Rocking classic rock

Lazie J band on reclaiming their classic rock dreams after a 19-year hiatus

January 13, 2017 04:07 pm | Updated 04:07 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

(From left) Jayakumar Diwakar, Jay Pillai, Manoj Pillai and Vinod Sreedevan

(From left) Jayakumar Diwakar, Jay Pillai, Manoj Pillai and Vinod Sreedevan

Today ‘Lazie J’, a classic rock band based in Bangalore, will be performing at the Muse Room in the Russian Cultural Centre. For music buffs, it might be just another concert, one of the first, among tens of art and cultural performances in the year ahead. But for singer/guitarist Jay Pillai a.k.a. Jay and drummer Manoj Pillai, the front-men of Lazie J, it is a major step in rediscovering a dream which they believed was lost 19 years ago.

“We formed the classic rock band ‘The Autumn Leaf’ with two other friends, Paul and Suresh, back in 1990 in Thiruvananthapuram, our home town, while we were studying in M.G. College. We performed several concerts in colleges in and around the city at the time. Most of our performances were for the programme ‘Rock the Road’ for Asianet TV channel,” says Jay. For eight years they toiled hard for a big break and at one point they even got featured in Rock Street Journal , which covers the rock scene in India and South Asia.

However, by 1998, they could no longer survive on just TV shows and small-time concerts. So on January 1, 1998, they decided to stop being full-time musicians and find alternative careers. Jay left for Bangalore and Manoj went to Saudi Arabia. Music, though, was never far from their minds. “We got together once in a while to compose songs for old times’ sake, which was enough to keep the fire alive. We released an album in 2009, ‘Nowhere to hide.’ The same year we performed for Rosebowl channel and in 2013 ‘The Autumn Leaf’ performed in Music Mojo on Kappa TV,” adds Jay.

Having regained the belief that they can produce great music and perform well, Jay and Manoj decided to reclaim “the lost dream.” So in 2013 they formed Lazie J in Bangalore. The duo quit their jobs in 2014 for the project. “Life tends to gets stuck in corporate world and we have always wanted to pursue music. Now that we are settled in life and have the bare minimum of necessities, we thought we should pursue our classic rock dream,” says Jay.

Powered by the Jay’s unique, carefree singing and Manoj’s tight drumming Lazie J’s songs are, in Jay’s own words, “pucca” classic rock works in the 80s’ style with a touch of modern rock inspired by the legends of 70s and 80s. “There are only a few bands that play pure classic rock. Most of the bands who claim to play classic rock are in fact playing the 90s’ progressive rock or 70s’ hard rock with emphasis on individual performances. But real classic rock is a synchronised effort which demands a tight playing from all performers,” Jay explains.

He believes that there are several people who still crave for good classic rock numbers. “I know many artistes who perform modern rock but are hardcore classic rock fans at heart. The response that we got for the individual songs we released is overwhelming, ” he adds.

Fans overseas

Although Lazie J is still pretty much unknown in the Indian rock scene, they have garnered much love abroad. Their singles have been featured in several top radio stations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. One of their songs even got featured in one of the ‘Coast 2 coast’ series – the most downloaded mix-tapes in the world.

“They found our songs online in websites like number numberonemusic.com, mixposure.com and broadjam.com where we had uploaded our songs. It is only after we started to get fan mails from the U.S. and Canada that we came to know about the radio stations playing our songs,” Jay quips, jovially. Lazie J also got featured in Kappa TV’s Music Mojo season 4.

First live concert

The Muse Room show will be their first live concert as a band. “Until now we have done only modest gigs for small audiences, mostly to check out how we sound. This is our first big concert and the first major step to making a name in India. In that way this is a special occasion,” says Jay.

Having released their EP ‘Lazie J Beginning’ online in May 2016, they are in the process of releasing their first major album ‘Lazie Bison,’ which will be a collaboration with the Canadian band Marystown.

The line-up

Jackson Jacob plays bass for Lazie J

Jackson Jacob plays bass for Lazie J

It’s led by Jay on vocals and Manoj on drums. Twin lead (guitar) is by Jayakumar, a veteran guitarist, and Vinod Sreedevan of Pathayam-fame. Jackson Jacob is on bass guitar.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are available on bookmyshow.com.

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