Starting out as a band, the biggest hiccups sometimes occur in the first year itself, but Pinch, a four-piece alternative rock act, are in the clear now that they’re back on the gigging circuit following a brief hiatus late last year. The band, comprising vocalist Natalia Rebecca, guitarist Joshua Victor, bassist Nihaal Joseph and drummer Joanna Davala, formed in January 2013 and have slowly found a space in the city’s live music circuit, moving from college competitions to club shows. Here, the band answers our questions about memorable stories, their sound and the toughest part about being a young band in the city.
The story behind the band
All of us had been jamming for years already and had been in other little bands before we found our beautiful sound together.
You guys play music because
When we’re broke, we play for money; when we crave attention, we play for the applause and when we are damn hungry, we play for food. But collectively, we want to make music that we absolutely love. That’s always the overarching incentive – great sounds.
You’ll still remember the time when
We’re fairly new in the circuit so all our experiences are memorable. One time we went to Vellore together and found a nice pool party and totally chilled with some great dudes. It’s Vellore, who knew, right? (Disclaimer- We love Vellore).
We probably shouldn’t confess in the newspaper but one time we had a really long wait before the show and some other bands and us used a spool of string to create a maze of “lasers” and then we played “Mission Impossible”. Maybe when we’re veterans we’ll have a smashing tale to tell of travels and dragons and novel musical conquests but for now you get “Mission Impossible”.
The toughest part about being a young band
Bangalore’s music scene is pretty fair because people have good taste. However, there are so many bands that there is no dearth for choice. If one band refuses to play under certain reasonable conditions, there is always another band to fill in that spot. So that makes it difficult finding work and being paid equitably for the quality and quantity of music at a show. Bad sound is another annoyance. Very few people understand the value of good sound systems, which is so frustrating sometimes.
The story behind the name
We changed our name at least four (official) times before settling on Pinch. We were in a hurry, we had to send in some video and we didn’t even have a name. So we came up with it in a pinch.
Musicians that inspire you
Radiohead, Minus the Bear, Mutemath, Submotion Orchestra, Arctic Monkeys, Two Door Cinema Club, Incubus, This Town Needs Guns, Toe, And So I Watch You From Afar, The Mars Volta, Karnivool, Protest The Hero, Hiatus Kaiyote
Compositions over covers
Covers aren’t really in demand anymore. Audiences are usually very appreciative of original music except when they’re drunk and want to hear ‘Hotel California’ 400 times. Maybe they don’t relate with it immediately but it grows on them. Personally, we can’t play covers because we take more pleasure in writing than performing. We fool around in the jam room though and when we make a cover sound fresh and not identical to the original we consider playing it. I don’t think we’ve ever played a cover. However, when we play in Chennai early in May, we want to do a [Chennai rock ‘n roll band] Skrat song because it’ll be sooper fun.
