Yesterday, Karan borrowed all my gear and took me along to Thane to shoot Paradigm Shift. I helped  set everything up for him to shoot portraits of the band. Also present was the band’s manager/booking agent Nikhil Warrier with his Royal Enfield. As soon as the shoot got over, I tilted the lights towards the bike and managed to shoot a couple of HQ pictures. Since I’m in a good mood, I’m putting these pictures out for free downloads.

You can click on the following thumbnails to download Hi-res images from Flickr.

Royal Enfield Thunderbird (By Roycin D’souza) Free Download by Roycin D’souza is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com.

They won a total of 5 awards at the JD Rock Awards 2011

I’ve shot 9/10 bands that are nominated, have heard all their albums and have been following them closely for years. Apart form Pentagram being nominated in almost every category, its great to see acts like Ska Vengers, Goddess Gagged, Allegro Fudge, Fire Exit, Dischordian, and Arcane Deception nominated. Here go my predictions for 2012′s Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards.

BEST BAND -

• Indian Ocean
• Pentagram
• Peter Cat Recording Co.
• Undying Inc
• menwhopause

My Prediction – Pentagram.

Why? They’ve stuck together for years, continued to do what they do best, and came out with a bad ass album. So much more power and energy, a music video and a successful online Video series. They’ve even revisited some of their tracks live, too.

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BEST ALBUM -

• Dischordian – The Feni Farm Riot
• Indian Ocean – 16/330 Khajoor Road
• menwhopause – Easy
• Undying Inc – Aggressive World Dynasty
• Pentagram – Bloodywood

My Prediction – Indian Ocean for 16/330 Khajroor Road. Or Pentagram’s Bloodywood. I’d love UndyingINC to win this,but the competition is tough.

Why? This in Indian Ocean’s grooviest record and they’ve toured across the country mostly playing songs from the new album only. I personally found Pentagram’s Bloodywood a little too monotonous when heard over a single seating. But they might just win it purely because how catchy, melodious and well produced it is.

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BEST SONG -

• Eccentric Pendulum– ‘Mathematicians Of Ambient Waters’
• Indian Ocean – ‘Darte Ho’
• menwhopause – ‘Easy’
• Pentagram – ‘Tomorrow’s Decided’
• Peter Cat Recording Co – ‘Clown on the 22nd Floor’
• Sky Rabbit – ‘I Become I’
• The Circus – ‘F.O.P.S’
• Undying Inc – ‘Xenophobe’

My Prediction – Tomorrow’s Decided (Pentagram).

Why? This song is so “in your face”, you hear it once and you’ve got the lyrics memorized. It’s one of those songs which will make you jump even if you’ve got a broken leg. Plus for some odd reason, it lurks of Bombay city.

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Best Vocalist (Male)

• Kishore Krishna – Adam & The Fish Eyed Poets
• Garreth D’Mello – Dischordian
• Siddharth Basrur – Goddess Gagged
• Vishal Dadlani – Pentagram
• Raxit Tewari – Sky Rabbit
• Shashank Bhatnagar – Undying Inc

My Prediction – Siddharth Basrur of Goddess Gagged. [Song - Visionary (Resurfaces 2011)]

Why? This man has outdone himself! From his iconic comeback with Goddess Gagged to playing solo gigs at the Frog and his side acts – Bones For Bertie and the Venus Project to collaborating with various artists and bands, his powerful voice deserves this award.

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Best Vocalist (Female)

• Subhadra Kamath – Fire Exit
• Pragnya Wakhlu
• Suchitra Pillai
• Samara Chopra – The Ska Vengers

My Prediction – Samara C (Ska Vengers)

Why? Ska Vengers have surfaced as one of India’s freshest acts and Samara’s got a strong, versatile voice and singing style.

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Best Guitarist -

• Arjun Mulky & Faheemul Hasan – Eccentric Pendulum
• Prashant Shah – Exhumation
• Anup Kutty – menwhopause
• Randolph Correia – Pentagram
• Biswarup Gupta – Undying Inc

My Prediction – Biswarup Gupta (Undying Inc)

Why? GOODMOTHEROFSWEETBABYJESUS, Have you heard those riffs, man? I haven’t heard any Indian Metal guitarist come up with something so different and consistent. On the other hand, I have a feeling Prashant Shah (Exhumation/ Scribe) might take this. His work on ‘Consider This’ is commendable, fresh and technical.

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Best Bassist -

• Ruell Barretto – Bombay Bassment
• Randeep Singh – menwhopause
• Makarand Mane – Pentagram
• Siddharth Shah – Sky Rabbit
• Abhinav Chaudhary – The Circus

My Prediction – Abhinav Chaudhary (The Circus).

Why? Ive seen this guy grow as a Musician with circus & he is definitely among my Top 3 bassists in the scene. I haven’t seen any rock bassist as fluid as this guy and his work on ‘From Space’ is excellent – with bass lines throughout the album!

____

Best Drummer -

• Vibhas Venkatram – Eccentric Pendulum
• Hemendra Nath – menwhopause
• Shiraz Bhattacharya – Pentagram
• Harsh Karangale – Sky Rabbit
• Yuvraj Sen Gupta – Undying Inc

My Prediction -  Yuvraj Sen Gupta (Undying Inc)

Why? Polyrythms for President. It’s not easy to play blast beats at unconventional time signatures specially when you know that you’re prone to cramps. Honestly, the other nominees haven’t been too spectacular in 2011 for me to rethink this prediction.

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Best Keyboardist -

• Jason Zachariah – Allegro Fudge
• Akshat Taneja – Arcane Deception
• Vikram Ashok – Frank’s Got the Funk
• Jonathan Wesley – Slain
• Stefan Kaye – The Ska Vengers

My Prediction – Jonathan Wesley of Slain. Again.

Why? He is good at what he does and has been acknowledged for it, time and again. Slain hasn’t been gigging too often, but I’m pretty sure Jonathan is taking this.

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Well, these were my predictions. I was 80% right the last 2 Rock and Metal Awards. Let’s see how things fly this year.

PS – I do not endorse any of these bands/ artists/ record labels. I don’t endorse JD/ Rolling Stone either. These are my personal opinions. Share the post if you think alike. Also, I’ll be at Mehboob Studios tomorrow. Say hello.

by Surekha Pillai

Feature story by Surekha Pillai in Mint. Click here for the hi-res version.

Here is the online version of MINT. ( Live mint )

I was in Delhi last month to shoot folks for #TAD365 and I happened to catch Junkyard Groove at Hard Rock Cafe. Here are some images of the gig. Super gig, great crowd and always great to catch up with Ameeth. Shot him for #TAD365 too.

More pictures on Facebook. If you like them, please share and tweet. =)

Proud to present to you #TAD365′s First Sponsor – http://ArtistAloud.com

ArtistAloud.com, set up since May 2009, is an initiative pioneered by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Private Ltd. to provide an opportunity for Independent Artists to build a connect with their fans and for fans to have access to own music that is unreleased and created by the Artist for them.

It is a platform that purely attempts to be a facilitator between the Artist and his listener. It is an endorsement to music and talent that needs to be presented out there for consumption and allowed to be judged by the listener only.

The platform is in its own way an answer to fight piracy and a long awaited solution for artists who have not been able get a commercial release for their original compositions and in the process have had to resort to free downloads.

ArtistAloud.com is a revolution in the Indian Independent Music Scene that aims to give not only an artist but also the consumer the control and right to build the demand for Independent Music on a global level that is a sheer expression of musical speech by an Artist towards his audience.

This special edition will feature Independent Musicians over the next 4 week – 4 days a week. These musicians are the finest in their genres are some of the nicest people to talk to on Twitter. These portraits will be shot in their own space, at their own convenience. We will try to record small snippets and bits for you to watch online, too.

What to expect ?

• Some really cool Musicians. Some who grace the BIG stages, some who’re soon going to taking over the world.
• FREEBIES !
• Live Streams (Subject to Logistics)
• Videos
• MOAR PHOTOS !

Hope you guys like what you’re going to be seeing in the next 4 weeks. Suggest us Musicians you wish to see in this special series. Cheers to ArtistAloud.com for supporting the #TAD365 Initiative.

Picture of Monica Dogra in Times Crest – 13th August, 2011.

Photo of Monica Dogra of Shaa'ir & Func

Thank you guys for the tremendous response and votes. No. 1, No. 4, No. 5 and No.6 were the most voted Logos. These logos were sent to the judges and I’m happy to announce – No.5 – Jugal Mistry (@holy_photon) wins the contest and gets to be the Official Designer of #TwitterAday365 ! Deepika comes 2nd.

Judges

Thank you guys for all the support ! Do comment with your suggestions. We would be modifying the logo a little, soon. AND designing the badges!

Congrats Mr. Jugal! You have loads of work coming your way.

Firstly, let me thank all of you for sending in your Designs. I received designs from over 20 people and have decided to put up only a few relevant ones.

The procedure to vote for your favourite design is simple. All you have to do is COMMENT with the option number.

For Eg.
“ I like No. 4 ” or ” 4 ”
[Provide a Reason] Optional

The Twitter handles of the participants aren’t mentioned primarily because I want you to judge purely on the basis of design.
3 of the most Voted Designs will be sent to another Panel Of Judges who will pick the best and give their valuable critique.
Contest closes on Sunday 11.59pm. Winner will be announced 2-3 days after that.

The WINNER gets to design whatever he likes for #TwitterAday365 and ofcourse, gets a lot of stuff!

Voting wont take you more than 10 seconds. Please share, RT, Post and spam. Thank You!

Do you have it in you?

Hello Lovely folks,

Thanks for supporting #TwitterAday365 all the way. It’s been a fruitful 2 months. I’ve been working hard to co-ordinating with people on when and how to shoot and the response has been good. 64 photos so far, I see the journey going far and beyond what I’m going to expect.

I have plans of printing 500 badges which will be given out to people who are being shot/ who have already been shot.  Badges are being sponsored by @dharmeshG, @locopurplewing and @viraajb.
Soon I’ll be getting a sponsor a print us t shirts which will be given to the regular public. And maybe coasters, mugs, keychains, posters.

Here is a rough draft of what I had in mind. - http://roycind.posterous.com/in-the-making-epicvictory

The design would be a circular badge with a faded collage of select Portraits in the background, place to write day number , handle and the logo (printed)
I wanted to design it myself but I realised that there are plenty of talented designers online who would love to get on board.  So you can suggest your own ideas =)

So here – What you have to do ?

•  Design a SIMPLE Logo for #TwitterAday365 … ( Something Bold, Round, Compact and Visible. Should portray diversity. #TwitterAday365 – T and A in uppercase)
  You have time till 9th August to get the Logos ready.
• Once your design is ready , mail it to mail@roycin.com (alternatively, you can mail me to clarify your doubts)
  Provide a small description explaining the design, too!
• On 10th August, I will host a poll and make people vote for the best Logos.  (Their Favourite)
  You can get your friends to vote for you too. This will be an open poll.
• Top 3 designs will be judged and rated by a panel of 5 Advertising Creative Directors, Photographers and Designers who will chose the final winner.
• The winner gets to be the official designer for #TwitterAday365
  All creatives will be designed by you and you will be duly credited.
  You will be allowed to modify things later based on the type of print and sponsor.
  You might get paid, too.

What do you get by taking part?

• Top 3 get their #TwitterAday365 portraits shot by me.
• If you win, you get credited everywhere online.
• I will display a 950px banner of your name on my blog too! (Yes)
• You get all #TwitterAday365 merch on first priority.
• You get Goodies. CDs. Posters. T-Shirts. And Free entry to gigs.
• And ofcourse, a LOT more!

Take part. Spread the word. Get your illustrator glasses on. You’re running out of time!

PS- I will be tweeting to a few of you personally.