Weekend Exclusive | The basic idea was to get the word out and gain an audience, says the popular band, Menwhopause

Menwhopause, a five-member New Delhi based band, known for their Genre: Alternative rock, Acoustic Rock, is a well known band among the league. In a country where popular music is dominated with commercial Bollywood music and the live rock music scene is generally full of cover bands, Menwhopause stickk to play original compositions and were one of the first bands in India to distribute their music for free over the internet.

The band was formed in 2001 by guitarist Anup Kutty with an original lineup of singer/songwriter Sarabjit Chadha and acoustic guitarist Inder Pal Singh (IP) and became a full-fledged band after recruiting bassist Randeep Singh and drummer Rahul Chatterjee.

In an exclusive chat with Adgully at Hard Rock Café, Delhi, the team spoke about their band and much more.

The journey seems pretty good for the team if we look at the achievements; from their performance, SxSW festival in Austin, Texas, to their album "Easy', which was initially released on digital format through iTunes and Amazon.com in early-January 2011 followed by physical CD format on 26 January 2011. The album immediately received favorable reviews by critics with The Times of India calling it "by far, one of the most brilliant works from an Indian rock band.

Speaking about the journey till now, the band members of Menwhopause said, "We have been around for a decade and have seen both Indian and international tours and have been able to witness a complete change in the contmporary music scene in India. When we started out there were just a handful of bands but now there are so many new and brilliant acts emerging with new sounds and that's really inspiring."

When asked about the challenges, they said, "In the beginning, the problem was that organisers were expecting us to play certain songs or portray ourselves in a certain manner. Once we got over with that and proved that we were serious musicians making our own sound, things got easier. But there are still challenges like the lack of good venues and a disorganized industry. Thankfully, this is changing, as the audience is growing more mature and subsequently so is the industry."

Talking about the on-ground activities that they are associated with, we were told that primarily they perform live shows wherever possible and have also toured the States twice, played in some big international festivals as well as all prime venues in India. In fact, this year the team has been busy promoting their album "Easy' all over India.

Answering, the inquisitive question; "in this era of digitalization, how are you guys using the digital space', they explained us saying, "We can safely say that we were one of the first Indian bands to start giving out our music for free on internet back in 2003. In fact, we made our own torrents and pushed listeners to download and listen to us."

The basic idea was to get the word out and gain an audience. It was a litmus test to see if their music really had an audience or not. With the release of their album 'Easy' on EMI earlier this year, the band has started distributing their music for a nominal amount on iTunes and Amazon.

On further explanation, the team added, "but what's really been a great surprise for us is the Nokia OVI store where our album got more than a few thousand downloads in the first week of release. This was without any promotions or marketing. We also interact closely with our fan -base through Facebook and Twitter."

Winning the Jack Daniels Best Rock Band in 2008, making their first appearance at SXSW, Texas in 2007 and the release of 'Easy' on EMI earlier this year, have been the key highlights of their journey till now.

"Not any personality in particular. But honestly, the five of us are constantly motivating each other to be better... at least that's how it began. Now the scene is choc-a-bloc with fantastic artistes and just this whole vibe is inspiring enough," Menwhopause band members added.

Well, listening to varied music and the favorites change almost daily so it's hard to pin such things down. But they all love the concept of an album rather than singles.