When Metal and I met - Part III

Hello everyone!
We're back with more stories on my series of blog posts "When Metal and I met".
Previously I gave y'all a brief intro as to how the musical part of my life ran its course. But that was only until about first year pre-university college time. 
         
         I think after 10th grade, it was no more just LP. My cousin Vivek, who had just moved to HeadBangalore from Bombay to do his engineering in B.M.S introduced me to bands like Nirvana, Guns and Roses and a few other bands who were big during the 80's. At first, I liked songs like "Smells like teen spirit" and "Come as you are" by Nirvana. But a while later, I watched videos of their songs like "Lithium" and "You know you're right", and I immediately concluded that Kurt Cobain (R.I.P) was an uncontrollable crazy freak! Strange enough; I was right. Why did I think Kurt was crazy? Because he wore bras to play live at concerts, because he took his guitars and smashed them to bits, because he rammed his instruments into his own band-mates, because he stage-dived a lot, because he always look stoned and high, etc. I conveyed this to Vivek, and he said that he knew it, and that's exactly what he liked. Now, that was new to me. For a few days, my mind was going 'How can people like stuff like this?'. And consequently I kept watching more and more videos of Kurt Cobain. And slowly I realized that it was Kurt's "freedom of expression" and "unique style" that made him SO UNBELIEVABLY FAMOUS! And not just that, he was the pioneer of 'Grunge'. Now, what is Grunge? Grunge, in my opinion, is a blend of rock-metal and pop music. Sometimes the music sounds completely out of scale and tune. But I guess that's the beauty of it. Gives a feeling of 'No restrictions'. And before I knew it, I was absolutely addicted to Nirvana; more so, Kurt Cobain. And what followed the Nirvana addiction was the further investigation into Kurt's life history. Mayn, he's had a twisted life, I assure you that. That's when I figured that it would not behoove me to lead a life exactly like Kurt did. If I did that, I would've probably ended up the same way he did - Dead at 27. So I decided that I'm only going look at the positive aspects of Kurt, and neglect the otherwise negative aspects. And I still think that it's the right way to go about it. 
         
        Apart from Nirvana, I was very much into the hard rock band Godsmack. It was the game Prince of Persia : Warrior Within that introduced me to Godsmack. (by the way, I was a total game addict too, a story for another time). The theme songs of this game were a couple of heavy Godsmack songs called "Straight out of line" and "I stand alone". A gang of my friends, which included Arun, Thejus and Anirudh, who were into playing POP:WW were discussing that Godsmack must be a good band after having listened to these songs on the game. And like they say 'curiosity kills the cat'...well, here, it was more like 'curiosity got me to listen to more of Godsmack'. As simple as that. And as it turns out, I loved them! They have a style that certainly projects masculinity! They rode on Harley D choppers, they sang with a rough attitude and a rough voice, and their lyrics depict a lot of antagonism.Their rhythms were particularly heavy with a lot of bass and distortion guitars, and the drumming was pretty good too; And the solos weren't all that bad either. All in all, it was a style that impressed me. That was that, and I've listened to all their albums.
          
          One can't help but notice that as time passed by, my musical influences, tastes and style have kept changing. 
Why? Was I fickle? Maybe.(Probably not)


         Over the latter half of the first year at college and the entire second year, there wasn't much music going on in my life. That was probably because we had LOADS of studying to do during those times. So music had to take a backseat for me. I would still listen to Godsmack, Nirvana, LP, Reveille, Trapt and a few other 
bands, but I never really expanded my musical horizon.
         
         Let's not forget that I still loved Kurt Cobain to death (Ironically he was dead even before I knew he was alive), though he wasn't a generic metalhead. It was only during recent times, that I realized that I'm heavily inspired by Pioneers. I'm inspired by people who start new things, no matter what the consequences are, no matter whether the idea's a success or not, no matter what people think or say. People who have the balls to start something entirely new, are pretty fuckin' kickass. At least, that's what I believe. Kurt Cobain certainly was one of them.
          
         I'd like to end Part III of "When Metal and I met" here only because at this point, where I've stopped, my life took a steep curve. It was when Metal slowly crawled into the blood that pours through my veins. I want to be able to give you a complete description of the story. I'll be back with Part IV and Part IV is going to kick your fucking ass! I promise you that.
         
          I guess there is a lot to take from this posting. First of all, its not that metal is the only genre I listen to(although metal is life, realistically speaking). And secondly, be open minded, do not criticize, learn how to learn. Be inspired. Be free. Be different, it marks your identity. And finally, be yourself. And these teachings...nobody better than Metal to have taught me that.
         
          Thank you for spending your time on reading this post. Stay metal metalheads! (And the rest, take care)


Quote: Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) : "Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."

Kurt Cobain (R.I.P)

          

When Metal and I met - Part II

Hello everyone,
Hope you all have read Part I on "When Metal and I met".
Now lets get started on on the second chapter of "When Metal and I met"!

Alright, its time to rewind a long way back. We are going to travel on the twisted road of the history of my musical life now.

           I lived the first 8-9 years of my life in the city of Bombay, and after that I moved to Bangalore (HeadBangalore) and I have been here ever since. Back then, when I was a little kid aging about 5 or 6 years, I got the opportunity to actually pay attention and listen to music on cable TV. I think it was a music video of some Hindi pop band or a Bollywood filmi hit. And after that, it became a habit for all of us to watch music videos on Channel V or MTV or any other channel for that matter. And yes, it was routine for me as well to watch music videos of Hindi pop bands or Bollwood hits everyday. And for about roughly 4 more years, that was all the music I knew.

           Then I moved to Bangalore when I was in the 4th grade, and I came here with my sister and parents to live here with my grandparents. And this place was vastly different from Bombay! A major major factor was the language. Nevertheless, the people here loved the local national Hindi music too. So music-wise, the change wasn't significant. A year later, my dad moved to Florida for a couple of years roughly. And when he visited us every half yearly, he would bring goodies like cookies,chocolates,gadgets,clothes,sunglasses, and so on. So one time, he bought me a CD player along with an album on a CD by Backstreet Boys (a very popular pop band back then, and even now). So this was the first time I was exposed to "Western music". Strange enough, I loved it! And I think, for nearly a year I listened to nothing but the Backstreet Boys. After a while, my dad exposed me to some of his own collection of music. Some of which included bands like Boyzone, Westlife, Beatles, Pink Floyd, BeeGees (hated them all along), Dire Straits, Eagles, Santana, Britney Spears, etc. So basically, it was more or less the pop era for me back then. These were basically songs which were dominated by vocals and had a basic instrumental and percussion rhythm style to go along. But I had no idea what rhythm,vocals or percussion even meant back then! So till about 8th grade or so, my music was pop dominated.

         Now, having reached the 8th grade, my personal life was a little fucked up, but academics wise I was doing well. And it was in the 8th grade, that I was somehow introduced to rap music. I loved rap too! It was new to me, and I liked the idea of people rhyming with words and speaking/singing in a mono tone over a basic rhythm. (Now, don't worry if you didn't really understand any of that, its not important). Rappers like Eminem and Jay Z were huge back then. And I really dug their music. The sorrowful and angry lyrics had fitted perfectly into my life (But the monotonous singing somehow did not depict the full effect of the lyrics).

        Sometime during the 9th grade, I wanted more than just rap. Rap got a bit too monotonous, and you can probably understand that. I wanted more out of music. More feeling, more expression, more attitude, stuff like that. I managed to listen to rock bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Limp Bizkit for a while, and then out of nowhere, over the Internet, somehow I was introduced to the band LINKIN PARK. This was no ordinary band. This was the band I listened to for nearly 3 and a half years straight. Unbelievable, considering the fact that I hardly listen to them anymore. I thought, for sure, that LP was the band I would stick to, until death! Now, what makes LP different? Well, they mix rap and singing over a rock-like rhythm including instruments like the guitar, keyboard, violas, cellos, and a scratch-disc. And they have these vocals which vary from soft to harsh in a fairly melodic way. Interesting, isn't it?! Well, I thought so. And these guys came out with 3 fantastic albums which grew popular in no time! Let me tell you, they're the perfect band to listen to in your early teens.

       Although I cannot forget that it was around the 9th grade that I was introduced to metal. And let me tell you, I DID NOT LIKE IT! I was introduced to bands like Reveille, Metallica, and Godsmack. I liked listening to Reveille (an extremely unpopular band that deserved more credit, honestly). Reveille was a rap-metal band (sort of like Limp Bizkit), but with much heavier and darker rhythms, and aggressive lyrics. Lyrics by Reveille like "Curiosity has taken its toll; Empathetic- into the darkness i fall alone" seemed catchy to me. And the first music video of Metallica that I watched was probably "I disappear" (lovely song and video by the way), but no, I did not like it at all. The deep voice, the heavy guitar rhythms, the heavy drumming, the headbanging was all too much for me. So, meanwhile I stuck to listening to LP and a few other rock bands like Nickelback, U2, Papa Roach, etc for a very long time.
     
        So this was when the metal era for me had just about started. But sadly, I have ran out of time and it's time to call it a day. On my next post I am going to elaborate on how metal slowly made it's way into my life and narrate a few real-life incidents that brought several changes in me. Lots more to come; People, music, stories, art, emotional moments, addictions, and more Metal! So stay tuned y'all.

Stay metal metalheads! (And the rest, take care)

Quote: Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest- "Each country has its own character, but heavy metal fans all over the world have a lot in common. It's fantastic."