Zero (L-R) Girish Talwar, Sidd Coutto, Warren Mendonsa and Rajeev Talwar; (inset) Girish.
...says a nonchalant Girish ‘Bobby’ Talwar, before his band Zero’s first reunion gig in eight years.
The refrain of their most popular song, PSP 12’’, is just the words “Standing by” repeated 21 times. Zero though, cannot imagine how PSP 12” is still their most popular song over a decade after it released. The now defunct band that was started by four Dadar boys, has three albums to its name but derives its popularity from the intense yet fun gigs the band has played all over India. As the band plans to meet up for their first ‘official’ reunion gig in eight years, we catch up with Zero’s bassist, Girish ‘Bobby’ Talwar for a freewheeling chat.
In the years after disbanding, you’ve played secret sets at NH7. Why is Awestrung called the first official reunion gig This is the first time Rajeev Talwar (the vocalist) is being flown down to India just for the purpose of a concert. Previously, we played at local pubs and at NH7 because we all happened to be in the country at the same time.
Why the name Zero We get asked this question so often but there’s never one official story. One version is that where zero has been India’s contribution to the world, we’re India’s contribution to music. The other is where Sidd Coutto (the drummer) scribbled, “I am zero” in his college textbook when he was going through a rough time. It just happened.
How did the song PSP 12” get named and what’s the secret behind it’s popularity It used to be called BSB, but we wanted to avoid the confusion between Backstreet Boys and us. Then we realised Warren Mendonsa (guitarist) plays the chorus in a way that his paunch shakes, and it became Paunch Shaking Paunch then. We don’t really know how it became so popular. Maybe the riff, drums and vocals all come together in a way that makes people want to break things. But, everyone has a story of their own with our songs. Some become breakup songs while some others become a crowd favourite and we love listening to the stories.
It’s been over 15 years since you guys got together, and you’re still being asked to perform reunion gigs. How have you been so popular I actually put this down to lack of exposure to better bands (laughs). See, good songs are just good songs. We’ve been popular because people enjoy our music, and we’re just having fun. Back in the day we used to bunk lectures and practise, and now we’re being flown down from all across the world for one gig. We’re just having fun.
What’s the difference you see in the indie music scene from the time you started off to now There’s barely any real, open-air music festival that happens regularly. Even NH7 is an annual affair. We were the last band to play at the legendary Rang Bhavan, and those kind of gigs don’t happen any more. Thankfully, the audience for indie music has grown, and pubs and clubs across the country have had to serve music and bands to them. I enjoy the F-16s (an alternative indie band). They’re impressive from the current lot of musicians.
Would Zero make another album We never really sat down to make songs even when we were together. They just happened to come to us when we were sitting together, going to the beach and drinking chai. We did think of sitting down to write one more album recently but that didn’t happen. Maybe, we should take off for a vacation in December and the songs will flow. So maybe we’ll start a crowdfunded campaign called ‘Send Zero for a Vacation’ (laughs).
What can we expect at the reunion gig Same old fun! We plan to play some great music, we won’t mess around with the old list much. We’ll hopefully have some guest performers on stage, though I can’t promise. And maybe have some after-parties too.
Zero will be playing a reunion set for Awestrung at High Street Phoenix, Courtyard, Lower Parel on April 29, 6.30 pm onwards
