Q) Which is the funniest Indian rock band?
A) No, not that background band of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. It's Workshop, bitch.

The funny metal-heads from Mumbai hit the scene hard with Launch Pad, in which they reached the top 5. Even though they could not win the show, this band probably made the most out of it. A complete concept band, these guys have no competition in what they do. And still, they do it like the king of a herd!

Workshop is Sahil Makhija (the Demonstealer) on vocals and guitars, Rajarshi Bhattacharya (The Rajbot) on lead guitars, Hamza Kazi ( Humzoid)on drums and Riju Dasgupta( the Rijunator ) on bass.

We actually got to talk to these ultra weirdos. And the result is a riot! Here :

What's the story behind the name, uniform and the concept of 'Workshop'?

Rijunator: Workshop was born soon after the fall of the Ming Dynasty and Humpty Dumpty. The Demonstealer, the Rijunator and the Hamzoid met at a guitar workshop and hence the name Workshop. Yes, we rejected other names like Nirvana and Pearl Jam because they were taken. The uniform is a logical extension of the name, The Hamzoid wanted to dress up in drag, but we convinced him to do that alone. Soon we recruited the Rajbot and the heavy mental army was born.

Demonstealer/Hamzoid/Rajbot, these names sound like codenames of nerdy
gamers. They so don't suit Rockstars! What's up with that?

Rijunator: Well thank God you've left out the Rijunator, because he's no nerdy gamer. No no, not at all. He's a lean mean fighting machine. Rajbot and Demonstealer play some games when they're alone, but we can assure you they're anything but nerdy ;) 

Demonstealer: On the earth we are normal people but on stage we turn into cyborgs. Hence the names.

Will your cult favourite song "Bunty aur Mallika Sherawat" have a sequel
in the next album?

Rijunator: We don't know that, but they'll have a lot of (ahem ahem) for sure. 

Demonstealer: No we don’t like to repeat breasts more than once.

The Indian moral brigade being the bitches that they are, did anyone ever raise objections at your lyrics? How do you deal with such people?

Rijunator: We laugh at them. Not with them, at them. Cuz they suck, and they watch Desperate Housewives. Wait, so does our vocalist. Seriously, we have enough people who've told us they like us to be bothered about the ones they don't. 

Demonstealer: We wrote 1 Marathi song so that gets the MNS and Shiv Sena off our backs. We wrote 1 song on breasts so that means the BJP is taken care off and we wrote 1 rap song which for some reason worked to get rid of congress. After all this we realized that none of them can read and hence no objection. Oh and we sent a bunch of pink panties to that dude down south and he’s too busy sniffing them to be bothered.

How many cities have you guys performed in? Which one's your favourite city/venue?

Rijunator: Hahah, we won't be vague about the number. So far, Pune's always been the craziest and most receptive. Whenever we play there, the crowd always goes wild. Plus Burger King is the coolest place to eat in before, after and during a gig.

What is the inspiration behind your band's music? Was Funny rock(for the lack of a better genre) always the core idea of your band?

Rijunator: Our biggest inspirations are farts, the smelly ones especially, butt cracks, hot women, desperate men and housewives and so on and so forth. Yes, funny rock was the core idea, and we were inspired when we saw guitar legend IA and his band Freak Kitchen in concert. Since then we've evolved into our own style, or so we like to think. We also like to think the women in the audience are making bambi eyes at us, and sometimes it happens, not very often, very seldom, hardly ever... 

Demonstealer: Music reflects our personalities, we are all funny people and like all normal people we like sex. So that reflects in our music.
 

It is said that Reality show products don't really sustain their stardom once the show gets over. Did you fall prey to this trend or were you lucky?

Demonstealer: I don’t think anyone really watched the show to begin with hence we did not attain any stardom hence we didn’t have any stardom to sustain hence the answer to this is no. But I did get lucky, if you know what I mean *wink wink*

Among Indian bands, which are your favourites?

Rijunator: Personally Inner Sanctum, Slain, Demonic Resurrection, Devoid, Rat King, The Circus, Spiked Crib etc.

Demonstealer: Arm band, wrist band and hair band.