history

the story as it was...

we (uday benegal and jayesh gandhi) are better known as the ex-singer and guitar player of india's most successful ever rock band, indus creed. 14 years with that one and what a time it was. travelling by state transport buses through the night piloted by gasoline-soaked evel knievels playing that traditional indian highway game of 'chicken' over roads better classified as 'pot-holed by the explicit design of the government of india', bribing railway ticket collectors to carry our own equipment off the station platform, getting ripped off by concert promoters who would look prettier in concrete-filled platform heels, yaada booyaada… it wasn't all bad, though. the gigs were just great, the audience fantastic, the energy unrelenting, the perseverance perpetual and the learning, oh boy, the learning. now, that never stops. and along that crazy path we accumulated the occasional laurel that was promptly hoofed into the proverbial attic (proverbial because people don't have attics in india, you see). here are some things we did with indus creed that work for the resumé (and that's only if you really care to know):

• we performed concerts in 28 cities in india, represented the country at the festival of india in the ussr, played at peter gabriel's super-hipped-out-totally-prestigious world music festival - womad, toured the uk, and performed with bon jovi to 40,000 people in bombay. in 1996 mtv flew down guns & roses guitarist, slash to perform live on stage with us in bangalore, india.
• we recorded 3 albums: rock 'n' roll renegade - the largest selling rock album in india (and pirated all over south east asia and the gulf), a very successful second album called the second coming and a climactic third album, self titled indus creed, recorded in los angeles in 1994 and released internationally by bmg.
• the videos won some and then some: we were the first indian artistes to appear on mtv, all our videos spent numerous weeks on mtv asia's charts and in 1993 our third video, pretty child, won an mtv video music award in los angeles. it was subsequently ranked 9 in mtv asia's top 100 videos of the year, competing with such majorultraheavyshit acts like madonna and michael jackson.
• our next video, trapped: nominated for a billboard and an mtv award.
• the fifth video, sleep: nominated for an mtv award.
• mtv produced a rockumentary on indus creed, the first for a non-western act.
• in 1997 we were awarded (glory be!) best indian band at the channel v awards.
• the press in india used a lot of newsprint in the honor of this motley menace in articles covering the band's activities over the years. we've also had the privilege of having been interviewed by the new york times, bbc, time magazine, musical express (japan), and radio stations in india, europe, south east asia and the gulf.

over the last few years indus creed began to collaborate with some of india's most respected classical musicians including taufiq and fazal qureshi (brothers of zakir hussain), ustad sultan khan, rakesh chaurasia (nephew and student of pandit hariprasad chaurasia), amongst many others. two of us were getting more inclined towards working the indian sound with our own smorgasbord of influences. others in the band weren't entirely convinced and, in any case, we had each begun to get caught up in various individual pursuits. we figured that to head out in the directions that each of our hearts were being summoned towards while we all still loved each other would be the way of the wise. and so we did.