Bengaluru Leg Of JD Rock Awards Best Emerging Band Gig Kicks Off This Week

The ninth edition of the Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards travels to Bengaluru this week to find another finalist for the Best Emerging Band category. This is the second gig being held as a run-up to the annual rock awards finale, slated to be held in Mumbai next year.

The first Emerging Band showcase was held in Pune including performances by stoner prog rock band Drawing Short Straws, singer/songwriter Prathamesh Tambe, post rock act A Mutual Question, Mumbai-based electro progressive rock band Pinnochio’s Moment of Clarity and Mumbai-based garage rock act Bone Broke.

The bands performing in the Bengaluru include post rockers Until We Last, alt rock act Machine Era, Kochi-based Black Letters and Chennai-based tamil folk/blues band Sean Roldan & Friends. All bands have big plans for the forthcoming year with album releases, videos, tours and more. Here’s what you can expect at the show this Thursday.

Until We Last

Says guitarist Ketan Bahirat, “We’re going to be performing songs from our upcoming album. Most of them are going to be reworked tracks, which we’ve been playing for a while now and these will be newer versions.”

Setlist: Includes tracks like “Rain”, their latest single and a new song called “Parallel Dimensions.”

Working on: “We are working on a new album. We are collaborating with some people. It’s basically going to be something really different which I don’t think anyone in India’s done before,” adds Bahirat.

Machine Era

Guitarist Abhimanyu Ghoshal says, “We are going to be playing four of our songs which we’re hoping to put on our first album. The first album is loosely based on a post apocalyptic situation in the world.” 

Setlist: “Ouroboros”, “Panopticon”, “Something Real” and “Jamais Vu”

Working on: Ghoshal adds, “The first album is in thew works and is still a bit up in the air and let us see if we can work on it over the year. It’s essentially modern rock along the lines of Karnivool and Intranaut ”“ little bit of ambient and a little heavy stuff. But it’s really the melodies which we hope are the key to our tracks.”

https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/125406037

Black Letters

Vocalist and guitarist Sharath Iyer of the Kochi-based band says, “We are going to play four of our songs. It is going to be in our upcoming album Shapes On The Wall. We plan on releasing it in mid- January or so.”

Setlist: “Roam”, “You Say” (single released 4-5 months ago), “Old Fire Box”, Sky Gazer” (16-17 minutes long) and “Find You”.

Working on: “We’ve been writing a lot of new stuff. We’re working on our next EP, which we’re planning to release by August next year. We are sorting out a lot of things with the album release like CD cover, album art, marketing ideas, website design etc and music video for “Roam” as well,” says Iyer.

Sean Roldan & Friends

Frontman R Raghavendra aka Sean Roldan says, “The band is about the different musical blends that we all bring together. Our set is going to be a standup comedy act plus Sean Roldan songs because we are going to be making a fool of ourselves as that’s what we do. You know, in the west they have country music which comes from the southern side with a lot of raw ideas right? So we are basically a folk-country-blues-jazz band. We like the fact that we are confused.”

Working on: Says Raghavendra, “All of us are currently working on some film projects and we are trying to bring independent music to the film medium. We are not trying to change the film industry or anything, but are merely trying to remind people that there is something called independent music. We are coming up with an album, which is going to be produced versions of songs which are up online.”

 

The final leg of the Best Emerging Artist/Act showcase is set to happen in Hard Rock, New Delhi next month. Bands performing include electro experimental rock group Sundog Project, electronica duo Fuzz Culture, electronic ambient project Tank Bund, psychedelic rock act The Incredible MidFunk and indie pop rockers Frisky Pints.

Catch Until We Last, Machine Era, Black Letters and Sean Roldan & Friends on the 26^th of December at Hard Rock Café, Bengaluru. Entry charge: Rs 400. Cover charge: Rs 250

Contest: Which band/artist won the Best Emerging Act/Artist at the JD Rock Awards last year?

Send us your answers to editor@rollingstone-india.com with “JD Rock Awards Bangalore” as the subject.
The winners get two free couple passes to the gig which only includes entry and no other expenses incurred.