Indus Creed praises the underground scene as a countercultural response to the mainstream

The memories of the first Independence Rock festival in August 1986 are still fresh in the minds of the remaining members of Mumbai's iconic rock band, Indus Creed. They recall the excitement of playing to a large crowd at Rang Bhavan, an iconic venue for music shows in South Mumbai. It is as if it only happened yesterday. "The first I-Rock is the most favourite and vivid memory I have of I-Rock. We didn't expect such a big crowd at Rang Bhavan, and it was in our early days of Rock Machine. We had played to some 800-1000 people and it was raining, so I think it was a different experience," shares a smiling Mahesh Tinaikar, one of three original members of the band.

While the first I-Rock performance is a favourite, the fact that Rang Bhavan, where it was held for many years, was an iconic venue for hosting music shows, made it even more memorable. Along with Tinaikar from the initial lineup, even Uday Benegal and Zubin Balaporia have fond memories of performing there. While Balaporia reminisces, "Rang Bhavan was a classic venue. You had a stage, and everything set up for you and it was in South Mumbai where most of the people were listening to kind of music we were playing." It is no different for Benegal, who continues, "I do miss playing at Rang Bhavan. We saw so many great concerts there before we got on the stage and started playing there." Long after Rock Machine rechristened themselves Indus Creed, they split in the late 90s, but the trio regrouped to form the band again in 2010, along with drummer Jai Row Kavi and bassist Krishna Jhaveri, who joined years later in place of Rushad Mistry.

Changing times and original music
The venue may have changed over the years but the spirit to play good music for the people of Mumbai hasn't gone away. So, with I-Rock returning after 2013, it only gets better for the original rockstars of the festival, who returned to play in 2022. Unsurprisingly, a lot has changed since the beginning, including the crowd. Keyboardist Balaporia says beyond the crowd, there has been one significant change that is definitely a step in the right direction for Indian rock.

He shares, "The level of equipment available has just gone up by 1,000 per cent. It is much easier today. There is really quality equipment available with drums, guitar, keys - all of which is pretty much on international level. It was woefully inadequate when we started and we suffered a lot because of the bad sound. That has been a huge step forward."

Apart from the crowd and equipment, Tinaikar believes the kind of musicians coming out over the decades have also changed for better. "Because of people getting good gear and good guitars, you find more younger people getting into it and the talent has blossomed. You see so many more young bands and great musicians, young guys taking it seriously and that is definitely what we have noticed in the last 30 years," he adds.

With a better crop of musicians growing over the years, there has also been a huge difference in the music being played today. It is a stark difference from when Indus Creed started out more than 30 years ago. More bands were playing covers at the festival but over the years, there is an encouraging shift to many musicians playing original music. Benegal shares, "Most importantly everybody writes their own songs these days. When I-Rock first started out, it was cover bands including us and now it is given that when a band gets on stage, they play their own material."

And drummer Kavi has seen that transition happen when he started out less than 20 years ago playing live gigs at I-Rock. He explains, "I started out in the 2000s and people didn't want to listen to music that the band wrote." In fact, such were crowd reactions that people threw all kinds of stuff like fruits, vegetables and bottles. "The crowd was pretty hardcore but that's tough love," he laughs, "But the more you do something, the better you get at it. So, the more people started writing, the more people appreciated that." The fact that bands including Indus Creed, have written so many originals over the years including ‘Pretty Child' and more that people sing out loud even today is a testament to the gradual shift.

Covid-19 pandemic and rediscovering love for music
Even as bands are back to performing on stage in the last two years, it is hard to ignore the Covid-19 pandemic, which was not the best of times for many people. Unlike other musicians who expressed the emotions they experienced during the pandemic as subjects in the songs they released in the last two years, Indus Creed took a break from their regular routines and slow down.

It also helped them rediscover why they do what they do. Kavi being one of them, expresses, "We all did shows where it is a streaming thing and it's really weird. You're playing to nobody but you're pretending you're playing to somebody. People are watching but you can't experience that. It was a pandemic at the end of the day. It affected people in different ways. It just gave time to everybody to pause and reflect. That's what I did and I realised I love playing music."

It was no different for Balaporia. "As a musician, the idea is to play and perform with other musicians and also for people. So, we missed performing and hanging out. What Kavi rightly brought out, it was a time to reassess and I went back to playing acoustic piano at home," says the city-based keyboardist, "There was no guilt factor that I was ignoring something because there was nothing to do. I really feel as a musician, I grew in those two years because of the work I could put in. The good side is that we are back, performing and playing and that is really healthy."

For bassist Jhaveri it was isolating in so many ways because not only was there limited contact but also no live music. "It reminded us that we need contact. I have come back to live music after almost four years. It is so nice to feed off the energy on stage and also the energy you get back from a crowd. The good thing about live music is that you're only going to hear about it at that time at that place. You can't hear this song played like this ever again," he stresses.

For Benegal, it was more than that because he says the pandemic gave him and many others time to re-evaluate their positions in the entire world. "How much are you going to chase success? Get back to doing the things you love to do and if you're a musician, get back to making the music you love to make, while doing other things as well. Not get on the mad dash, and social media plays a big role as well with the FOMO thing - the other person has so many gigs going on," says the vocalist, giving many musicians today a reality check.

Starting out at as a college band in the 80s, Indus Creed are proof of the band culture in colleges in Mumbai. However, that has changed over the years, as it gets more difficult to play at city college festivals. That is also why many musicians believe genres other than popular music do not get as big a stage with a big crowd, but Benegal sees the positive side of it. "The term ‘underground' means you haven't reached that level of exposure which we are all looking to do. Any musician who plays underground wants a bigger audience. The underground scene is great because it is often a counterculture reaction to what is taking place in the mainstream." He goes on to add that very often what starts out with strong integrity, once that gets the exposure, it turns into the mainstream and then there is a new counterculture that comes in. "Underground music moves in waves. Underground is cool because it's free and a space to do whatever," Jhaveri concludes.

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