JUMP Media are hosting a series of events showcasing the local region’s talented bands, at The JUMP Tent at the Irish Village.
These nights of great music are in conjunction with radio station, Dubai 92 and will be hosted by The Open Mike Show’s Zahra Soar.
JUMP Media are helping out the local music scene by providing them with a professional platform for them to gain experience from. JUMP Media have worked with a wide range of major international artists throughout their history- such as Arrested Development, The Fun Lovin’ Criminals, The Christians, The Beat and De La Soul amongst many others.
JUMP Media are dedicated to supporting the local music industry in many forms- whether is helping up and coming bands or performers with their bios, logos, business cards; support slots with international bands or a rehearsal studio to practice in and above all keeping live music real in the UAE!
Band Showcase Schedule-
* Thursday July 24th- Butterspoon Experiment & Behold The Locus
* Thursday July 31st- Beat Antenna- supporting international stars The Parlotones
* Thursday August 7th- The Meerkats & Diligent Thought
* Thursday August 14th- Sandwash & Juliana Down
Tickets are 50dhs for the Thursday night events and this includes 2 beers. Tickets are available on the door.
Doors open at 8pm, Show starts at 9pm
For more information please contact:
Gail Potter, PR & Marketing Manager, JUMP Media
050 4540591
email gail@jumpmediaonline.com
www.jumpmediaonline.com
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GCB/Gandhi’s Cookbook are a Punk/Ska/Reggae Band from The Cesspool a.k.a. Dubai. They’re a 4 member band who cannot be photographed all at once. The most number of actual members who’ve ever appeared in a photograph together is 3. There are numerous legends surrounding GCB, a few of which shall be investigated today.
Me: Oh Hai, Introduce yourselves!
Chris: Chris Ryan, drums and vo-kills!
Adarsh: Adarsh Sekhar, bass and vocals (I spell it right)
Martin: I’m martin… I recite lyrics
[Scott Morrison, plays guitar]
Me: Where do you guys hail from?
Martin: Ethnicity: WEST COAST
But really… Macedonian
Chris: I’m Irish
Adarsh: I’m south Indian.
Me: What are the origins of Gandhi’s Cookbook? How did you guys meet, and decide to make sweet music together?
Martin: The other three weird fuckers (Chris, Bob, Scott) go to school together. I met Chris at Shamal 2005
Adarsh: And this is the part where I keep quiet for a bit.
Chris: We loved Dead Kennedys.
Martin: We moshed together, He wore red.
Chris: So we fell in love
Martin: We still do
Martin: But after the assembly, bob had to leave to Australia
Adarsh: And then, I met Chris in school and for some reason we talked about Gilman Street, Hmm so yeah, bob emigrated to Australia
Martin: Adarsh immigrated to Chris’s bedroom
Adarsh: So I played bass, for the first time
Martin: With his red bass, that looked weird…
Chris: Yeah Adarsh played guitar and I told him to play bass
Martin: But we’re punk, so it’s cool
Chris: Oh fuck yea
Adarsh: We are?
Martin: We put traffic cones over each other’s heads and doesn’t afraid of anything. STF, new guy
Chris: So one day, in school, Adarsh was talking about operation ivy and I was like O HAI!!!1 Turned out we needed a bassist, and Bob was leaving in a few months so I was like nice, ‘play bass’ and he was like ‘I play guitar’ and I was like ‘play bass’. Well I wasn’t that intimidating, I was moar pleasant.
Martin: He’s a sweetheart, really
Adarsh: So rob taught Adarsh all GCB bass riffs at the time, the day before he left in fact
Chris: Indeed! That was fun. Good bit of trivia
Me: I see… Who are your favourite artists?
Chris: Well, we all like the Dead Kennedys, Choking Victim, Operation Ivy, and Fugazi
Martin: I fucking hate those bands
Martin: I <3 the Exploding Hearts, Hadouken!, Green Day and Mayhem and Billy Talent, makaVILE
Adarsh: Streetlight Manifesto, Sublime, and Chumbawamba as well, I guess
Martin: THE EXPLOITED, THE CASHUALTIES
Chris: Yeah, we love Ian MacKaye
Me: So how did the name come to be?
Martin: tell him, bro
Chris: well we had some silly names
Adarsh: really? like?
Martin: the hatbox
Chris: And I came up with gandhiscookbook and I have this meaning behind it
Adarsh: (you do realize I know hardly anything) of early GCB history
Chris: fuck no not The Hatbox, just hatbox, were not oipunk god damn it
Adarsh: hatbox? hahaha
Chris: yah time to stfu adarsh
Adarsh: fine then.
Chris: I liked the name cos it’s something that if you search in google it’s only gonna have the band
Chris: like if a band is called… I dunno… hindenberg, your gonna get a lot of shit about hinenberg, not so much of the band. Thats a risque examplebut I was gonna say DVDA
Adarsh: yeah, when I type Gandhi’s cookbook in wiki, I get stuff about chicken soup
Martin: NOT ANYMORE!
Chris: I don’t. I just get a screen saying how fucking awesome I am [citation needed]
Me: Was the coining of the name GCB motivated by capitalist-greed?
Chris: no
Martin: and peace
Chris: Not inititally but since we’ve sold out, ya!
Martin: Yeah, we sold out, because we have fans
Chris: capitalism isn’t all that bad
Martin: “fans”, rather. we’re mainstream now
Chris: after all, corporations are people too
Martin: they have feelings too
Me: So, what does “Gandhi’s Cookbook” stand for?
Chris: just the meaning I guess
Martin: with bad grammar/spelling
Chris: I don’t really regret the name, but sometime it can cause some eghh if people think we are taking gandhi’s name in vein
Martin: they seem to think we’re taking the piss
Chris: yeah, and people sometimes kind of make a joke about it to us and thats really not what we wanna be about
Adarsh:cause of hunger strikes, and cookbook
Chris: yeah. OH SHIT, PERMISSION FOR COPYPASTA
Martin: cookbook: the recepie for peace
Chris: The name ‘Gandhi’s Cookbook’ is a commentary on the laziness, ignorance, and greed of mankind - everyone included. Gandhi was obviously a really great man, and a figure for peace and diplomacy - many people would like to be seen as making a change in the world like he did, and they aspire to be a huge icon, but are too lazy to do anything that requires any work or determination.
These people would much rather to have a nice handy little pocket sized book that tells them what to do to be a huge figure like him, which they can read at their leisure; basically a little cookbook.
Chris: But yeah, to all who say ‘Ghandhi’ or whatever, its ‘Gandhi’. We are all fucking nerds, ok, it’s not misspelt.
Martin: GANDHI! We’re teh spellunat0rz, OKAY?
Me: What was the first gig GCB played, with the present line-up?
Martin: Skate & jam
Chris: The second skate and jam
Martin: February 17th, 2007
Chris: Yeah, it was right around Valentine’s Day. So the show was called ‘love is rock’, which was weird to grasp.
Martin: Because we don’t know what is love
Martin: Adarsh joined in early 2007, when bob left
Martin: March 2006
Adarsh: March 18th, 2006
Martin: our first practice was on March 9th, 2006
Adarsh: ohshi, seriously?
Chris: fucking nice martin
Martin: Yeah, the first songs we covered were california uber alles, blitzkrieg bop and murder the government by NOFX
Me: Were you guys serious about the band? What does the future hold for GCB?
Chris: well yeah we’re pretty hard working, we practise a lot, were pretty bad though which is suprising considering how much we practice.
Adarsh: and we take this pretty seriously, it’s not just a fuckabout. And we’re realistic about this, we know we’ll probably go our separate ways once school’s done, and martin’s uni is done and stuff
Chris: but yeah, we joke around but we really take our selves quite seriously when it comes down to it and try to be meticilous about details and try to conduct ourselves in a professional manner when it comes to serious stuff (such as booking an India tour, for instance)
Martin: Meticulous, isn’t it?
Chris: see, right there
Adarsh: Incredibly, actually.
Chris: Fucking yes band chemistry
Chris: (soz scott)
Chris: Scott isn’t REALY in the band, he just plays guitar, sort of
Me: An India tour eh? Interesting…
Martin: I quiet now
Chris: Yeah, before anything, martin isn’t coming on the tour. There were some problems and it will just be adarsh/scott/me
Chris: Adarsh and I are gonna split vocal duties and the three of us are used to playing together so I think we’ll be ok. It’s a bit sad, but its gotta be. We figured we might as well go and promote the band still… Martin is 100% still in the band and we’ll continue on as always the minute we come back
LOEV YUO MART
Me: So, how did you guys decide to do the India tour?
Adarsh: Ryan Moonshine was talking to Chris about doing a show in India, and I mentioned that my uncle knows a few people there, so we started thinking more seriously about it. I knew a few people, and there’s, erm, a lot of Indians here who we know who know people in India. We tried to take it from there, I have relatives in nearly every big city south of Mumbai, including Mumbai
Chris: yeah, and it seems most local bands here play some shows, release an EP and split… and we just felt it was the next natural step, do what were doing here, but in another country, plus…
TOURIN TOURIN… ITS NEVER BORING, TOURIN TOURIN
Adarsh: so accommodation wont be a big problem; we still need to get in contact with more venues about playing there, it seems to be harder getting in contact with them cause its summer hols there now, non?
Chris: yeah, we figured going down to India for one show wasn’t a good idea so we were like nahh but then we said hey, we could get more shows and make a tour out of it, and what better time than summer!
Adarsh: like, most summers we just go somewhere with parents, or stick around at home.we might as well do something productive; plus chris and scott get to see south India.
Chris: but yeah with help from Adarsh’s relatives, Ryan Moonshine, Peter K, Abhinav from Sunking, the guys from Behold the locus and a bunch of other people we are going to make it a great time and as productive as possible (fuck yes those were shoutouts)
Adarsh: and they might end up coming to my cousin’s wedding; that would be quite a strange experience. And we’re travelling alone, our owners aren’t accompanying us.
Chris: yeah, I’ve been in Dubai for the last 10 summers…
Me: Travelling all alone? Nice. Incidentally, how old are you guys?
Chris: 16
Adarsh: 16
Martin:8
11 years ago
Adarsh: Scott is 16 too
Chris: We are all pretty mathy and we are all doing physics at A level and martin does statics and other such loser thing in schoolz
Me: have you guys ever thought about playing math punk?
Chris: actttualllyyyyy new songssss!!!
Adarsh: are pretty mathpunk
Chris: got the drums in 7/8 time and guitar in 4/4
Adarsh: the closest to math punk that we’d get. And we had to count how many bars had to go before we get into sync again
Chris: yeah, were experimenting around with our new songs because were getting kind of bored of the kind of stuff were playing now and were not really restricted like ‘oh shit you cant play that, thats not punk/ska’ so yeah, experimentation
Me: Before you tell me about your NEW songs, tell me about your recently released album, in the cesspool of culture
Adarsh: it has 8 tracks,track 6 is shit even if I like it a bit.
Chris: the artwork is pretty cool
Adarsh: it costs 10 dhs, and we’re gonna bring quite a few to india, hopefully
Chris: buy it from us PLEASE so we can pay for tour and feed scott, a growing boy needs his lunch
Adarsh: moving on, yeah, it’s a nice EP, buy it. It got reviewed in TimeOut recently, just like nearly every other local artist.
Chris: we just call it EP because it’s not a full length. Basically it’s our first release, 8 tracks of our punk/ska songs, can be bought for 10dhs at every single one of our shows. To be honest it’s just a collection of all our writing efforts up until that point…
Adarsh: I guess it’s mainly influenced by what we see with the people around us
Chris: I guess if anything it’s a collection and a product of life in the cesspool of culture, dobuy! groovin on the same vibes
Adarsh: but yeah, it’s mainly influenced by stuff we see on the news, people that we meet, and things like that
Chris: I dunno about seeing on the news
Adarsh: like, both no thoughts and inability (apparently) are about too much news and information and stuff.right? But I think anyone would be able to relate to it, really, seeing that dobuy basically describes any megalomanic city….and the rest of the lyrics aren’t really “oh this can only relate the dobuy”
Me: so there isn’t a single vein running through the tracks?
Chris: But yeah, the lyrics are just kind of what we experience in our lives and have formulated opinions about.
Adarsh: definitely not, seeing that they were written over like, 2 years?
Chris: well, id say our next release will be more like that, but yeah.. ^^^
I was just about to say that, the recurring theme is just us viewing things, and formulating an opinion on things but really we just want to present our opinion, what we think about a subject, and invite the listener to listen and see what they think, but at least have an opinion regardless if they agree or not with us
Adarsh: and we try to explain our opinions, not just “oh this sucks, that sucks”
Chris: we are very lyric oriented, we take a lot of effort into music but more into lyrics as it is more important to us unless its a kind of satirical way like ‘plaid parade’. That song is a bash at kind of ‘punk’ and all the oipunk fashionpunk bullshit and the typical songs of that genre are very ‘fuck this, fuck that’
Adarsh: and we try and make sure the lyrics are heard live as well, and I also feel the vocals on the album are slightly louder than on most albums so that the lyrics get projected more
Chris: so that song kind of is almost ‘going to their level; to communicate with them
Me: Who write the lyrics? and how does a song form into its entirety?
Adarsh: Well, the last album was nearly all Chris and I think martin had some stuff in plaid parade
Chris: Yeah I write most of the songs and martin contributions and edits and stuff. All the songs have stuff added in by martin, we think in the same way most of the time so it’s pretty seamless
Adarsh: but now I think all of us are writing lyrics and stuff, and making some songs and just presenting them in band practice
Chris: but yeah, since ‘in the cesspool of culture’, adarsh has started writing songs, so there will be more of a larger kind of style of writing in the next album I think. But yeah, songs pretty much always start with lyrics, and if someone has a riff or something, we play around it and go ‘hey, these lyrics fit good for it’
Me: Tell me about how you add music to the lyrics, how does it all happen, and come into place?
Adarsh: Well, our lyrics are usually structured in a way that can fit with most music and we work around it if it doesn’t fit, and adjust words here and there.
Chris: But yeah it pretty much works that the music is adjusted to fit the lyrics as opposed to the lyrics changed for the music due to the whole lyrical importance thing I mentioned earlier
Adarsh: Because we basically believe music is just a vehicle to deliver your lyrics; something with which your lyrics fit (cringes at cliched statement)
Chris: Yeah basically like we said, songs kind of get jammed around, and fit to some lyrics that were written before hand. I have kind of like a lyric band with all this stuff that range from like a line or two to full songs and yeah, the vehicle thing is rather correct
Adarsh: And I think he meant lyric bank
Chris: Oh yeah I did
Me: So where did you guys record?
Chris: ya I do it!
Adarsh: So erm, chris did the drums in the summer, I did the bass when I got back, and scott did the guitar after that, and martin took 4 months with vocals, we did backing vocals in a few sections.chris took fuckages to mix it, and that’s the lot.
Chris: I’ve been interested in recording for a while, like early GCB stuff I attempted to record with shitty pc mics and other such equipment and yeah, I just learned over time
Me: And now, you have a fully furnished studio, at the age of 16
Chris: but yeah, like ages ago when I would do geography PowerPoint presentations in like year 8, I would take fucking ages getting the sound awesome like getting cool songs and cutting them up to fit the presentation and stuff, and getting a shit mark due to practically no geographical information (more kudos to wiki).
Oh well to be honest I feel that I can do a better sound now, like as adarsh said the drums were recorded in the summer of 2007, and since then I’ve had a lot more experience with drums, there are some things in the EP that I’m not 100% happy with but I was pretty pleased with the mix, as in like all the instruments ended up having their space so that was all I was really out to do, make sure everything had its space in the sound but yeah, I record under the guise ‘cesspool studios’ (some quasi-promtion of the GCB EP there haha) quasi is the right word right?
Got Sun King doing their first release and I’ve had some people do drums before like Mychal from Amongst Skyscrapers’ and Behold the Locus, and I’ve got quite a few people interested in doing stuff in the future so that’s cool, of brutality and grace mentioned they are interested in recording some time so that will be fun…
Me: Finally, how does one listen to Gandhi’s Cookbook?
Chris: GCB ones, http://www.myspace.com/gandhiscookbook is all I gotta say.
The mixes on that site aren’t actually the final mixes on the album, it sounds better on the album… not just because it’s lossless .wav and not poop .mp3 streaming shit, but because those mp3s were uploaded quite a bit before album release and final mixing stage…
Well on our site, the three songs are downloadable as part of a free online sampler called ‘3 songs from the cesspool’ via an online ‘record label’ called WeNevaStop Records basically just server space and promotion, cool guys, promote a lot of small underground US punk bands.
The quality is a LITTLE better than if you were to download of myspace so that’s cool, barely any difference at all though still .mp3
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Exclusively For ShouScene.com Readers:
Download Indiephone’s latest track - Mr. Helsinki Here
Indiephone, the Abu Dhabi based God-sent band with Satanic messages and the noisiest thing since grime took over south London are one of the newest bands on the UAE scene.
Some say that the mass hysteria over Indiephone after Ampulance Acoustic Gig 2 was a result of mass hypnosis, but anyone seeing them perform will have their socks rocked off.
As founder and CEO of ShouScene.com, I guarantee it.
So, I met up with Indiephone in their erm… eclectic moonbase, replete in décor with shag carpeting, astro-turf on the walls, lava lamps and shiny disco balls in every corner. The panther in the middle of the room was quite hard to miss.
Hannah on her green bean bag and Rhodri outdoing her with a water bag joined me and my teabag.
Me: Infernal hailz band members!
Keep it br00tal and sick \m/,
Starting off… Do reveal, how did Indiephone come to be?
Hannah: Basically, we were bored, Well, actually, Rhodz was bored and he decided to make a band. So then he talked to Andy, the only drummer in the whole city, and Andy talked to me, and then Shanya overheard us talking and yeah, we got stuck together in a room with two others who shall remain nameless?
And we made sweet sweet music.
And here we are!
Rhodri: We’ve come a long way.
I mean, the moon is what… thousands of kilometers?
Me: How did you guys settle onto “Indiephone” instead of say… “The renaissance band”
Rhodri: Andy will tell you how he received word from god. On a paper plane, no less, that we should be called Indiephone. But who listens to that old coot anyway?
Hannah: Exactly, he’s just the drummer.
Rhodri: I was talking about God. I wouldn’t mind having him as a drummer.
Actually, the truth; which I can now reveal for the first time, is that we stole the name from a 6 year old girl with leukemia… and one arm. But she’s at peace now.
That’s how we roll. It’s just business, as far as we’re concerned…
Me: For those who don’t know you corporate types personally, please, reveal your true identities…
Rhodri: So I suppose we can tell you Shanya and Andy’s stories.
She grew up in rural Lithuania, on a lead farm.
I am told that at the tender age of 6, she fashioned a guitar out of the lead and learned to play Meatloaf ballads. She was evicted from the farm after smashing her guitar at the end of a performance, which vaporized most of the lead and lead to the deaths of about 20 other children. And that pretty much sums up that dream…
In actuality, she’s a lefty but plays a right-handed guitar…
Which explains her… unusual style, shall we say?
Me: And what of Andy?
Hannah: Ah yes, Andy!
Rhodri: What can we say, that hasn’t been said already?
hahaha, ok well, Andy’s from somewhere in england, Yorkshire…
He lived in France a lot, where he was in some other crap band.
But enough about you, let’s talk about me!
I take inspiration from Mongolian throat singing, you can hear it in my riffs.
I like moonlight, long walks on the beach and crumbly cheese.
These are the things that define me.
Seriously speaking though, I popped out the vag in cardiff, wales, but moved pretty much straight away out here, to Abu Dhabi. Where i’ve lived ever since.
Hannah: After spending fourteen years being indoctrinated with Maoist propaganda, my parents moved me back to my humble Scouser roots. Then I ended up here.
Me: How did you guys develop the sheer sonic madness that is the Indiephone sound?
Hannah: haha,
Well, we don’t actually listen to each other, so we all just do our own thing.
Rhodri: Personally, I reject the label “sound”. It’s more a “noise”.
But that’s actually pretty key, we’re determined to sound like nothing else.
If we start sounding like something I start to retch, Hannah begins to have a seizure.
Hannah: Andy doesn’t notice.
Rhodri: Shanya turns up her treble.
In short, we hate each other’s muci. Music even and each other and it shows.
Me: This should be interesting, tell me, what genre would each of you classify Indiephone into?
Rhodri: Deep soul
Me: Isn’t that a tad presumptuous?
Rhodri: Dear me Watson, have you learned nothing from talking to us?
Me: erm, moving on… quickly…
What bands are you listening to right now and what bands have influenced the Indiephone noise?
Rhodri: I like my painfully strange electro, Aphex twin;
But clangy guitar stuff too, a la maximo park, bloc party and dance. Jamiroquai!!!
O-town, gypsy kings
Hannah: Dance punk, Shitdisco, The Velvet Underground. The Hives!
Shanya’s favourite band is called Metro Station.
and Andy’s really into this Japanese thrash band L’Arc En Ciel.
Rhodri: And the gypsy kigns, oh andy also likes Wailing Bobby.
Hannah: Shanya’s real favourite band is The Libertines!
YES! Wailing Bobby are fucking great
Rhodri: Not as great as The Heironimous Bosch
Hannah: The Sausage Boys! We SHOULD talk about them. They’re an inspiration and a half.
Rhodri: Yeah actually, we met Yasmin about a year ago and she’s just as inspiring in person.
But, I suppose most people haven’t heard of the sausage boys, they’re pretty underground.
Me: I see, and which underground scene do they belong to ?
Hannah: Soufff London! Innit
Rhodri: They regularly get “nicked” by the “po-po’s”
Me: o__O
Getting back to Indiephone; anyone who’s heard even one of the tracks, can’t help but be amazed at the sheer mastery that is the songwriting and lyrics and whatnot. Tell me about that. How does an Indiephone song evolve?
Rhodri: Well it begins in my shower
Hannah: We all shower together
Me: Indeed, we must all do out part to save water
Rhodri: Of course, we remain committed to global warming.
There’s something about the shower, which makes the ideas flow, maybe it’s the clear air, the white noise of the water, or maybe it’s the LSD in my soap.
Who knows?
Me: So, is the creative farce behind the songs only Rhodri in a drug induced high?
Hannah: Of course not! My creative juices also flow, thank you very much. And MINE TASTE SWEETER THAN HIS!
Rhodri: Very true, sometimes she gets so worked up they flow right down her leg.
Hannah: haha, shut up.
Rhodri: After the initial revelation, we take it and jam around it.
Sometimes strawberry, sometimes apricot.
But always, ALWAYS marmalade.
Recently though, it’s been an idea to finish recording in the space of days, which has been interesting.
Me: Oh, how does that work ?
Rhodri: There’s an idea, for instance, I sometimes take my bass into the shower. Don’t worry, I clean it afterwards. Then I’ll put that bass riff to some crappy drums, send it around.
Hannah: Yeah, generally we don’t really write things until we come to record.
Rhodri: Actually, it’s all your fault, you’ve been keeping us busy with gigs, so we’d never use the Indiephone sessions to write.
Damn you Dubai!
DAMN YOU!
It’s alright now, we want gigs.
Me: Lets talk about your EP “Did You Mean Idiophone”
How did it come to be? The name, the tracks, the art, the colors, the hidden messages, the bestial innuendo…
Rhodri: Well i wouldn’t want to put words in Andy’s mouth, considering what’s been in there.
Hannah: hahahaha
Rhodri: The seal was simply “a close friend”, they hadn’t seen each other for a few years.
So it was simply… Spirited.
Rhodri: ok well, before we were huge, before the limos, the mountains of cocaine, the legions of leprous groupies;
We searched ourselves on google, and it suggested - ‘Did You Mean Idiophone?’.
That really shook us to our core, DID we mean idiophone?
Me: Ah, who did the album art though?
Rhodri: We actually dug up Andy Warhol and put his corpse in a room with a blank canvas. And we were amazed when we went in after a week and there was nothing.
Oh, except the smell. That was an inspiration.
The colors are actually part of a much larger puzzle, to be revealed stage by stage.
Tim, our manager is actually in possession of the Ark of the Covenant.
He got it down a backstreet in Camden and now he wants to give it away, since he’s moving to a smaller house.
So whoever solves the puzzle, will get that frankly underwhelming prize.
Me: Any clues? Blues clues even.
Rhodri: Beware the eye of highest regard, therein shall you find his mark.
Me: Masterful.
Rhodri: Also, the EP, a second one is in the works. More eclectic than the first, texturewise.
Hannah: And the songs are all very different to one another as well, so we’re shaking it up.
Me: What do you think about the local scene and how has it treated you?
Shanya: It’s much better than it was last year
Rhodri: haha, the scene. We never really tried to ‘break into’ it.
Shanya: It was pissy easy ‘breaking into’ the scene
Rhodri: They slurped us up really, since there’s nothing going on.
This was right after the dearth, just before ampulance’s militant rise.
Shanya: The scene has treated us well, we felt very welcomed and happy and all cosy and wrapped up in a blanket of admiration.
The Indiephone Wall of Hug at Arise. © Shaneez Hameed.
Me: What gigs have you guys played?
Hannah: Ampulance II, HP, Arise II are the ones in Dubai.
In Abu Dhabi we’ve played small shows, obviously HP was our most high profile show.
Rhodri: Other than the Astoria. The Astoria day spa and turkish bath. In deepest lilongue.
Me: So, how’s life been after the first gig? Tell me about all the record labels, the offers, the sex, the drugs…
Shanya: After the first gig we were really humbled, I mean, we didn’t think that many people knew about us.
Rhodri: Yeah it was a shock, to think that people listened to our music..
to think, that people, had EARS.
By god! Dubai really is the next big thing!
Shanya: WE R STILL IN PPLZ HARTZZ!!11
Groupie sex is guilt free, so it’s all good.
Rhodri’s met his one and only love, foxy brown
Rhodri: foxxxy brown, for god’s sake! I can’t take her anywhere!
Shanya: She’s very loud in le saque. urghh! tour bus walls are thin.
But seriously, we’ve been sending out our demo.
We’re currently getting a HUGE list of labels from ANYWHERE to send our demo to. Just to keep our options open.
Rhodri: I gave our CD to a little man in a hat who by the way, told me he’d sign us if i got into his car. He had sweets!
Shanya: Did you go with him?! You better have!
Rhodri: Afraid not, i saw michael york across the street at an art exhibition, or rather, I followed him all night, trying to work up the courage to speak to him.
He was with his mother, you see, and i have an irrational fear of old ladies.
But yeah, Watch out labels..
Shanya: We’re a-coming
Rhodri: Soon an indiephone choon diskette will be landing on their desks.
Shanya: And we’ll be throwing ourselves at them, begging for a reason not to go to university!
Rhodri: YOU will! I, of course, am a poopyhead for actually wanting to go to university.
Me: Also, what kind of publicity and interest have you got?
Rhodri: Ummm, so far
Time out, What’s on magazines, we’ve been plastered across those.
And we’re soon to be international via Alef magazine.
The radio schmadio with DJ Zahra was a blessing in disguise and I think we’ll be sending some traxxx to various peeps around here, to see if we can get played on the airwaves.
Me: So what does the future hold for Indiephone
Rhodri: Ultrastardom!
Shanya: We’re trying to fit in a couple more gigs, y’know, before indiephone kicks the bucket.
Rhodri: And this EP and maybe-
A perfume
A line of clothes
Shanya: Sparkly condoms too!
Me: University?
Hannah: I’m going to go to uni in Reading hopefully to study English Lit.
Rhodri: I’ll be going to Cambridge, to do computer science.
narf!
Andy’s going to do word processing or something, at Sussex.
Digital multimedia. That’s it…
Shanya’s horsie-mad, so she’s going to queensland to do Equine Science.
Me: Allright, any last words? What would you like to say to your evil readers?
Shanya: buy the bloody ep.
Get us more gigs, etc.
That’s about it =)
I always wondered whether we’re difficult to interview. I have a feeling we are.
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SHAMAL (The Battle for Dubai Desert Rock Festival 2008), which was previously supposed to be held on the 14th Dec’07 @ Chi, The Lodge will finally happen, on March 5th, just a few days before DDRF. The Event oraganized by CSM will be held at the same location as DDRF, Dubai Festival City.
Last year saw eight bands from 5 different countries take the stage to a fight, which led to Junkyard Groove (India) winning the battle and getting to open for some of the greatest Rock stars in history.
This year we have 11 bands performing at the event. The winners will have the privilege of sharing the same stage as Korn, Machine Head, KSE, AILD, Muse, Velvet Revolver and more..
The Bands performing this year are -
1) THE GALEEJ GURUS-India
The Galeej Gurus are from the southern city of Bangalore in India. Their Influences inlcude RHCP, Eric Clapton, Deep Purple, Steve Vai, Jon bon Jovi etc. You can check them out at www.galeejgurus.com or listen to their music at www.myspace.com/galeej
2) FINAL SERENADE - SAUDI ARABIA
Final Serenade are a rock band of 5 guys from Jeddah, KSA. Their Influences include Red Hot Chilli Peppers , Bon jovi , Muse , System of A down , Linkin Park. You can check them out at facebook.com/group.php?gid=4999496669 or listen to them at http://www.myspace.com/finalserenadeband
3) THE HOURGLASS - SYRIA
The HourGlass are a Heavy MEtal Band from Syria consisting of 5 members. They have 2 full length albums to their credit - “To The Land Of The Free”-2004 and “Resurrection Of The Horrid Dream”-2007. You can check them out at http://www.the-hourglass.net/ or listen to their music at http://www.myspace.com/thehourglassgroup
4) REIGN OF WRATH - ABU DHABI, UAE
Reign of Wrath is one among the only 2 locals bands from the UAE. They are from Abu Dhabi and were formerly known as 7th Seal. They have released a demo.
5) SCARAB - EGYPT
The band was formed in 2003 as ‘Hate Suffocation’and played Progressive Death Metal. They have now changed their name to Scarab which means “A Holy Beetle”in Ancient Egyptian and also changed their music to Grindcore/Death Metal.
6) VANDIDA - IRAN
Vandida is a Progressive Rock band formed in 2004 in Tehran, Iran. You can check them out and listen to their demo at http://www.vandida.com/frames.html
7) DABYNA ABRAHAM - NIGERIA
Dabyna is one of Nigeria’s most talented youg rock & blues artist. You can check him out at and listen to his music @ http://www.myspace.com/dabynaabraham
WINTER’S EMRACE - LEBANON
Winters Embrace is a Gothic Metal Band from Lebanon. They are currently recording their debut album and have 3 singles to their credit. You can check them out @ http://wintersembrace.com/ or listen to their music @ http://www.myspace.com/wintersembraceband
9) LOUNGING CRIMINALS - KUWAIT
Lounging Criminals are a 4 member rock band from Kuwait. Their influences include Led Zeppelin, Muddy Waters, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Bob Dylan. You can check them out and listen to their music at http://www.myspace.com/theloungingcriminals
10) ABHORRED - DUBAI
The only band from Dubai and the second one from UAE to play in Shamal this year. Abhorred are a Death/Power/Prog Metal band formed back in 1999. Little has been heard from them since their EP “The Empires Fall” released in 2003. Currently they are working on a new EP which should be out by April’2008. You can check them out and listen to their music @ http://www.myspace.com/abhorreduk
11) THE JUICE (London/England)
The Juice are a UK based Rock/ Blues band formed in 2003. They have recently released their debut album titled “Blood for Water”. Their influences include Led Zeppelin, Black Crowes, GnR, Nirvana, Queen, RHCP, RATM, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, etc. You can check them out @ http://www.iwantjuice.com/ or listen to their music @ http://www.iwantjuice.com/.
Shamal 2006 had 5 bands and more than 1000 fans! This year with more bands participating, from a greater number of countries, you can expect to see an amazing show.
And yes, the entry to this remains absolutely free.
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Sun King are a breath of fresh air to the music scene in the UAE. They have been around for over a year and have performed at various shows in the UAE, their first at Abu Dhabi, the Battle of the Bands in April 07, where they announced their arrival to the scene and most recently performed at the Carlos Santana show when he was here in Dubai.Their track“Goin’ Crazy” appeared on Ampulance Compilation Volume 2, a compilation of music from various bands in the UAE. Here is my interview with their bassist, Jaison.
Hey Jaison, hows it going?
-Going good, lots happening.
You played a gig with Carlos Santana recently, how was it?How was the response from the crowd?
-It was fantastic; as it was the right atmosphere and crowd for the people to enjoy the music plus we got a good response from the crowd
You got to play with Santana after winning the HP battle of the bands tell me a bit about that gig?
-We put our track Goin’ Crazy online for voting in the competition most of our fans voted for us which helped us reach within the top 5 bands and hence progress to the main event at Wafi Rooftops. We eventually won the event, and opened the show for Sanatana on Feb 15th at the Dubai Festival City. It was a good experience to play our music to a new crowd, and they seem to enjoy it.
I know that Abhinav and you were part of Nepenthe earlier; the other members are new to the scene. How did you guys form?
-Well, I met Jonny, our guitarist on Phride.com. Jonny and myself had seen videos of each other on youtube.com , and decided to jam. Jonny brought in a close friend Jon, who plays the drums, and I got vocalist Abhinav, who was with me, in our previous band, Nepenthe. After a few jam sessions, we decided to form the band under the name of Sun King, which was taken from a song by the band The Cult.
You recently got a new drummer. Tell us a bit about your new drummer.
-Our new drummer, Matt, has played in various original/cover bands in the UK.He has brought in heavier feel to our sound, which we lacked with our previous drummer, Jon (who has left for Point of View), and it fits our kind of music very well.
What is your song “Lotus” about?
-Lotus is based on child molestation, a frequent occurrence in the UAE but seldom reported….did you read about the French boy? Well it is pretty messed up and I hope no kid ever experiences it.
Where does your inspiration for the music come from?
- Our common inspiration mainly comes from bands of the 70’s like Jimi Hendrix Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Ritchie kotzen, Queen, Led Zeppelin. Abhinav is a hardcore fan of Led Zeppelin. My influences are Queen, classic rock, and progressive artists like Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater. Jonny is a huge fan of Ritchie Kotzen, whereas Matt listens to anything and everything.
I’ve heard that you guys have a lot of music ready; will you be releasing Album/Ep soon?
-Yes. We have 8 tracks ready to be recorded. Some the titles of the new songs are “Can’t Find the Words to Say”, which is a Ballad “Live Your Moment” is funky and is about the last few moments before you know you are going to die. Another song is titled “A girl from Abu Dhabi” which was inspired and written during the BOTB 07 which was first ourshow. I’ll save the rest for when you hear the album…. that is when you buy it, and not borrow it from your friends. (laughs) We will start recording from March onwards, and hopefully get the album (yet to be named) out by 1st week of June. Well at least that’s the plan for now.
What is the new material like? Is it similar to “Going Crazy and “Lotus”?
-We have broadened our sound to the likes of ballads, funk, rock anthems. One of our main influences is Queen, who never stuck to one genre; we, in that respect, take after them.
Plans for the rest of 2008?
- We will be on our way to Germany this summer to battle it out with the winers of the HP DYPL event from the 4 countries. and we got a few offer for shows, so going to be busy with that, but besides that more music, more fans, and more money.(laughs)
Last words?
-You can check out our music at http://purevolume.com/sunking and also get info on the band shows/updates on our group ‘Sun King’ at facebook which seems like the cool place to be now.
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Pictures from Dubai Desert Rock Festival 2008 (Both Day1 and Day2)
http://ddrf08.shouscene.com/
http://xrivatsan.com
The year 2008 sees the Desert Rock Festival celebrate its 5th anniversary.
The show takes place over a span of two days - 7th and 8th of March at the Dubai Festival City. The lineup confirmed for this years installment is as follows:
[please see the links for more information regarding the bands and their music]
7th March (Metal Day)
- KORN - (www.korn.com)
Day 1 is the metal day with the headliners being Los Angeles based nu-metal pioneers KORN. They released an untitled album and a MTV Unplugged album in 2007 and also headlined the FAMILY VALUES TOUR. Only 3 members of the original line-up performing at Desert Rock, Jonathan Davis, James “MUNKY” Shaffer and Fieldy after Guitarist Brian “Head” Welch left the band in 2005, and drummer David Silveria has been on a hiatus from Korn since 2006
- Machine Head - (www.machinehead1.com)
- Killswitch Engage - (www.killswitchengage.com)
- As I Lay Dying - (www.asilaydying.com)
- Slapshock - (www.slapshock.com)
- Nervecell - (www.nervecell.net)
- Shamal Winner
8th March (Rock Day)
- MUSE - (www.muse.mu)
- Velvet Revolver - (www.velvetrevolver.com)
- Marky Ramone - (www.myspace.com/markyramone)
- Spoonfeedas - (www.spoonfeedas.com )
- Juliana Down - (www.julianadown.com)
This will be their 3rd time performing at Desert Rock, the first 2 times being at the 1st and 3rd editions of Desert Rock in 2004 and 2006 respectively. They have recently released a new single “Good for Nothing” and are currently working on a new album. The new song is a departure from their sound on their Debut album “Cause and Effect”, so its going to be interesting to see what the new album is like. They should be playing a few song from the new album at the gig.
- Shamal Winner
The Shamal winner will be selected on the 5th of March from the 11 bands that are competing in ‘Shamal’, the battle for Desert Rock.
DDRF’08 also sees the return of local heroes Nervecell and Juliana Down who have played on the previous editions of the festival. Nu-metal legends, Korn are headlining the Metal day whereas the English rock band, Muse is headlining the Rock day. These bands have been known for selling out huge stadiums in a matter of days. The festival lineup is shaping up to be something worth checking out.
Apart from the music, the festival will feature Merch tents and activities such as grafitti, suspended bar, dance tents and much more.
The tickets are priced at 250/- AED for one day and 350/- AED for both the days and are available at Virgin Megastores, Plug-Ins , the CSM office, www.timeouttickets.com and www.desertrockfestival.com
For further information on the festival, please check the official websites:
www.desertrockfestival.com
www.csmentertains.com
Hope to see you there on the 7th and 8th.
Cheers!
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