Mention ‘Summer of 69’ to the band members of Ground Zero and you’re bound to see two of them turn red while the rest start laughing. “Well, that was Shane’s and my first performance in front of an audience,” says Gavin Fernandez, the 24-year-old vocalist of the band. “I was 14 and Shane was 10. We were playing different chords on the guitar and the lyrics were all over the place,” he says, adding “After that we’ve never played that song.” But in their performance at Phoenix MarketCity over the weekend, they mustered the courage to attempt it again. But this time, they rocked. Incidentally, this is the same venue they performed at when they first launched their band in March last year.
Other than Gavin and Shane Reneaux, the six-member band consists of Sanjay Bedford, Aaron Douyere, Michael Fernandez and Melvin I. In their early 20s, the band members are a mix of cousins and friends, from Arakkonam and from Chennai.
Growing up in Arakkonam, Gavin, his brother Michael and cousin Shane were inspired by Alfred Reneaux. “We watched them play at weddings and filled in as a three-member back up band every time they took a break at events,” says Shane, who is also Alfred’s son. And that’s how their love for retro English music bloomed. “Most of us grew up listening to classics. Old songs are timeless. The youth still gravitate towards this kind of music,” says Aaron as the rest nod in agreement.
“Those songs have a deeper meaning. We often listen to a song three or four times and then we realise, oh! so that’s what it really means!” he adds. It’s interesting to note that even though they were written and composed decades earlier, the lyrics are more relevant now than they were ever before, says Gavin. “Also, most of the bands do new songs and this is what separates us from them,” says Shane.
Though Ground Zero largely does covers of bands and artistes like Eric Clapton, Deep Purple, Lionel Richie, Eagles, Queen and prefer the classics, they also perform songs by Ed Sheeran and other numbers they like to call “crowd pleasers”, from time to time. “We particularly enjoy playing ‘Sultans of Swing’ by Dire Straits. It almost always features on our play list,” says Aaron.
The band is also working on composing their own songs. “We have a few ready but haven’t debuted them yet. Something is not clicking. Only once we are satisfied will we play it at an event,” says Sanjay. And with that they go back to belting out classics, from ‘Smoke On The Water’ and ‘Devil Woman’ to ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ and ‘Take It Easy’.
