L18 FLAVOURSSATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 2011 ° WWW.LIVEMINT.COM

LOUNGE

DELHI’S BELLY | KRISH RAGHAV

Infrastructure development

The bane of resi­dential neighbour­hoods everywhere,Delhi’s bands findwings in the city’snew jam pads

Palash Bedi, drummerand co-owner ofOverdrive Studios in

Lajpat Nagar, sums up thecentral advantage of a jam padin a wonderfully concise line ofDelhi English: “Apna (our)scene is all soundproofed,dude,” he says when askedhow he deals with harriedneighbours complaining aboutthe noise.

Delhi’s local bands havelong suffered the cloisteredconfines of the city’sresidential neighbourhoods.Short of whispering the vocalsand hitting the drums with feltsticks, being quiet isn’t reallypossible for a rock band. “Jampads are life-savers,” says

of the bands’ competitionshappen around this time.” OnSound Station’s website, theroster for January shows awhite-spaced lull towards theend of the month, with thecalendar restarting with aflurry of bookings around30 January.

“We’re not expensive, wegive discounts to bandswanting to jam at a stretch,we’re open till late and we’resituated in an area whereyou’re not kicked out after8pm,” says Ritnika Nayan,founder of MGMH, the artistemanagement firm that runs theSound Station jam pad inOkhla. The jam room is aspacious 22x13ft, and is filledwith high-quality instruments.For bands on a budget, orcollege students stuck incramped accommodation, thepads provide the luxury ofgood equipment without theneed to carry it across town.

Most jam pads charge about`200 an hour, with free hoursgiven away if you jam for morethan 60 hours a month.

“We get every single kind ofband at a jam pad,” saysOverdrive Studios’ Bedi. “Frommetal to groups playingBollywood covers.” Bedi’splayed for many local bands,

and making the jump tostarting a studio and rehearsalspace made sense for him.“We checked out all the otherjam pads, but they all hadflaws,” he says. Some were toocramped for bands with morethan four members. Othershad tinny sound systems. “Wefocus on getting great sound,and good tone—not just loudwattage,” he says. Attached tothe jam room is a fullyfunctional studio, and Bedioffers classes in Westernmusic. This combination keepsthe jam pad business modelsustainable. Setting one up,says Nayan, can cost anywherefrom `2-5 lakh, depending onsponsorship deals and choiceof equipment. Bedi says evenan off-season month brings inabout `40,000 in revenue,enough to cover costs.

Part of the reason is that jampads continue to be a southDelhi monopoly, and bandsdispersed all over the city and100 colleges have to make thelong trek southwards. “We getpeople from really farawayplaces like Rohini andGhaziabad,” Bedi says.

But for bands, places suchas these are vital. Many, suchas Hindi pop-rock groupFaridkot, record their albums

at these places, and theinteractions with othermusicians who float in andout helps refine a rookieband’s sound. “These placeshave great vibes,” says ThemClones’ Dev. “The people whorun them are industry insiderswho do it out of passion, andnot mere ‘paise kamaanewale’(money makers).”

They also solve iffy issues ofspace and set-up. When youhave a band with eightmembers, such as fusion groupAdvaita, sporting, among otherthings, tablas, sarangis andkeyboards, finding practicespace can be a bit of achallenge. “When we started,there just wasn’t a place thatcould accommodate all of us,”says Advaita guitarist AbhishekMathur. The band, which hasnow been around for sevenyears, currently plays in agarage converted into asoundproofed jam pad inChittaranjan Park.

“We need many more ofthese all over the city,” Mathursays. “It really encourages thescene, and builds a nicefoundation for bands to makeuse of. It’s like infrastructuredevelopment, you know?”

krish.r@livemint.com

LOUD, LOUDER,LOUDESTA list of five local jam padsfor starters

u Fender Music Academy113, Shahpur Jat (near Siri FortAuditorium), New DelhiFor information, log on towww.fendermusicacademy.com

u SOS Jam Padhttp://sosinme.comG­2 (basement), SouthExtension, Part II, New DelhiFor bookings, call011­26253120

u MGMH Sound Stationhttp://www.mgmh.netD­72, Okhla Industrial Area,Phase I, New DelhiFor bookings, call 9910001202

u Overdrive StudiosB­104 (basement), LajpatNagar­1, New DelhiFor bookings, call011­46132104

u M­SharpM­45 (basement), ChittaranjanPark, near the police station,New DelhiFor information, emailmsharp.musikalaya@gmail.com

Play it loud: Jam padsSound Station, (below,

right) Fender MusicAcademy, and

Overdrive Studios.

Surojit Dev of local band ThemClones. “They save us a lot ofhassle and unnecessaryfighting with neighbours.”

Two of Delhi’s biggest jampads, the MGMH (Music GetsMe High) Sound Station inOkhla and the Fender MusicAcademy in Shahpur Jat,opened a little over a year agoand other, smaller jam padssuch as the aforementionedOverdrive Studios sprouted allover south Delhi last year.“South Delhi is the centre ofthe city’s music community,”says Oorja Singh, co-founderof the SOS Jam Pad in SouthExtension. “It’s well-connectedenough for people from allover the Capital to come.”SOS started operations inOctober, and is already in theprocess of expanding its stockof equipment.

The end of January is whenthe “second wave” of themusic season starts,sandwiched between collegesemester exams, and jam padssee packed calendars and ahealthy roster of musiciansfrequenting their joints. “Itreally picks up after August,and goes on till about April,”says Manu Saxena, owner ofFender Music Academy. “A lotof college festivals and ‘battle

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PRIYANKA PARASHAR/MINT