Coma Rossi Interview!!!

Firstly, I would like to have you introduce yourselves, This is the band Coma Rossi - They hail from Bangalore, India! Let's get your names, and what you play, and age, and something obscure you would want people to know about your personalities!

[Gaurav] Hi, I’m Gaurav, 31 years old and I play guitars. Apart from music, I have serious interest in films and I love to eat. :-)

[UD] Udayan aka UD. I play bass and give second vocals. Currently am 33 years of age.

I love tattoos and I design tattoos for myself. The designs are not the traditional artistic types and are based on concepts combined with some calculations. I am actually an engineer so that might explain this. Also I am not yet there on Twitter and Instagram....that can be called obscure :D

[Juby] Hi, am Juby, 45 years young, I play keyboards in the band. Initially my musical journey started with the love for playing guitar, but after an accident which incapacitated my hand, I switched focus to Keyboards as I wasn’t able to play the guitar any-more. Fun fact is that I actually write music more like a guitar player than a keyboardist. I am also an art director by day.

[Tom] Hey my name is Tom. I do the vocal duties for Coma Rossi and occasionally play guitar. I love to travel, love beaches, snorkeling and of course music.

[Anupam] Hi , I am Anupam , drummer of the band. I am 24 years of age and I started off by playing congo, tabla and few other indian percussion instruments. Apart from music, I love traveling, biking, doing all sorts of mechanical and technical work (includes repairing bikes and equipments). I have actually studied Sound engineering.

What was the defining point that you knew you had to make music?

Each of us have been listening to music and have been associated with music making, even if it meant covering other bands, for quite some time. Each of us also believed that we have enough skill and creativity in us that we can come up with something original. The only thing that was stopping us was finding each other :). And once that happened, there was no stopping. From the initial days till today, with all the people who have been associated with the creation of the first album, the idea was to make original music and present it to the community. Individually, each of us would have had the realization that original music is what we want in different ages and times of our life.

What bands influenced you the most when you were younger?

[UD] System of a Down, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Linkin Park, Megadeth, Pantera

[Juby] Classic rock; Iron Maiden, Fleetwood Mac, Depeche Mode, This Mortal Coil, Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons Project, VNV Nation, Devin Townsend

[Gaurav] Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles

[Tom] Metallica, Trivium, Opeth, Ray LaMontagne, SYML, Haevn, Caligula’s Horse

[Anupam] Linkin Park, Avenged Sevenfold, U2, Eagles,

So these were our first love, yes. And that was sometime back.

We were all listening to different styles of music and never restricted to one genre and this has hugely evolved over the years. Collectively speaking, although we have different tastes, we always converged into some unanimity with our influences.

How did the band come together? Meaning How did you all find each other?

Back in 2014, after moving to Bangalore, Gaurav started contacting tons of people hoping to find someone having similar interests in music and similar approach towards making original music. That’s when he found UD (bass) and Ravi (drums). After a few line-up changes, Juby (Keyboards) joined the band and when our ex-vocalist left, Juby introduced us to Tom, who would then take up the duties of vocals. Not too long after this, we started recording and putting this album together. Anupam (drums) has been the latest addition to the line-up. Overall there were five member changes to the current line-up. Thankfully, the changes did not stop the album from coming out, just slowed down the progress in between. And fortunately, all the involved people shared the interest and had the aptitude for music, touch wood :).

How long have you been playing music together?

Gaurav and Udayan have been playing music together for 5 years now, while Juby(keyboards) and Tom(vocals) joined in 3 years ago. Anupam(drums) has been the latest addition to the line-up and has been with the band for a little less than a year. In short, the current line-up has been together for about a year now.

On your self-titled album... Which song are you most proud of?

Each song has been crafted after a lot of thought collectively. Everyone has their own song of pride.

[Gaurav] Dream.

[UD] Well, it depends on the mood. I have a different choice when it comes to playing live and a different one when it comes to listening. I like ‘Jomolungma is far away’ for listening and ‘Dream’ while playing live.

[Juby] Turn Back time, which I almost wrote and from start to finish

[Tom] I love Mirage for how that song starts any show for us and how its the perfect blend of heavy and soft parts through the song

[Anupam] I am the most proud of Turn Back Time

I have to admit I really enjoyed the song Transmission I think the best, can you tell me some background on that particular track?

[Juby] Well, Transmission was written based on the idea of communicating to someone who can’t hear you or will refuse to hear you, no matter what. Sometimes people can’t hear you or understand how you feel inside even if you are yelling at their face! It’s quite frustrating!! It’s like screaming in space!

If you could play anywhere in the world where would you all want to go? Basically Your Dream Gig?

[UD] A venue with an audience like the one at The Slain Castle RHCP gig or Monsters of Rock Pantera gig.

[Gaurav] A show with complete visual production, surround sound audio and interactive lighting in a huge arena.

[Tom] Red Rocks Amphitheatre I think is the perfect venue for our set and it will be magical to perform there.

[Juby] The Royal Albert Hall, someday!

[Anupam] I want to perform at Rock am Ring someday and make it a complete audio visual treat for the audience to watch and hear.

Who did the writing on the album? Was it a team effort?

Each of us had individual ideas which were presented to the rest of the band and which formed the foundation for these 8 songs. It always has been a collective effort to produce the sound which you hear on the album. As mentioned before that the band went through multiple changes, during that time also we were working on compositions, so the then members also contributed. As far as the lyrics are concerned, they were not co-written, but not all lyrics are written by one person either. In fact, the song ‘Stillborn’ was written by William Louis, who was in Gaurav’s previous band and is a common friend now! Such team effort we must say! :D

How did you all know that what you were making was the absolute best you could give?

Since its inception, the album recording and mixing/mastering process took over 3 years. During this time, we did go back and forth and modified certain parts in some songs. Finally, there came a point where collectively, we were all satisfied with each sound on the album and any more additions to the composition would not have made any significant impact on how the song was sounding.

Though we do make additions to the compositions even today and those changes are presented to our audience during the live shows. That according to us makes our live performances more interesting!

If you could meet any music legend who would it be can be living or dead!

[Gaurav] Scott Walker

[UD] Victor Wooten and Dimebag Darrel

[Juby] Jon Lord, Richard Wright and David Gilmour

[Tom] I have already met Myles Kennedy who is one of my biggest idols. But I would have loved to meet Chris Cornell who was and has always been one of the people I look up-to when it comes to song composing and vocals. I was devastated when I heard of his demise!

[Anupam] Danny Carey, Steven Wilson , Billy Joe Armstrong

You make amazing progressive rock, do you all have guilty pleasure about music? Who is something you'd play in private that isn't progressive?

[Gaurav] I listen to a lot of electro-pop and synth-pop music since quite a few years now. I always have been obsessed with discovering new-wave bands from all over the world. My most recent find has been Flavien Berger from Paris and Jakuzi from Turkey.

[UD] Frankly, progressive is generally not my first preference when it comes to listening. I listen to almost every genre and I do not spare even Bollywood :D.

[Tom] Ed Sheeran.. Justin Bieber.. I love the songs and I love playing them!!

[Juby] VNV Nation, Tears for Fears, Pet shop boys

[Anupam] Apart from progressive , i'd love to play metalcore , nu metal , pop and psychedelic trance

What is it that you are trying to convey with your music? What sort of feeling or emotion would you like to invoke in other people?

One must have experienced the joy of collecting colorful, beautiful, smooth and

fascinating pebbles on the sea shore. Metaphorically, that is how we would describe the sound of Coma Rossi. In other words, our music is feel and melody based. Each composition has a strong

emotion attached to it and it takes the listener on a journey. Whereas there are

progressive elements, they are not linked necessarily with technicality, but rather experimentation of soundscapes and genres like psychedelic, ambient, post rock, trance, pop, electronic music, etc. that convey the emotion.

What is the motivation behind the band itself? What keeps you guys going?

Coma Rossi is about originality, creativity, experience, experimentation, freedom and over and above all else, a strive to make melodious music. We believe in creating music that’s organic rather than to drop technical wizardry. That said, we also aren't averse to technicalities, but that's not our prime focus nor strength. We aim to serve the song, its lyric and the overall sound. This was, is and will be the core value that Coma Rossi will always try to deliver on.

What kind of equipment does everyone use?

[Gaurav] I use Fender Squire and Yamaha RGX220DZ Guitars and a Line6 POD HD500X Multi-effects guitar processor.

[UD] For now, I use Ibanez GSR300 bass and a Zoom B3 processor

[Tom] I use a jumbo Walden Guitar with TC Electronics Bodyrez and TC Helicon Harmony GX T for vocals.

[Juby] Novation midi keyboards, Line 6 foot controllers, and a macbook that holds all my sounds

[Anupam] I use Pearl P932 Eleminator and VicFirth 5A sticks

How long was it start to finish to compose and mix down your album? Did you use a professional studio and mixing experts or did you all do this on your own?

Considering we all have a day job and we self-funded the album, all instruments other than drums were recorded at home. Certain songs have programmed drum parts here and there. All of the pre-production was done in a bedroom which was later sent to mix and master at Le Lab Studios, Montreal with Alex Rights, who was so patient with us. From the time we sent the first song, it was almost a year and a half when the last song went out for mixing and mastering. Whereas the recording itself was not lengthy, but we had some line-up changes and some personal matters to attend to which slowed down the speed in between.

This is the last question - If you could tell the world anything, What would it be? I would like to hear collectively what your message is!

Seeing the recent episodes of violence against humans across the world and the concerns on environment, we would say to each global citizen to respect religions, cultures, traditions, language, habits, respect humans, respect animals, respect LIFE! Shed your egos and greed; love, share and live together as one planet :)