Because we are such busy people and don't have the time to do intros to interviews ourselves, we are going to ask the band to do the honours once again!

Sandhya : Inception of the band... and how it came into being?

Tantra :

The band is made up of 

Jickson - guitars
Goodwin - Vocals
Anurag - keyboards
Gaurav - drums
Anshul - bass
Rahul - Percussions

Well the idea of the band struck around August '09 when Gaurav and Jickson visited Anurag's home. Jickson and Anurag wished for a jam session and so it happened. Jickson on guitar and Anurag on his keyboard was the first ever two member jam that took place. There was always space for more members and the hunt began. Sorting out between friends and available musicians in the neighborhood, we found Goodwin who initially joined the band as the rhythm guitarist but later went on to become the heartthrob vocalist.

Later at a friends marriage, Jickson met Anshul playing along side him for the wedding choruses. Amidst friendly chat, Anshul volunteered to fill the bassist's space in the band. Still a drummer was at large.

After numerous jams (without the drummer) and search for the same, Gaurav finally took on charge and decided to get a kit and join the band as the drummer. A very humble and not so fancy beginning for a 5 piece band. the first live onstage performance took place on the very coveted date of 09/09/09 and hence Tantra was born!

The journey started then with 5 friends taking their roles seriously and working hard for some good music.

I'll be telling you how we met Rahul (percussions) later on in the story... sit tight!

Forming the band was a big big pain but to carry it forward was an even greater struggle. Parental pressure, study issues, jam session timings, neighbor problems, etc.  made it really hard for the band to jam on certain occasions. A deal was made between Gaurav s neighbor (initial jam pad) and the band regarding jamming... We could begin by 8 am and had to stop by 2 (afternoon nap for the locality) we started again around 5 and went on playing until 8 or 9 pm. This went on for quite a while. Until we begin traveling to jam pads in the city and finally set our own pad at our music school ( where we jam now louder and harder beyond anyones wildest imagination)

Sandhya : I see you have a very very active fan page on Facebook. How do manage the pr work, the music, the gigs and your own selves- all at the same time?

Tantra :  Oh yes "The Facebook" oh "FACEBOOK" is one of the major reasons how we shot to fame and success in a short span of time. After our first gig in September, Jickson joined Facebook on the pretext of playing "Farmville" because he was down with some prolonged illness and couldn't attend a gig. The pics and videos from the gig came by and we needed a portal to share that. Hence Jickson formed a page with the band 's name on Facebook and so that friends and fans could find the band related content.

He still gets an angry nod from all the members for adding "the rock band" in the page name. "It was supposed to make the search easy for people new on Facebook as the name Tantra was already taken by many brands and other business establishments. But now I regret not having just Tantra as the page name" says Jickson himself.

Facebook helped us tremendously to connect with new fans and encouraged us to post new content on a weekly basis. It was because of the Facebook page that Jickson came up with two fresh compositions "Saaya" and "Phir se" so that the music can be shared and the page could get more hits.

Managing the page was a easy task as Jickson was online 24 hours and 365 days. Making status updates, sharing tracks and videos and asking friends to do the same. The page started with 5, then 50, soon hit 1000 and now is about to touch 6000 fans.

Till date all updates are being taken care by Jickson himself. Personal messages like "Goodwin aj lyrics bhul gaya" are some of the funniest updates made ever on the page...

Thank you Mr Zuckerberg for everything.

Sandhya : Fest season is almost here! What are your preferred places to perform? When do we expect the next tour?

Tantra : Yes of course the new session has started and the fest season is fast approaching, the band is looking forward to play in college campuses wherever invited. We have received few invitations already and we will definitely play if everything goes well accordingly.

The band is currently touring Bangalore (Palace grounds) on 24th September and Chennai (location not decided yet) on 26th. Tantra will be sharing the stage with 8 other bands handpicked by Avaroha (an artist management company) who is organising the entire fest.

"It's sad to see that in our country bands only get opportunity to play during the fest season. Many good bands also get entangled in the '15 min of fame Band competitions'" says Anshul Paul. 

Sandhya : Was "The Banana Song" a result of getting saturated of Aggarwal ke samose? :P

Tantra : Oh good grief! Why  did you have to mention the samoses?! Anurag is starting his bike to get few from Aggarwal.
I guess we can't continue without having a bite.

Anyways, The Banana Song was a result of an actual accident that happened to Jickson when he was coming back home one night after a jam session. Humming a tune he reached near his home and slipped. Later he realised it was a banana peel and hence the song was composed overnight.

"I am still figuring out how it became a love song ballad" says a puzzled Gaurav.

Sandhya : Your upcoming album, "Spirit Tantra", presents a mix of soulful, romantic ballads, to earth-shaking metal phenomena! What more is being contemplated before the album is finally up for release?

Tantra : The album was supposed to be a 8 track album but with some new renditions and additions we are finalising the album with a 10 track setup. The album will be having 7 Hindi tracks and 3 English tracks. All written and composed by Jickson himself. Music by band members and vocals by Goodwin.

"I want to give the vocals to all the songs asap! I am scared Jickson will come up with a new song after this interview", mentions Goodwin interjecting. "Shut up" was the response from Anurag.

The band will be going on a full throttle practice session and vigorous jamming before hitting the studio. As this is the debut album we wont be letting any loose ends anywhere...

Sandhya : Amongst the composers, bands and solo artists in today’s music scene, who do you think is most worthy of rock-afying and implementing in your performances?

Tantra : "Solo artists and bands cannot be compared, or I would rather say no musician should be compared. Each and everyone is worthy but just with a different taste and realisation of music. On one side if we have solo artists like A R Rehman, Shankar Mahadevan, Raghu Dixit, Shibani Kashyap then we have Parikrama, Euphoria, Pentagram, Indian Ocean etc on the other. All we need is a heart and soul to understand each tiny piece of music that comes out from every musician, when that happens we would realise who can electrify and who can rock-afy." as said by Gaurav and Rahul

Now, something about Rahul.
Rahul was the former drummer of the band Sacred Notes that Jickson and Rahul formed during the initial college days. The band couldn't survive due to distance and time issues. But now Rahul joined Jickson again in Tantra as the percussion guy and specailises in the Arabian instruments like Djembe, Tombe, etc.

Sandhya : Tantra dabbles with many genres, that must also mean a diverse lot of instruments. Who is behind the scenes of "The Violin Swing" out of you? Can fans expect such surprises in the upcoming album?

Tantra : Yes multi genre is our speciality. One moment we would be playing a soothing "Bin Tere" or "Banana Song" the other moment we will be jumping on the stage with "Chal Diye" or "Stunning Strummer". We also make you think with tracks like "Phir Se", "Saaya" and also "Khula Aasman".

I would rather suggest you to log onto our Facebook page right away and listen to these tracks. You will get a better picture.

"Violin Swing" was a one time attempt by Jickson himself when he was feeling bored at home. The band tried a few more times to recreate the music, but in vain. It still remains as a masterpiece with Jickson himself. Maybe after some years of more practice we as a band will be recreating violin swing and adding that to our next album. Let's hope for the best.

Thank you Sandhya for this wonderful opportunity for making all of us sit together once again and jot down this entire thing. Thank you whackk.com for finding us worthy enough for an interview. Wish you all success and may you guys reach higher in the ladder of success.

"We hope we will be provided with a link when this goes online." chuckles Anurag
And yes Sandhya, before we close, Goodwin is asking if you could provide your voice in one of the songs you have a terrific voice...