Flash back: Reporting from ground Zero
Arjun S Ravi
Music journalist, Director, OML
As the tide shifted in indie music’s favour in the early 2000s, Arjun S Ravi interviewed his favourite band, Zero.
This photo was taken in 2003, I think. It was at one of my first assignments for the now defunct JAM magazine. I had just started writing about music for an actual publication and not just my own blogs, so I was incredibly eager to do a good job. Plus, I was going to interview my favourite Indian band at the time, and I suppose even today, Zero. I had watched Zero a few times before and I was already a huge fan — somehow I thought it would a good idea to wear the band’s T-shirt to the interview. They complimented me on my great fashion sense, of course.
The title of the interview was ‘Standing By with Zero!’ The chorus of their most popular song, PSP 12, are the words “standing by” repeated over and over. At that time, the independent music scene in the country was going through a major shift where bands were beginning to have more confidence in writing and playing their own music. Of course, bands like Indus Creed and others before them had been playing original music for decades, but most gigs were still dominated by covers. By the time bands like Orange Street, Thermal And A Quarter and Pentagram started becoming popular, the tide was turning towards bands writing and playing their own songs. Zero had recently released an album called Hook (in which one of the songs was PSP 12) and I was in love with it, so most of the questions in the interview were about when they were releasing their next album and how we the fans were “standing by” for it. The band’s guitarist Warren Mendonsa wasn’t able to make it for the interview, but to be honest I would’ve been just as excited if the interview was even with just one of them. The interview itself was an embarrassing fanboy piece with questions like what are your pregig rituals, ugh. But at the time I was just so happy I had the chance to interview and hang out with my favourite Indian band. I remember we played Tekken on Rajeev’s Playstation once the interview was done.
Earlier this year, I released a documentary called Standing By. The documentary is about the history of Western music in India stretching back to the jazz era of the 1930s. In a way, the documentary probably wouldn’t have been made if it wasn’t for Zero. I’m so glad that when we took this photograph, we remembered to strike that pose.
Music journalist, Director, OML
As the tide shifted in indie music’s favour in the early 2000s, Arjun S Ravi interviewed his favourite band, Zero.
This photo was taken in 2003, I think. It was at one of my first assignments for the now defunct JAM magazine. I had just started writing about music for an actual publication and not just my own blogs, so I was incredibly eager to do a good job. Plus, I was going to interview my favourite Indian band at the time, and I suppose even today, Zero. I had watched Zero a few times before and I was already a huge fan — somehow I thought it would a good idea to wear the band’s T-shirt to the interview. They complimented me on my great fashion sense, of course.
The title of the interview was ‘Standing By with Zero!’ The chorus of their most popular song, PSP 12, are the words “standing by” repeated over and over. At that time, the independent music scene in the country was going through a major shift where bands were beginning to have more confidence in writing and playing their own music. Of course, bands like Indus Creed and others before them had been playing original music for decades, but most gigs were still dominated by covers. By the time bands like Orange Street, Thermal And A Quarter and Pentagram started becoming popular, the tide was turning towards bands writing and playing their own songs. Zero had recently released an album called Hook (in which one of the songs was PSP 12) and I was in love with it, so most of the questions in the interview were about when they were releasing their next album and how we the fans were “standing by” for it. The band’s guitarist Warren Mendonsa wasn’t able to make it for the interview, but to be honest I would’ve been just as excited if the interview was even with just one of them. The interview itself was an embarrassing fanboy piece with questions like what are your pregig rituals, ugh. But at the time I was just so happy I had the chance to interview and hang out with my favourite Indian band. I remember we played Tekken on Rajeev’s Playstation once the interview was done.
Earlier this year, I released a documentary called Standing By. The documentary is about the history of Western music in India stretching back to the jazz era of the 1930s. In a way, the documentary probably wouldn’t have been made if it wasn’t for Zero. I’m so glad that when we took this photograph, we remembered to strike that pose.
