EXCLUSIVE: Boom Shankar's Interview

Ok, the news is stale alright... BOOM SHANKAR won "Launchpad - The Battle of Bands" at SCMHRD, Pune on December 15th!
Along with a beautiful trophy, the band also gets a wild card entry to Channel [V]'s Launchpad '08!

Check out some pictures from SCMHRD first:

The band arrives at SCMHRD

THE performance


Boom Shankar wins SCMHRD's Launchpad - The Battle of Bands!

Now, we have something EXCLUSIVE for you - an Interview with the band members :)
We asked the band members a common set of questions... Here's what they say:



1. How did you think of the name ‘Boom Shankar’?

Aniruddha: Much better than my previous band name “Garam Loha”

Nitin: its in line with the form of music which we play- Rock with an Indian flavor .

Sam: Priya Rege of PGP2 suggested the name BoomShankar. Somehow the name had an interesting ring to it. BoomShankar was the artwork designed by Rohan Joglekar and Abhishek Dhyani, adapted in photoshop by Rohun Rege. Everything seemed to fit and the best part is that we had our artwork ready (which, by the way is mindblowing).

Yudi: "boom bem bam is a sharp ringing sound, Shankar is the name of the ..." what crap!! we liked the poster. and named ourselves after that! period! we did not look up a dictionary. actually full credit to priya rege for coming up with the name!! we loved it. and we were christened Boom Shankar!



2. You performed at SCMHRD just a week after the band was formed… did you think you would win?

SAM: I always knew we had something special going for us. Never for a moment did I think that we wouldn't win. I think our chemistry shows every time we perform, even during our practice sessions.

Yudi: Frankly when the IIM K guys came on we were a lil apprehensive. But we decide to just go up and do our thing. the judges liked our thing. ;P and the rest is history.!

Nitin: we huddled and told ourselves that lets not get bogged down by other bands and lets give it our best shot. That did the trick.

Aniruddha: The boys played well, they batted, bowled and fielded well and the best team had to win



3. How was the response for your OC – Raahein?

Aniruddha: Someone in the audience shouted:
“ Tumhara band achha hai…song bhi achha hai…
But koi ladki kyu nahi hai tumhare band mai??”

SAM: The crowd began to diss us (which usually happens with an excited crowd when the band is setting up), but the moment we showed them what we are made of with 'Raahein', they were on our side. I was blown away by the way they responded.

Nitin: We could make out that they are liking our music and when the OC was over, we couldnt have hoped for a better applause. That made us more relaxed for the rest of the show.

Yudi: For an OC that was given structure a few hours before the show- the "response" was AMAZING!!! we're already dreaming of an album!!!



4. Any experience in the tour that you’d like to share?

Aniruddha: Yudi and Nitin attacked by Eunuchs and Yudi giving them 500 bucks as tip for their services

Yudi: I Gave the Eunuchs ONLY 50 bucks. NOT 500 as Aniruddha keeps claiming. but the "fir milenge piya" kick in the nuts at the end was a laugh riot!! special mention to Monica, Nitin's friend for being the best video blogger i have ever seen! poor girl had her eye stuck in the camera throughout the show.

Nitin: We were late from classes but we caught trains just in time.....and had fun throughout the journey. But coming back the same night and attending classes, the next morning was not so much fun :)

SAM: So many! Both the trains we caught - the one at Andheri taking us to CST and the one from CST to Pune were moving when we boarded them! Moreover, we bumped into a TC who started mouthing movie dialogues to us. Yudi has had a very special experience as well, maybe you should ask him about it...
...I could not have asked for a better bunch of people to share these crazy moments with!



5. What next?

SAM: Well, I believe we still have a long way to go as a band, so once Yudi and Anirudhha are done with their exams, it is going to be jamming with the band all the way. There are a couple of people that have approached us for performances as well as competitions, which we may take up. There is also an agency who wants to sign some sort of contract with us in case we get big, but we do not want anything of the sort as of now. We need to concentrate on our music. We are also thinking of 2 OC's (Original Compositions) atleast so that we have a total of 3 OC's, so I request all those budding songwriters to email me their material at sameerwalzade.222@gmail.com.

Nitin: We have some milestones in sight and are looking forward to putting up a good show in Launchpad 2008. And also working towards expanding our knowledge and further honing our skills.

Yudi: Practice practice and practice. We cant sit back now! we participate in more competitions, we win some, we lose some! and finally we get launched on launchpad!

Aniruddha:
End Term Examination



6. Any other comments...

SAM: A big thank you goes out to Ms. Varsha Parab for the instruments and all the 7th floor residents of building number 26 who tolerated our noise (or awesome music) for a week. Thanks also to all of you who have supported us in any small way possible. Thanks Cultcom and thank you MusiG!

Peace!


MusIG wishes the band super-success in times to come... Go ahead guys, make SP proud :)