It is like having a little secret, letting only the chosen ones in on it and leaving others completely ignorant. It’s like a hush-hush operation where the executers as well as the witnesses are very minimal. No, we are not talking bombs or terrorist acts here. We mean music — original, uncensored and not-so-easily-accessible music.

More often than not, artistes or musicians who begin in the underground, doing little gigs that eventually expand into bigger shows want to break away from the shackles of being ‘underground’. These bands connect with the audience on a daily basis in pubs and restaurants. As far as the music scene is concerned, most musically-inclined cities are crazy melting pots of eccentric genres and oddball musicians who are part of eclectic bands well known in the circuit.

There are some distinct advantages of being engrossed with local or underground music scene. You often are witness to some unique concerts or events that have a far more personal feel than the stadium shows of mainstream bands. If you are a part of the stadium-sized audience, chances are you would never end up with a personalised, autographed CD of their music. Whereas attending a gig by one of these underground bands makes you connect to them on a more personal level. These are some of the nice things that fans of unknown artistes get. Huge bands can’t be that personal with a crowd of 1,00,000; they just don’t have the time.

DJs, not caring about the ‘big record deal’, are belting it out on their own, producing, promoting and selling their CDs and gaining hardcore fans with every gig. Musicians can now reach out with their music to a worldwide audience, thanks to Facebook and Myspace. Bands such as Delhi’s East India Company and Bangalore’s Lounge Piranha rose to popularity with Myspace.

Says Delhi-based musician Suvan Nair, who’s also associated with Audio Aashram, an alternative music company operating out of New Delhi that sells, promotes and manages various artistes and different styles of alternative electronic music, “We have figured out that the only people who can help them produce their music is themselves, which isn’t an issue at all because of the power of the internet. But recently, everyone’s becoming commercial. After all, who doesn’t love popularity and hence money? One starts with private gigs and graduates higher after some record company has spotted one’s talent.”

If you go out, as many of us do, on a round of the well-known pubs of Delhi to relax after a long and tiring week with a bunch of friends, chances are you will get to see some great live acts of Them Clones, Parikrama and Indian Ocean in action. Grab a beer at Cafe Morrison, The Living Room, Hard Rock Cafe or Haze and you’d know what is being talked about. Kiranjit Sant, owner of Haze Blues and Jazz Bar, spotted Menwhopause playing at Dilli Haat and asked them to perform a gig at his bar. That was the band’s shot to fame. “Menwhopause started with Haze and then dedicated Friday gigs here. We mostly have blues and jazz bands playing, but Haze provides a platform for all upcoming talents.”

Though fairly recent, the Delhi brand of heavy metal is slowly making inroads, creating a niche for itself in the underground music scene. We are surely blessed to have bands such as Artillerie, Undying Inc, Acrid Semblance, Phobia, IIIrd Sovereign and Guillotine which all go against the norm to create extreme music. Perhaps, this is why last year Mohammed Kabeer, a student of film and television production from Amity College, Noida, decided to put his education to good use and make a film with extensive interviews and amazing live footage of the various metal bands of Delhi. Titled Capital Metal: The Story Of Delhi Metal Scene, it features some of the major bands from the scene. “My main inspiration to make this documentary was Sam Dunn. I was really impressed with both Global Metal and Metal: a Headbangers’ Journey and was truly amazed to see metal come alive on film. I got inspired from that and wanted to see my own scene come alive in the same way,” says Kabeer.

B69 is Bajaao’s latest contribution to Mumbai’s underground metal and rock scene. Frustrated by the lack of good indoor venues for live cross-genre music, the creative minds behind B69 decided to create their own concert hall. Since they were going ahead with something experimental, they wanted to make B69 a flagship venue with world-class sound. Shawn Pereira, a musician himself and also COO of Bajaao, believes B69 has a different set of dedicated audience. “We plan to go mobile very soon and are working on that. Limiting concerts to one hall is the old way of doing it. We want to spread the love of music through every possible means. Bands like Bhayanak Maut and Scribe are regulars with B69 and need no introduction any more to music lovers over the country.”

If you thought Delhi and Mumbai were the only hotspots for underground bands, consider this — the east in nowhere behind. Shillong’s Soulmate is one electric blues band which have been creating magic all over through the sexy (musically, as well) Tipriti Kharbangar — their lethally gorgeous and extremely talented vocalist, and passionate lead guitarist Rudy Wallang.

Kolkata, known for its love for music and eccentricities related to music, is at par. The music of bands like Chandrabindoo, Cactus and Lakkhichhara are on everyone’s lips these days. Chandrabindoo always adds a dash of pop, reggae, calypso, techno and va­rious traditional forms to let its audience dance to its tunes. The lyrics are often humorous with serious undertones and sometimes serious with humorous overtones.

Says Anindya Chattopadhyay, lead singer of Chandrabindoo, “1997-2001 was a very crucial phase in our journey. We were flooded with live show calls after our first album, Aar Jani Na, got released, although we had tho­ught of bringing it out in 1993. And a new floodgate opened when our next album Chaw was released. The golden age of Bengali music had long passed and there was a large vacuum. We tried to fill that gap.”

Turning to Kabeer again, who is fiddling with his TV remote, we ask him about the future of the city’s underground music scene, to which he replies: “A lot of good things are happening in the scene, with bands recording their own originals and concentrating on establishing their own sound rather than playing covers, especially with Undying Inc and Skyharbor, which have done especially well. But there is still a lot that is left to be done to transform it into an industry, and judging by the evolution of the scene from where it began, it’s going to take a long time.”

(With inputs from Ritwik Mukherjee in Kolkata and Reji John in Mumbai)

ipshitakumar@mydigitalfc.com