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Not comfortable with putting millions at stake: Linda
Nascimento Pinto
Having being one of the only Indian blues bands to make it to an international festival, the 23rd International Blues Challenge in 2007 and 2010, Soulmate has a reputation that precedes them. The band from Shillong, was founded in 2003 by vocalist Tipriti Kharbangar and Rudy Wallang on lead guitar. The band, comprising Leon Wallang on bass and Vincent Tariang on drums, recently performed at AntiSocial, Mumbai.
Ask them how their music has evolved, and Rudy was quick to respond saying, “For us, our songwriting has always been about living life the way we live it and through our experiences. But as artistes, while I thought we could still be apolitical, there comes a time when something really affects you to a point where you have to say something, you cannot keep quiet and pretend that nothing is happening.”
Being a successful blues band in India is definitely a challenge, but Soulmate has managed to ace that game. The band’s frontman, Rudy, credits it to having the right people who helped them when they started out, through the right avenues. He recalls the late Indian rock musician, Amit Saigal, to be one of them, and venues like Ray’s in Delhi, “because the owner was a blues fan”. However, he adds that, as of today, there are musicians who think they can make it big playing blues, as it seems like an easier route, but that is not the case. “There aren’t many blues-rock bands because it is still a niche genre, even though everybody misuses the term these days,” says Rudy. Tipriti agrees, “Everybody starts off as a band that claims to be playing blues, but they don’t really understand the term and say ‘oh, maybe the blues will give them a chance of getting higher’.” However, the band feels that fellow Shillong band, Blue Temptation, is another band who are the torchbearers for blues music in India.
The band makes a strong case for blues music, especially in India, where Bollywood and rock music take centre stage on the silver screen and at festivals. But they also happen to be from Shillong, which has got the tag of the ‘rock capital of India’, but there is a lot more happening in the state of Meghalaya. Leon reveals, “There are a lot of Khasi folk fusion bands, who mix it up with English Khasi, which is the local language here.” However, he says that the metal music scene in Meghalaya is huge but the concerts are lesser because of the lack of sponsorship. Nonetheless, he hopes it will change after the recent meeting that the state musicians had with the officials.“There’s a lot of talent, but a lot of them are staying at home,” he adds. About getting the deserved recognition, Vincent says, “It takes a lot of hard work, perseverance and dedication, you can’t expect things to happen over time, it doesn’t work like that, at least not in India. Unless it’s Bollywood, then it’s different,” he highlights.
So, where do they see Indian blues bands on the world map? “Right now, when anybody hears there is a blues band in India, most people from the West are pretty amazed because they thought that India was only classical or carnatic or Ustad Zakir Hussain or late Pandit Ravi Shankar. I think we’re turning heads,” Rudy says, adding that in India, the main thing is to keep this genre alive and not about being famous, while quoting American blues musician, Willie Dixon, who once famously said, ‘Blues is the roots, everything else is the fruits.’
It is also evident when Rudy, who calls himself a purist, says that while it is difficult to avoid regional influences in music, blues and folk music are similar because “both come from the heart”.
Performing around the country, and the world has not made it easy for Rudy to pick a favourite spot, and he says it keeps changing. “It always switches between Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru but internationally it has to be the US in 2007, and Jakarta in Indonesia, and Russia in 2013, especially because only classical music was allowed in the cities we played at,” he says. While Soulmate is busy in the near future, we hear there is an album in the works, the fourth after Shillong (2004), Moving On (2009) and Ten Stories Up (2014). But, Rudy is tightlipped about it. He does, however, reveal that one song will have a video that they are busy shooting, there will be nine other songs and that he hopes fans will like.
Actor Linda Hamilton would be happy to “never return” to The Terminator franchise unless she gets to star in a stripped down smaller film.
Hamilton, 63, returned to the franchise after nearly three decades with Terminator: Dark Fate last year, which despite receiving strong reviews, didn’t do well at the box office, thus putting creator James Cameron’s plans for a trilogy in jeopardy, reports aceshowbiz.com.
Although Linda enjoyed reuniting with her co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger and producer James Cameron – who created the sci-fi franchise in 1984 – the actor admits that she wasn’t comfortable with the pressure of producing a movie where millions of dollars were at stake.
“Something says to me... I don’t know. I would really appreciate maybe a smaller version where so many millions are not at stake. Today’s audience is just so unpredictable. I can’t tell you how many laymen just go, ‘Well, people don’t go to the movies anymore’,” Hamilton told The Hollywood Reporter.
Despite the actor’s reluctance to battle Skynet’s killer cyborgs again, the 63year-old does not completely close the door on the prospect of a Terminator return.
She says, “It should definitely not be such a highrisk financial venture, but I would be quite happy to never return. So, no, I am not hopeful because I would really love to be done. But, if there is anything new that really speaks to me, I am a logical person, and I will always consider viable changes.”