No place like home

On the sidelines of “Home” — its debut album, Mizoram-based band Boomarang talks about its music and the growing Rock scene in India

December 06, 2013 08:29 pm | Updated 08:29 pm IST

Boomerang the band.

Boomerang the band.

The crowd is impatient for them to start, and the names of the band members are yelled across from time to time, followed by a round of raucous applause. After a brief delay, the band takes centre-stage, and all of a sudden, the spotlight is on them. They begin, the crowd yelps in delight, and the ambience is set.

“We started playing ‘Rage Against The Machine’ covers at gigs across Mizoram and the North East, and we got a good response. That is when we decided to create our own music,” says Booma, the guitarist of the Rock band Boomerang. Consisting of Booma, vocalist Atea, Rsa on the drums and Joshua on the bass, this Mizoram-based was in Delhi as part of a multi-city tour to promote their debut album, “Home”.

Boomarang describes its music — a mixture of Blues, Hip Hop and Nu Metal as ‘Junk Rock’, by saying, “We play whatever the hell we want!”

“We love Delhi. We played here for the first time in 2006 as part of the Great Indian Rock competition and the encouragement we received from the audience was fantastic. Since then, we have come back at least once a year to perform. Today, we consider Delhi a home away from home, having stayed here for almost a year when we were still trying to make it as musicians,” says Boom.

The word ‘home’ isn’t one that the band throws lightly — it has a deep meaning for them. “Home for us is not just a place, it is a belief, it is an emotion that is as deep as faith that when we die, we go to heaven,” says Atea. Thus, they named a song after this concept of ‘home’ – the name of the album is also drawn from the same.

The really impressive part of the band is that since its inception in 2005 — when they shot to fame at the Scavenger Rock Idol, an annual band competition which is held in the North East, the line-up hasn’t changed even once. “I guess we get along really well,” jokes Booma.

The band has participated at some of the most prestigious competitions in South Asia, having performed in countries like Vietnam, and they have shared the stage with some of the biggest names in international music, including Lamb of God and Korn. “To share the stage with Korn was incredible — we’ve been listening to their songs for years. But to be fair, the Rock scene in India is becoming better and better, and after seeing the response we got abroad, we’re proud to be Indians,” enthusiasts Booma.

As for their music, despite their beginnings with “Rage Against The Machine”, their songs are politically driven. “Maybe, a couple of our songs could be contrived as having political lyrics, but we write about everything under the sky —for example, our song ‘Stellar’ is an out and out love song,” explains Atea.

Reflect on the slightly erroneous spelling of their name, and Booma is quick to explain. “When we were starting out, we learnt of an Indonesian band by the same name. To avoid any conflicts and confusion, we altered the name slightly to keep our originality. Plus, that’s how my name is spelt,” he laughs.

(Boomarang played at the Hard Rock Cafe, Saket, New Delhi, this past Saturday.)

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