Speaking about’em blues

April 07, 2011

Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Buddy guy were their sole reason to take their love for blues more seriously than before…In conversation Blues Conscience a trio from Chennai, gets candid with EDB.

Chatting with Blues Conscience front man Anek Ahuja; you are bound to find the conversation interesting. You not only hear his love for the Blues in his talk but as you watch the band play; they can charm you into tapping your foot or bobbing your head.

EDB: When and how did Blues Conscience start? 

Anek: It started 4 years back when we wanted to perform at my sisters’ wedding. Aum and I have known each other since childhood; we’ve played at school and college cultural shows. We went through all the genres and eventually zeroed in and always came back to playing the blues.

EDB: What is it about the blues that you all love?

Anek: You know, my first cd was an Eric Clapton’s blues album and I guess that’s what started it all. In fact Aum and I grew up listening to a lot of blues. Neil’s father used to make him listen to some blues as well. If you’ve been listening to blues all your life, you can really feel the soul that lies in the music. It’s very simple music that communicates very strong emotions and that’s what we love about it.

EDB: Singing songs on day-to-day life, society, people, love and drugs, where do you get the inspiration to write about songs like Kamasutra, Obama and Janis Joplin? Is there a certain way you guys go about writing them?

Anek: Obama was actually written when I was dating this American girl who was leaving the country and was super excited about Obama’s victory. So one day Neil and I were just sitting and jamming and I just started singing. We don’t actually sit and write the lyrics, it just comes out while we’re jamming. The great thing about music is that the lyrics form themselves.

EDB: Are you guys trained musicians or self-taught?

Anek: Not really, we’re pretty much self-taught. Well Aum learnt the guitar from his brothers, I learned a few chords from Aum and Neil I think had some training but I think he gave that up.

EDB: There are so many bands coming up, somehow there still seems to be a dearth in the music scene in India. What is your take on the current situation in India?

Anek: There is growth in the music scene. There are bands like Soulmate who play blues strictly and there’s Thermal and a Quarter, a lot of alternative and metal bands coming up in Chennai who play nice stuff, so I’d say it’s growing but it’s nowhere close to what USA has but its’ getting there.

EDB: So what about the future of Blues Conscience?

Anek: Honestly, I don’t know how to answer that. It’s a dicey question because some of us want to go out and get our personal lives going somewhere, we might want to go study further or get a job. So I really don’t think there’s a long future of the band. As for now, Blues Conscience plays together because that’s what we love doing.

Deeksha Marur