertise, says Rajan.

RIO chose Hindi as its language of expression as this would help them reach out to scores of people,including those well-versed with rock and the uninitiated. Some of the tracks on their album are Rocker Banna Hai,Zindagi,Raaste and Samay promises to dish out a sumptuous smorgasbord of pure Hindi hard rock. We are here to introduce a brand new flavour of rock music,packaged holistically to catch the ears of the listener. It is all about offering pure,out and out rock, says Vinay.

The responses will come once the album is out on stands,but RIO have already taken precautions to counter piracy as well as to increase the number of listeners. Through their international distributors EMI,they have succeeded in an exclusive tieup with Nokia that ensures their albums digital release.

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Rocker Road

For years,Indian rock music has been referred to as filmi rock. Worse: it has been often rubbished by most hardcore rock music enthusiasts.

For years,Indian rock music has been referred to as filmi rock. Worse: it has been often rubbished by most hardcore rock music enthusiasts.