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Sound footing

PHOTO: R. RAVINDRAN

Set to go places Saurabh Chaudhary and Nitin Malik (in black) of Parikrama

Parikrama — fresh from having opened for Iron Maiden again in Mumbai, for the fourth time in all — was the other band, apart from Strings, that was scheduled to play their eclectic mix of covers and originals on August 2, at the Wesley Gr ounds, Chennai, as part of Amaze, the annual fest of IIPM.

The venue and time of the press meet kept changing since the band arrived very late into the night before the concert. Finally, the band members spoke to the media at the venue of the concert itself while they waited to do their sound-check after Strings which was already at it.

Speaking to Saurabh Chaudhary, the rhythm guitarist, sitting outside the green room — a make-shift tent put up behind the main stage — with the crew and band members going in and out constantly and Strings struggling to get their sound right — always difficult in an open-air setting compared to a closed one which prevents the sound from going all over the place — was chaotic to say the least but in a sense, quite befitting a true-blue rock concert.

In his review of Iron Maiden’s Bangalore concert, where Parikrama opened for them for the first time, Ed Vulliamy, the music critic, wrote ‘if the support band, Parikrama, don’t soon make inroads in the West, the A&R system is malfunctioning badly’. On being asked if Parikrama was trying to work consciously towards achieving that goal — considering the fact that they played seven gigs in five English cities last year — Saurabh said plainly that every band wants to go international at some point of time and Parikrama was no different. In fact, they always had talks going on but it never worked out somehow. But things are different now after the support and praise they have got from Iron Maiden — “they said we have a great sound” — and they hope to be able to make it this time.

Saurabh said the band was fortunate to have got the opportunity to open the main stage at the Download Festival at Donington, England, last year where they played alongside bands such as Megadeth and Porcupine Tree, apart from Iron Maiden, of course. “The band will tour abroad again this September,” he informed but refused to disclose the location.

On being told that their number of originals remains abysmally low, he defended it saying although every member of the band had at least ten original compositions, when they want to release a song, they pick up only the best of the lot.

Regarding the release of an album which many consider long overdue, he said the band was working on new material and was soon planning to do so on the Internet, similar to what Radiohead did recently — people download the songs and pay online.

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