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For a cause from Down Under
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The Australian bands - Dependants and Overflow - who were here for a couple of months, have connected with the youth.
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REACHING OUT: Australian band Dependants at a concert.
LOOKING BACK in time, one finds a strong co-relation between youngsters and music. While the Beatles swayed the youth with their melodious harmonies, Pink Floyd got them thinking about existential angst and 2 million pound boredom. Things haven't changed and music today is still a vehicle of communication.
The recent days saw many multi-cultural bands from overseas that have been reaching out to peers in the twin cities. Of them, the Australian bands `Dependants' with a tag line of `stand by when needed' and `Overflow' (`reaching out no holds barred'), have connected with the youth. The Dependants hail from Perth and the line up includes Jason (lead guitar), Luke (vocal and bass guitar) and Josh (drums). They play alternative rock - mostly originals and swear by Code Red, Cold Play and Sting. Overflow, has Mikkel from Denmark on drums, Steve from Canada on lead guitar, Joseph, a U.S. national, on bass, Luke on vocals (from Australia) and Corrie the crooner from the U.S. They swear by U2 and play No Doubt and Bryan Adams, and Jimmy Ate World.
The band got together to work for the community development because "we saw youth had no direction, they were wasting their days with no purpose or goal in life. We are the last group to come this year. Music has a universal language, everyone can relate to it," says the bands' manager Jason Leau. They have played at Barista, Lifestyle, Music World and recently at Bottles & Chimneys, talking to the youth about issues that concern them — depression, relationships, and health care (AIDS, drug abuse) and issues of personal identity.
"Not having a personal identity is the beginning of problems. The youth are under pressure to conform. Here, we have observed that there is a big push for education. Success is big and failure is not tolerated. Even in the West, success is based on status, education (the number of university degrees you have). Choices are dictated by fear. In a developing, populated country, the individual focus is lost," says Luke.
ROCK FOR A CAUSE: Addressing the youth-related issues.
The group that has travelled to Europe, Africa, Malaysia and other regions is in the twin cities as part of the mega city project of University of the Nations, Australia, to help study how cities can be transformed for the better. Hyderabad is the chosen one among the major cities in Asia, "because it's a central place in India," says Steve.
Having worked on community building in the twin cities, and with the youth in slums and churches, the overseas trip here has been a good learning experience for the group who intend to pursue social work as their career.
As a parting message, Joseph says, "Everyone is valuable as an individual and created for a good life. Success is measured by how well you have used your time on earth. Personal identity is essential, and one has to discover that within their culture.
The youth need more support from the family to pursue their dreams - maybe sports or music. We hope there are more music bands in the twin cities since music is a great binder."
SYEDA FARIDA
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