A MUSICAL TRYST WITH KISMET
An assortment of sounds is what greets the ears when u listen to any of song of KISMET. From the flute, mridangam, ghumot, to the electric guitar and drums, they have it all. An intermingling of instruments, the songs offer you a choice of escapist routes, taking you to different places. You are listening to the brilliance of musical harmony that is characteristic of the band KISMET.
Meet 25 year old Vijayan Almeida and 21 year old Vinu Dias, members of the fusion rock band KISMET. Their music, as different as it can possibly be, has a raw earthiness to it , lending a very individualistic feel.
The formation of the band was a landmark in itself. Says Vijayan, singer,songwriter, leadguitarist and flute player. "i had been writing songs for more than two years and was trying to get a band together but was slowly losing hope. One day, I bought a set of strings to restring my guitar but i cut one string too short. So i had to return to the store to buy another. There i met Asif, who had come in to try out some guitars. He began playing a 12 bar blues progression on an acoustic guitar, impressed, i waled upto him and discovered that he too was looking for a band. This chance meeting sowed the seed of KISMET. Thus, if it weren't for the string i accidentally cut short, there probably would have been no KISMET."
The band thus started with Vijayan as singer, songwriter and Asif as lead guitarist. They soon roped in the likes of Alex De Souza as drummer , Vinu Dias as bassist and Sathish Krishnamurthy as a percussionist. As Vijayan says"we wanted to do something special, something different". When Asif left the band to pursue his studies abroad, this didn't deter the rest. They stayed together and Vijayan took up the task of Lead guitarist. It cliked and after another year, they took their talents to the next level by coming our with an album.
Soon news of their talent had spread. They played at a launch party of Groove Magazine as well as the International Film Festival of INDIA. IN the month of August 2005 they launched their first CD single 9/11 which till then had been ruling the waves of local radio station AIR FM RAINBOW. Still grounded their main priority remains the release of their album.
What do the members of KISMET see their music as. Says Vijayan"we believe in setting our own trends and as artists on the edge of society, observing the goings on and commenting on it through verse. We thus tap into a certain item that helps express emotions." Proof of this is available in their songs. For example Nafrat Ki Fasal portrays the plight of victims of the communal Carnage that took place in Gujarat post Godhra while 9/11 tells of a society giving into malevolence and turning a blind eye to the spread of hate.
It is evident that they put lot of themselves into their work. As Vinu states,"music plays a big part in my life, i feel strongly about the music we make and always get into the song before we decide to arrange it".
So much for casting couches and political influence - here is a band that's keen on making it. As they continue to break boundaries and challenge old ideas, we can rest assured that they will come up with something good. Thou they are new, different, and have yet to catch on, they have great scope. Where they are concerned, all we can say is, PREPARE TO BE SURPRISED.
--- by Ayesha Baretto