The band that rocks

What is Parikrama influenced by?We are more influenced by realistic happenings. Our lyrics reflect concern for different issues. We wrote...

What is Parikrama influenced by?
We are more influenced by realistic happenings. Our lyrics reflect concern for different issues. We wrote Don’t Cut Me Down for those from the defence forces and Open Skies, which is about freedom. Our compositions are influenced by music from all over the world, including India.

How does Parikrama go about planning a concert?
There’s a lot of planning that goes into the making of a show. We have to decide on the concept (what to begin and end with), clothes, stage set-up, song-list. We make sure we do not repeat the same list as the earlier show. For instance, before coming to Pune, we checked up on all that we played in our first show in December 1996 and prepared a new list for this show.

On an average, we perform two shows per week. From Pune, we’ll now leave for Mumbai, followed by Indore and Delhi.

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Do you use pyrotechnics as a gimmick to attract more crowds?
What’s wrong with that? Look at any Pink Floyd or Deep Purple show, or for that matter, any big beauty contest. The stage is elaborately done – laser shows, fireworks et al. In fact, they add to the entire effect. It’s a package deal we offer our audience.

We take utmost care with the fire. When we last performed at the Ganesh Kala Krida Manch, we realised that there was a petrol station close to the venue, so we cancelled the fire show. Even at Regatta, due to the strong breeze, we had to shift the stage for the fire-wall.

From 1991 to 1999… how has the trip been?
Most of us were still in college and school when we got together. From June to September 1991, we worked real hard. For two years, we didn’t have a guitar player as we wanted somebody we would be compatible with. Now we are more like a family.

(Even though the band has neither an album nor a video, they have a major following in India and were even voted the second-best band in India 1996-97 by Rock Street Journal and were also nominated for the best Indian band category at the Channel V Music Awards 1997).

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Any exciting episodes in your rock journey?
At one show in Delhi, while playing our new composition, Whiskey Blues, we remarked that Eric Clapton had joined us on stage. Actually, it was only a guitar player from Sweden who looked exactly like Clapton. This sent the crowd in a tizzy and they rushed to the stage to touch the supposed rock legend. We finally managed to pacify them by saying that it was all a joke.

Any album or video in the pipeline?
Making an album requires a lot of finance. We are fed up of Hindi offers from promotion companies. It’s sad to see, especially in Delhi, that in the name of campus rock, they play bhangra pop or Indipop. Even when MTV and Channel V came to India, they went after these artists. It’s not that Indipop artists do not have talent, but this discourages hard-core rock groups like ours. We’re not against Hindi, but this is not why we started a band! However, we will definitely make a video and an album of our own.