Struggle of Indian Rockbands : Money V/S Passion

After attending one  gig in Noida, Jatin Bhatt, 21, a software engineer in a Japanese IT company in Noida, reminisces of days when he used to play bass-guitar for Sleep-Assault, a Delhi based band. He says “I had to join company because of pressure from my parents and also not many bands have a stable living out of music. ”

Jatin Bhatt is not the only one example, there are hundreds of other youngsters who are facing the same heat. Thousands of passionate youngsters form rock bands, mostly during  college, and aspires to be India`s Iron maiden , Metallica, or Lamb of God. But only a handful of these bands lasts. They have to work in alternative fields as they cannot generate a living out of this. This is not the fate of only less popular bands, even the members of popular bands like Decibel, Scribe, MenWhoPause  work in different fields apart from music.

“You cannot survive on money from gigs and concerts. You have to do alternative works for living. Rich guys open Jamming Pads, Studios and Music Institutes but middle class guys, like me,  have to work in other fields or just give home tuition.”, says Jatin Bhatt.

Jatin Bhatt further added “Apart from myself, I have seen other people who control their habits, save  pocket money, give tuitions and  make sacrifices to cut their budgets so that they can purchase a good guitar. Using  professional standard instruments for one band costs more than 2,00,000 Rupees. ”

“An emerging band asks nearly 10 – 15 thousand, its better to give 30-40 thousand to a winning band in a competition, rather than giving 15-20 thousand to each performing band. And also, higher is the prize money, more popular bands will come and more popular bands bring more audience with them. In the end, only top three bands will get prize and rest will go home empty handed. A more popular band shuts the door for emerging bands. But, Organizer gets their assured bigger chunk ” said Ahraz Husain , a Delhi based event Manger.

“ Atleast 30-40 hrs of jamming is required to prepare your-self for a good gig. Cost of jamming is at least 200 Rs per hour, so you spend nearly 6000 – 8000 Rs to get ready for a gig, and then u got paid nearly nothing at the end.“ says Jatin Bhatt.

He  further says that unfortunately, many of these events are fixed, winner is decided even before the eventt. If you have good contacts or a good manager then u are selected in many events. But in these foul tactics, some deserving bands are left out.

Ahraz further added that Most of recording labels don`t sign good deals with bands and then bands try to release their album on  internet. It takes nearly 1 lakh rupees to record single album and then, they distribute freely on Internet, so that they can get popular band. Myspace is one such music sharing platform. Every band has their myspace pages.

Even they are hit by financial scarcity, these rock bands play with passion and they are very much proud of them.  Despite of all difficulties, their love for music remains the only reason for them.

Jatin Bhatt adds that passion is still there, and I dream of again getting on stage, for the shear reason that I love Music.

Indian Rock Bands are no less talented than outside bands but they don`t get good platform and proper support of audience in India. Audience in India has a restrictive mindset, majority of them are not comfortable with getting exposed to new genre of music as Music scene in India is mainly over-shadowed by Bollywood music and western artists, adds Husain.

“But situation is gradually improving  in last 2-3 years, bands are getting some good platform. Scribe has toured Europe, prestorika toured US, Parikrama played in Download Festival and MenWhoPause, sponsored by Indian Council of Cultural Relations(ICCR) ,  toured US. These are achievements for Indian rock bands and above all, audience has started appreciating original compositions of Indian bands and they are getting more optimistic about it ” says Ahraz Husain

“Everything is not bad, earning from music is possible. Way is surely difficult but it is there . Musicians should remain focused, they should not get discouraged by the initial restrictive and un-supportive mindset of audience. Keep on playing passionately, people will automatically start following you. Indian Ocean is a perfect example” says Nikhil Mawkin, drummer of Cunta Cuentos, who is a full time musician from last 8 years.

Jean Tshering contributed in this story