2009!!

When scraps of paper and cyberspace are wasted in scribbling down the year that was 2009, the story of 5 people jamming every evening in a noisy corner off the Commercial Street Main Road is not going to find utterance. Nor is the story of the sacrifices made to achieve their ends. And nor is the story of many other musicians across India living sometimes with nothing but a passion!!

I'll limit myself to our journey, SOLDER's journey.

2009 is our year of stepping out, of finding utterance in the world of indie music, of reaching out to the world at large with nothing but a few guitars a drum kit and the voice of our soul. We play this music not to be underpaid by venues or sometimes not paid at all. Nor do we play this music for the (false) lifestyle that is associated with the guitar, and we certainly don't play it for the prejudice it brings from society. We sacrifice our family time and social life not to get drunk silly and laid every night, but to jam every evening and become better at what we do, for when we play music, it makes us happy!!

To borrow words from Suraj Mani of Motherjane," You might ask us why do we choose to live our life with music, and try to make a living off it, what you don't understand is that it is a passion, the five of us are living a passion. Now let me ask you (esp those sitting and reading this at their office desks), how can YOU live your life without passion"

The year 2009, for SOLDER has seen us living our passion and living it with a smile to show for. In terms of what we have done, we feel good about playing more shows to newer people and getting them to sing along to our songs, we feel good about our exploits at Strawberry Fields, we also feel good about Irish Coffee, and we also feel good about the beer at the end of a show. We think we've earned it. But one thing we wont do is to rate this year or quantify it with a pre-defined standard, for to quantify this life experience is to put a value to this experience thats been the past few months. We wouldn't give it up for anything else in the world. One thing is for certain though, this journey that started in the quaint jam room in some obscure location found its sail in the wind of the year 2009. We recognize that this is just a beginning and we also recognize the journey ahead is not a stroll in the park. But what we do know is something that goes by the christening, "HARD WORK". We recognize that its easy to move mountains only when you pass them on the road. We look forward to the year to come with a hope of our music reaching out to many more people. And if that means a little less time with family, friends and loved ones and a lot more hard work, patience, perseverance and toil, then bring on 2010!!We are ready and waiting!!

Joel Rozario: Ladies, gentleman, and the such like, meet Joel Rozario, the critic, the perfectionist, bullet-er and the part time joker. An NRI who takes pride in living in Shivaji Nagar (we think it has something to do with the beef there, but anyways), this Malaysian drum lord is the vision behind Solder. Taking pride in everything he does, right from hitting the snare to nailing that Roll (pun intended), he makes sure he does it right. If you've not realized by now, Joel is the man behind the drum kit for Solder. Apart from the drums, Joel handles certain vocal responsibilities thrust upon him as well, enabling us to venture into that territory known as vocal harmonies. Influenced less but inspired more by the Dave Matthews Band, Joel cites Carter Beauford, Mike Portnoy, Gino Banks, Bill Stewart and Joel Taylor as his main inspirations to pick up a pair of sticks

In his free time, Joel works (Hahahahahaha) but he doesn't mind, cause apparently the work place serves a continental lunch buffet (see: Joel's turn to laugh), and that apart his work includes filtering search options which is primarily to give you people better search options, if you haven't understood yet, go do a yahoo search. ;-)

Thats about all there is to the multi-dimensional (pun intended) Joel Rozario, oh yes I forgot, for those who haven't met him, he's the really thin guy (read: sarcasm), atleast he claims he used to be.

Hahahahahahaha

Cheers Joel,

And amen to that shawarma!!

The Leprechaun Tales!!

Samson Philip: Knock knock!! whose there?? Dorris!! Dorris who?? Door is open!! This is our instinctual intro to the man behind the thick strings of Solder. Meet Samson Philip, aka Dorris, aka Maggie, aka Sister, aka a whole lotta other names you'd call your BFF if you were a girl. Built on a frame that fits a live wire, our man Dorris is just that, a live wire, be it on stage, in jam or in his sojourn through life. Philip is a sound engineer by qualification and a multi talented musician who when approached by Solder to handle the Bass section of the band, he readily agreed. In his free time, Philip scores music for short films or any other media that requires music.

Influenced by the thrash scene of the 80s, Philip cites Metallica's first 4 albums as his reason to start playing music. That apart Philip also has a keen ear in the gospel music scene, listening to bands like Critical Mass, Switchfoot, Petra, and the such like.

Chipping in at times with his voice as a backing vocalist, Philip's vocal abilities allow the band to enter the adventurous zone of vocal harmonies, and in the process, layering the melody with different vocal parts!!

Being the only smoker in the band, Philip draws the wrath of the others in the band when he lights up. But heck who cares, smoke that cigarette and kill those fellas Philip!!

Cheers to the Thick Strings,

And thank you for smoking!!:)

Apple

Akhilesh Kumar: Meet the youngest kid amidst the madness that is Solder, Akhilesh Kumar or "Apple". Apart from asking the really stupid questions, Apple mans the rhythm guitar section and the backing vocals with a reassuring smile that he wears with his affable personality. Calm under all circumstances and unfazed by situations that would make those senior to him wilt under the pressure, Akhilesh straddles the dual role with a panache that only he can pull off. His vocal abilities come to the fore in songs that require singing in higher scales. Influenced by the glam rock scene of the 80's, Akhilesh cites Skid Row as his single biggest influence. That apart, Akhilesh has grown up on a platter serving unadulterated 80's glam, from the likes of Motley Crue, Poison, Cinderella and many more.So dont be surprised if you find him walking around in tights and make up. Hahahaha!! Whilst not jamming Akhilesh can be seen active in the Rotary scene of Bangalore, and is also a professional martial arts trainer. (Yeah there are two pro martial arts trainers in our band, don't even think of messing with us). The guy involves himself with various other social activities activities as well (and by social we mean the social worker kinds and not the socialite kinds) which we still don't seem to know, wonder if its a ploy he uses to get off jam??Hmmm!! Oh and yes, if you do spot him making an error with his grammar please do let us know, we shall report the same to the concerned authorities that take to task, the people responsible for the corruption of the Queens English!! Hahahahahahaha!! Cheers Apple!!

Puttu!!

Siddarth Abraham: Often referred to as "Puttu" by those close to him, this front man of Solder is a chirpy lad, always seen wearing a smile on his face and carrying a heart of gold on those responsible shoulders. He can tell you the meanest thing there is to say with a smile so disarming you wont know what to do. And if you do try taking the violent way around him, be warned he's a professional martial arts trainer, and yes he can make your face look better, and all he needs is a fist!! Influenced heavily Elvis Presley, his baritone is pitch perfect!!Siddarth has grown up on a steady diet of Classic Rock. Apart from Elvis, his influences also include Lynyrd Skynyrd, Petra, Crash Test Dummies, Dave Matthews, Mr Big, The Beatles, The Doors and many more...and yes as varied as possible!!

Here's to the nice guy that finished first!!

And yes we tried staying off the hairier issues that worry his head!!

Cheers Puttu!!

Irish Coffee

Sometimes the night sky,

It takes me back to you,

A fragment of all of my pain.

The magic of the wishing well,

It tells me to search for and maybe I'll find you again.

Fireflies dancing in the starlight,

Vanishing into the night.

Maybe I would run,

Run through the fields,

Back to your arms.

Its just You and Me.

All that I want,

All that I need,

Is simple life,

In the air that I breathe.

The air of the morning,

A summer nights dream.

I welcome each day with Irish Coffee and Cream.

The song of the songbirds

The mist in the trees,

The toll of the church bells,

The faithful on knees.

Fireflies dancing in starlight,

Vanishing into the night.

Maybe I would run,

Run through the fields,

Back to your arms.

Its just You and Me.

All that I want,

All that I need,

Is simple life,

In the air that I breathe.

In the summer of 2008, when two friends, Joel Rozario and Mark Escotee who've played with a few nondescript college acts and scored jingles for ads (without getting any publishing rights for the same) in the Bangalore music scene got together over a drink, or maybe a few more, and started talking about their music and wanting to take it seriously, they decided on a new music project which was later to be known to the world as Solder.They were joined by Akhilesh Kumar, a friend from College and soon enough they started jamming with the intent of writing their own music and playing it Live and Loud.There was one problem, actually two, their primary one being whom to thrust vocal duties on?? Soon, this was solved, Siddarth Abraham came by the jam room and belted out whatever was written till then in his voice. Oh and what a voice that is!! Looks like its a family thing actually, considering his cousin is the bad boy from Chennai, Ameeth Thomas of Junkyard Groove. Soon enough the hunt was on for someone to handle the bass section. A few misses later, they chanced upon Samson Philip. And low behold the line up was complete.And might we add, PERFECT :) Still not sure about what to call themselves, they headed often times to the bar after jamming to see if the spirits would help them with the name, and if a sober Siddarth and Akhilesh could record any of the blabbering of the rest of the boys, but no help there. Then one evening, while jamming, Mark's guitar cable was giving him some problem, this problem refused to go away, and when everyone gathered around Mark to see what the fuzz was, they realized they had a screwed up cable!!So what did we do, we SOLDERed the cable. Aha!!Now there was a name. Solder!! So when someone asks us why the name SOLDER?? We tell them the first thing that we did together as a band, apart from making music, and drinking whisky, was to solder a cable!! And yes when we narrate this story to them, it makes us want to cry!!