Street Stories

 

How the band was formed?

Pezo: Mypassion for music came from when I was younger; it was something that my veryown brother Riko and I’ve always wanted… it all began as we frequented ShillongBaptist Church… we volunteered ourselves for the Praise and Worship team andthat’s where we found our drummer, since then we started playing together asthe Praise and Worship team of Shillong Baptist Church and discovered eachother’s passion for music and we officially formed the band Street Stories onthe outset of this year’s winter that is January, 2010.

Riko: Musicwas one of the prominent factor that united Pezo and I as brothers. Music is inour blood and I guess it’s our instinct and we followed it. We wanted to takeour passion for music to the next level and that’s where we decided to form theband.

Matsram: wellyeah… Pezo and I were in the same school so I was acquainted with Pezo and Rikoright from my school days and I was quite aware of the fact that these guysshare the same passion for music.  It allbegan when I was playing for the Praise and Worship team in our Church. So Iguess they finally realized the fact that I was pretty good enough to be intheir band so they sign me in and here I am with the two words that bestdescribed me ‘The Drummer’… (Laughs) not being proud though!

Genre

The music that we have , what we play wassomething that was not intentional. We had no such thoughts of creating adifferent genre but I guess it’s mainly rock and roll oriented with a fusion ofpunk, pop, indie, rock and a bit of blues. We all brought in together ourvariant taste and musical backgrounds. Personally, speaking I grew up listeningto Punk Rock so our music has a lot of punk influences here and there  and just  the name of our band itself was taken from a  Blink 182 poster which has a collagedbackground of the words ‘Street Stories’ written on it.

Ideology

Pezo: As theband we don’t really have a specific ideology but I guess through our songs weare trying to reflect what we have to say about life. All the happenings aroundus in terms of all different level of realities of life inspired and motivatedour lyrics.

Riko: Yeah…for example our song ‘On the Line’ is all about second chance that life offers.It’s never too late to get back from where you have fallen. Much of whathappens on this world is bad and disappointing but I guess life still remainsbeautiful and it’s worth living because life offers us choice. Choices toeither give up or grow up and move on. We have songs like ‘Senseless concentration’where we depicted the feelings of alienation or an absence of belonging but ithas a touch of optimism infused in it though it doesn’t surface up. There isalways a place where we can call home, ‘home’ not as in literal sense but asymbolism of a place where we can all belong. Life can always be redeemed andmade new. So to sum up, our optimistic attitude towards life is what we aretrying to portray through our songs. Other than that we have songs like ‘6string songs’ and ‘High distorted trip’ that are based on how music induces orcontrol our emotion. It’s more or less an explanations of adrenaline rush thatwe feel every time we performed or play music.

What the band is all about?

Pezo: As aband it’s all about experimenting with music. It’s something that I’mpassionate about and it’s something that I don’t want to stop. Music has givenme identity and has guided my emotion to great extend. I’m passionately in lovewith music like a passionate young lover can be.

Matsram: Ourlove for music has bonded us and we’re doing it not out of mere pleasure or forour want of fame but our motives is solely based on our love and respect formusic.

Riko:Personally for me being in this band is all about playing music and having fun.I’m glad and proud enough to know that I have something to call or claim thatit’s ‘My very own’. As a band we have always wanted to create the kind of musicthat reflects who we are and what we’ve got to say and that’s exactly what weare doing and still be doing.

How the music has been received?

Pezo: Theuniqueness of our music has contributed much to our band as it has made it moreappealing for the people who seek a new taste in music. Our music cannot belimited to just one genre. It’s a mix of everything from punk-indie-rock -popand a bit of blues. We think it’s a bold step that we took to experiment withsuch music because the scene here is metal dominated but  fortunately it was all worth it and as far asI’m informed all the feedbacks and comments were positive and the people outthere appreciated and loved our music.

Why cover ‘Poker Face’?

Riko: One ofour focus at that point of time was to grab the attention of the people andPoker Face was a celebrated piece and basically what we tried doing was toexperiment with the song and infuse in it our style or genre of music.

Pezo: LadyGaga is great and we love her. I go gaga over Gaga… (Laughs)

Further Plans?

Pezo: Writemore songs, be more innovative in our approach towards music, do more show allover India… so far we don’t feel the need of releasing an album so the goodnews to our fans out there is that our music comes without a price tag…

Riko: fornow… (Laughs)… well, yeah… right we’re still working out on some new materials.More surprises coming up. So watch out!

Conclusion

Pezo: As aband we’re fortunate enough to be who we are and where we are right now. I thankGod for that, and I thank our fans and friends for their constant support.

Matsram: Yeah…wehad our ups and downs but the journey so far has been amazing and we’ve got along way to go as we are still in what we call ‘The Nascent Stage’.

Riko: Well…as a band we have evolved a lot over a few months and yeah we still have lotsof growing up to do. So fans out there keep supporting us.

Photo Credits: Elyon Blah

Fan Artwork: Ning Ben Ezra