Living with Nurvs of Steel as Nurvs of Steel

It has been an awesome week. Doing shows with Nurvs of Steel, it's pretty damn good to see people who "never" listen to Metal or even "English" music give a good response.

The last show was in R K Mall for the final round of Campus Jung. It always sucks when the sound systems are fucked up, and here in Raipur, it's never good. The crowd wasn't enough though. Not as much enthusiastic as the one in Magneto. Thanks to the organizers, who had earlier mentioned that if bands do not report by 12 noon, they will be DQed but couldn't set up the stage until it was about 5:30 in the evening (Yeah, their management does suck). What's more surprising is the fact that it was organized by Dainik Bhaskar and sponsored by Hero Honda. But I guess, when it's Raipur, shit is bound to happen. I remember the last time when me and Skouzer performed with Nimbus and although the stage was all indoor, the sound system was atleast better than this time (at least it wasn't in a mall).

At first the assholes cut the power supply to our processors and started announcing that if we're not done with the sound check in 1 minute, we'd be DQed. I guess it's all they can do. Threaten to DQ us on grounds absolutely insane.

I'm just about done uploading the videos to the Nurvs of Steel Youtube channel. I guess the post-processing will be done in about a few hours before I wake up. And I updated the Band's website. Some fucker flagged our site in facebook, so I can't add the link there any more. But I hope the facebook admins will take care of that. Some wallpapers are up for downloads there now.

I'm looking forward to be aired on MyFM - our next endeavor and I do hope we'd get enough votes. All I want is for things to work out. After all, this is what I'm gonna do. The sooner the better.

Headbanging with Nurvs of Steel

After a lot of opposition from my parents, I decided to get back to Raipur to do some upcoming shows with my band.

Lately, we got ourselves a new place to practice in. Our new f-ing studio. Situated in the outskirts of the city, it's the perfect location for practicing, as there ain't much population around, so that we get to jam quite a lot, which would not have been the case anywhere else.


Two days ago, we went to BIT to perform in their branch based competition. Not to my surprise, they had no fucking monitors and they cut us loose at 12 minutes when the slot was of 20 minutes. And although they told that it was because of pressure from the faculty, but fuck knows the real fucking reason. The bad thing is that we could not complete Hallowed be thy name. They unplugged our guitars just before the fucking solo. And not once, but twice.

At the end of that, I can't tell you how many people came up and told us that they loved us, and that is exactly when you're doing heavy metal in a non metal place. They respect we got that day, goes both ways. I feel love and respect for the people of BIT Durg, who besides all the shit that was thrown at us by their event coordinators supported us. Especially to the guy who told me that he never listens to any english songs but still loved my vocals in Hallowed be thy name.

The next day, we had an audition for Campus Jung conducted by Dainik Bhaskar, in which me and Skouzer performed with Nimbus last year and ended up as runner ups and all we got was just a fucking certificate.

And yesterday they printed about the show in their newspaper's local page, and they printed our name as Steel the band. The question I ask is, "Are they fucking illiterates?" We had even written down our fucking name during the registration - Nurvs of Steel. Not some fucking "Steel the band".

I for one, am very thankful to everyone who came and supported us, giving us the best response we have ever had till date. And although they were not the metal kind of people, but the enthusiasm left me dumbstruck.

I guess shit happens. Now they're postponing the main show, and our drummer has to go to Mumbai for his checkup following the major accident he had a few months ago.

I guess that's just all for now. I'll keep updating whenever I get a chance, and just hope these posts are at least read.

Life's taking turns

Past few days have been full of parties. Have been drinking for five consecutive days till the day before the day before yesterday. Meanwhile there's been this Eclectika thing. We played there, and although we preferred not to go for the first slot, as the "coordinators" had decided, because of the real bad situation when it comes to sound engineering on stages in Raipur, we did get thrown in for the first slot. Another interesting thing worth remembering comes up here.

There was this band, who had the first slot onstage that day and we were to come up after that. So, I and Dev (who are hardcore cigarette addicts, and had been going on without one for about three hours), decided to go and have a cigarette. Pappan had one, and we went to the street of Sanskrit college to have a smoke. We had switched our phones off, for they might interfere with the huge amplifiers on the stage if a call comes in. Suddenly, as we're having the cigarette, the sound check of the other band stops and the host announces something about a next band, although I wasn't sure whether it really was that, I couldn't hear the name of the band though, for a bike passed us right at that moment. We kept smoking for like 2 minutes, when I switched my phone on to see the time, and as soon as I did, Jay called in (who's the bassist). And he tells that we're live. Me and Dev had to run to the stage for we were like three minutes late. The sound "engineers" were real talented people. All the cables were fucked up. We had a bad time setting up the sound levels. The people coordinating the event would come up over and over again to tell us that the time was being consumed. Of course we had to snap and tell them to take care of the sound instead of filling our heads with fear.

After all was set up, and we started our first song, our great "engineers" reduced the lead guitars to an extent where it was practically not audible. So the first song got fucked up, thanks to them. Before the second song, we did have the levels increased. Thanks to a few rock listeners, people knew this song and did cheer us when they learned it was Sweet child o' mine.

The revaluation results were out the day before yesterday. The maths department (the greatest one amongst all colleges in the entire world, leaving colleges like MIT and Berkeley University far behind), did fuck up everyone who had applied for a revaluation of the subject, getting everyone below 15, when they were just one mark behind what was needed to pass by grace. Managing money for the back forms was a real pain in the ass.

I'll upload a few photographs and the video pertaining to eclectika when I get my hands on them. In the mean time, I have been recalling a story from my life (again about a girl), but that's another post.

The last few days.

Quite a lot has happened is what I'd say, if I have to summarize this whole post in one line.

Had two companies coming up in college. Not that I made a very good progress in that. Although I did clear Belzabar's tech quiz round, in the coding, I sure fucked up.

Someone to noone again.

Have been going through a very bad crisis at this time, considering all the aspects of daily life.

Bharat (the drums & percussions guy of ours) had a bad accident in the meantime, breaking two pelvis bones. Doesn't seem like he'll be okay in some time. The plans for us performing in the cultural fest of the college seems dwindling because of this.

I, however decided to upload one song we did in IIT Kharagpur. Here are the links to that: part1 part2.

A milestone achieved

I just returned from Springfest 2010 from IIT Kharagpur. It was a much anticipated tour. Nurvs of Steel finally got the debut I have been wanting to get for the past two years.

I'll begin from where it began. Jayesh had joined the band about a few days before the exam. We were still searching for a place to jam. And in Raipur, where people can be such assholes, it was a really tough thing to get. We could all practice at our places, but then, the neighbors were always a pain in the ass. It's okay when they play their shitty bollywood "music" (which rarely makes any sense) at full volume during our exams. But it's really disturbing to them when we talk on our phone (supposedly, we are shouting and creating a nuisance).

So, after the exams were over, we were done with selecting the songs we were to perform. We hadn't made our OC yet (and how could we, without a single jam?). So covers were our only option. The plan was to practice those individually during the semester break. 5k0uz3r was to go home, and so were the other guys. I dropped my plan of going to my parents' after I was not selected in the placement for CTS. 5k0uz3r got himself an Ibanez. Was good news, for he had to wait a year and a half to get that.

I spent the whole semester break in my place, alone and miserably. After it was over, Jayesh came back, and we started jamming at my place at low volume levels. It was kinda exaggerating that finally I was doing the songs I always wanted to do. Bharat was to come back some time soon. A day after he came back, we called him up, wanting to know his status. He obviously hadn't practiced any of the songs, for he hadn't any drum set in his home, and still wasn't practicing. We fixed a practice at his place for we had no other choice.

His place was big enough with an empty hall. But the neighborhood was extraordinarily quiet. The sound of the drums tore through the walls, and the neighbors were pissed off in a few days.

Meanwhile, we were searching for a place to practice. A junior's grandparents agreed to let us practice in their place, but that didn't seem to be a viable option to me. Metal is always way louder than any other kind of music. His grandfather then set us up to practice in a college (I'm not naming it to maintain their privacy). So, when the college is over, we could practice all night. On 14th, we shifted our stuffs there in a store room, and waited for Dev to come back. On 15th, we finally got our first jamming session together.

We figured that some songs were way to hard to be played on a single base paddle. We made tremendous changes to our list. With five nights of sleepless practice and college-less days, we were finally ready to go. We had to drop a few songs and change the rest few because of lack of time. All of the songs were metal nevertheless, with the exception of sweet child.

We set off for IIT KGP on 20th. All of us were very excited, and simultaneously a bit nervous, for the jamming session that day lasted just about 45 minutes, and we were not very satisfied with what turned out.

We reached KGP the next day. After the initial registration and check in thing, we were in the RP hall, surrounded by people. And when I say people, I mean a lot of people. The stink gets worse in the few days everyone is in there. The stink of their rotten socks and shoes. Good that it was winter, for without the blankets we were all using, the place would have been simply inhospitable.

The competition was to be held in the huge football (rugby) stadium. The stage was set, but we hadn't any place to prepare. There were no practice sessions for the number of bands coming up was just huge, and they couldn't give us slots for practice. We, however decided giving our preparations a final touch anyway. Bharat was the one who had to suffer the absence of drums. The rest of us three played along at the back of the stadium at nights, when it was all deserted.

And then we met this guy from a band called Minus from Ranchi. He was a real nutcase, I must admit. So whenever he started with his "I did this and I did that" bullshit, 5k0uz3r and I had to flee the hall. The canteens were awesome, for they were open all night, so that you don't have to think twice if you're out of cigarettes. The only bad thing was that they had all those costly cigarettes of the likes of Marlboro, which were all filter and no tobacco.

Kryptos were the judge in the competition and we'd decided to go on stage on 23rd, for that was supposedly the last day for the preliminary round.

The slot was then decided and we performed. I was wearing the tshirt of our band, that I'd painted a few days before actually going to KGP. The performance wasn't good for what we'd expected, but again, it was a debut. I'll probably write about what happened that day, but that won't be sometime soon. But I sure as hell was happy to see Kryptos giving us a horns up after we did Hallowed by thy name. Felt like honor.

Kryptos had a show that night. And although from their records, all I could deduce was that they were more influenced from death metal (that's because the only times I heard them was on radioverve), to my surprise, they turned out to be an Iron Maiden influenced band. Absolutely heavy metal.