Standing By: A peek into the history of the Indian music scene

Did you know that Indus Creed was part of an ICCR troupe that went to the Soviet Union in 1988? It could be pure luck, or as Only Much Louder (OML) co-founder Arjun S Ravi suspects, because then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi wanted to project Indian music as more than just the classical. So, accompanying regulars like Louis Banks, Leslie Lewis and Indian classical musicians to a Festival of India tour to the Soviet, was the bunch of mop-haired 20-somethings from Mumbai.

Or, have you heard of a bespectacled gentleman called Roger Drego, who tired of bad music at gigs decided to start importing sound equipment, because the same equipment used in marriages was also used in music gigs? And in no time became so popular that posters would proclaim, 'Sound by Roger Drego'.

This and more such trivia is to be found in Standing By, a six-part documentary series produced by OML and Red Bull Media House. The series, to be released on October 13 on standingby.in and the Red Bull YouTube page, is an exhaustive exploration of the Indian music scene, from the pre-Independence era in the 1930s, the Beat Generation music of the 60s and 70s, the spread of rock music and the entry of MTV in India in the 90s and the music of the 2000s and 2010s. Along with the videos, there will be a digital archive and an interactive timeline of what is rightfully the Indian indie music scene.

Arjun, who helmed the project, has a team of researchers at OML to help him work on it. "The documentary started of an an idea about the history of rock in India. Then we went deeper, and slowly expanded the scope to include all types of music, even the jazz of the 1930s that had a lasting effect on a lot of musicians." Arjun says the team shot the documentary in five cities and spoke to over 120 people who shaped the course of the Indian indie music scene. He describes his 10-member team as "obsessive music nerds", and at any given time, he say, one may walk on his team squabbling over which northeastern metal band made the jaws drop at a particular version of Great Indian Rock (GIR), or perhaps, find them exchanging stories of the pre-Facebook and pre-Orkut days of Gigpad and RSJOnline forums.

"One person would lead us to another, and just like that, we were staring at a huge body of information - interviews, photos, snippets, articles in the media etc," he adds. "In the last five to six years, we have seen a spotlight on the scene - a scene that has been brewing for more than a century."

Arjun had been covering Indian music for more than a decade before he launched OML, the company that manages the multi-city NH7 Weekender music festival, with Vijay Nair and Girish Bobby Talwar.

In the making for over two years, Standing By sees the team speaking to a diverse group of people, ranging from jazz legend Carlton Kitto to journalist Jug Suraiya, and also those like Usha Uthup, Louis Banks, Vishal Dadlani and Nikhil Chinapa.

Suyasha Sengupta, vocalist-guitarist of Ganesh Talkies featured in the docu-series, is thankful that someone has taken the pains to come up with something so exhaustive. "You suddenly realise that this is a movement, and that you are a tiny part of it. And to have someone painstakingly trace it back to its roots is commendable and inspirational," she says.

Suyasha remembers how, inspired by Stupid Ditties, the non-metal compilation of upcoming artistes that has by now achieved a cult status, the band sent in their songs in 2012. "We were accepted, and that's when things started looking up for us."

The series, shot in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Kolkata and Shillong, started with one of India's most loved bands, Soulmate. "Shillong gave us a start like no other; people may scoff, but I think Shillong was auspicious for us. We started by shooting Rudy Wallang and Tipriti in the Sacred Forest on the outskirts of the city, a forest from where one is forbidden to take away anything," says Arjun. "And then it started raining cats and dogs. The landscape in Shillong was so beautiful, and it gave us footage that no other city could give us."

Apart from Soulmate, another shoot that the rain gods created havoc in was during the jamming of Snow White, a Khasi rock band. "We were shooting just at their doorstep, and it poured. Another band that left us speechless was Plaque Throat, a band that jams in an 8 by 10 room, and won big at Wacken, one of the greatest open air rock competitions around the world," he says.

Some of the footage came from record labels, while some came from the Films Division. For some sections, the team took up animation. "For the part where Robert Plant and Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin) visited a pub called Slip Disc in 1972, we used illustrations by Amrita Bagchi, which were animated by Sahil Amin," says Arjun. "We've also interviewed Joe Alvares, jazz singer of the time, who was there when they performed."

Girish Bobby Talwar, OML co-founder and bassist of the eponymous Zero, says that it has been a rollercoaster ride. "We think of how difficult it is to make music today, and then we look at the people from the 70s and the 60s. They must have found it more difficult," says Girish. "We look at aspirational stories from bands like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and then we have this chance to look at our own past stories. What Arjun and his team are trying to do is to give us an engulfing view of the scene."

Well, let the show begin, we say.