Rock 'n' Roll 'n' Blues Women!

On the international scene, female rockers have always had a niche. But try going on a quest for women in rock bands in India, and you would encounter only a few.The female vocalists, of those there is shortage. But the women who make the sound behind the vocals? Ah there you have us. Says guitar teacher Rupert Fernandes, "Female rockers are as good as non-existent. This could have a lot to do with the fact that being in a rock band involves being on the road a majority of the time, and practising late hours may not be so easy for women. Also, holding the crowd together at a rock show could get challenging."

While rock band Scribe's bassist, Srinivas,

Scribe @ Independence Rock XXII Finals

Scribe - 1234 Dracula live at blue FROG - 5th September, 2010

feels "women may be shy", Exhumation's guitarist Prashant Shah says, "There are hardly any men in the country who listen to rock these days, so women rock fans are even more scarce, let alone being band members."

But let that not fool you. Across India, female rockers are increasingly making their presence felt. Take Yasmin Kazi,

Yasmin Claire from Myndsnare

drummer of Bangalore's progressive death metal band Myndsnare. She says the initial reaction when the crowds saw her was of scepticism. '"What's a girl gonna' drum for a death metal band', they asked," she says. "Or 'What's that singer chick doing behind the kit'?" But after five years of showing the country her double bass skills, even professional drummers across the country quiver when they watch her play.

Myndsnare - Raining blood.mpg

Gino Banks, a sessions drummer, insists she is the best drummer in India for that genre.


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How did you get into music in the first place?

My mom is a singer as well so I grew up around Hindustani classical music, going to classical concerts when I was young. And then my parents split up when I was twelve and I was raised by my dad. He was the opposite, like, be a doctor, go to business school, etc. But I still had such a deep-rooted love for music that I couldn’t deny it.

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How did you meet Randolph and how was Shaa’ir n Func born?

In those first five days, Randolph came to a party. It was a room of twenty people with no smoking, no drinking allowed. There was a saxophonist, a bansuri player, I’m a singer and a poet. There was a girl doing interpretive dance. It was so tripped out. It felt like a scene from a movie. So Randolph walked in, he had a guitar, and he started playing. I liked his vibe a lot. Our music is a combination of influences. We do heavy doses of rock, electronic music, spoken word and funk. We call it conscious dance music.

When I went back to Bombay I bumped into him and I asked him to play with me. I wrote the record, he and I recorded it, we got a distribution deal, we were getting paid to do shows, and it all kicked off. Sometimes when you do the right thing, life is like “good job, I’ll give you this.” And that just kept happening, not without a lot of sweat and hard work though.

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