GRB - The Before Video

One of the first jams with the current line-up (told ya we're a pretty new bunch!) at Unwind Center, Koramangala, Bangalore. Not great - lots of faults but still recorded it with my tiny Cybershot so that we get to know how we sound right now... More like the "Before-After" kinda things.. this video is aimed at being the "Before" one... the "After" one is, of course, aimed at sounding a whole, whole lot better than this, and will be posted soon (keep watching this space).
So ladies and gents, presenting "GRB - The Before Video".

Green Room Boxes in Deccan Herald!

This is the first article by a national daily featuring a references to our band "Green Room Boxes".. Well little drops make an ocean, and this article is definitely a drop that's one day gonna push GRB to new heights... Cheers!

Men and their machines

When asked what equipment they use, the boxes replied and below is their description of their respective equipments in their words (actually, they txt'd me and I had to retype the entire thing here...!)

The boxes appear in alphabetical order - the world should be a fair and just place!

Anant (Bass guitars/Vocals) : "...I use an Ibanez GSR200, thru a Stranger 20W Amp. Alternatively I also sometimes jam with a Givson electric using a DigiTech Hot Head effects pedal thru the same amp..."

Rahul (Drums) : "...Mapex Q Series acoustic drum kit - Wine Red (Smack!) with Planet Z cymbals (20' Ride, 16' Crash and 14' Hi-hats) and one Paiste PST5 16' Medium crash. Chancellor 5A sticks. Of course lots of bedsheets to muffle the noise - and also RTom Moon Gels..."

Vinnie (Keys) : "...Dude I got a Yamaha PSR arranger keyboard, that's all..."

Zoe (Lead guitars/Vocals) : "...Guitar=Greg Benett Avion 3, Zoom G7.1 UT processor, Behringer VTone 103 Amp, Shure mic, Planet waves noiseless cables, Diadro .8 Nickel strings, Dunlop pics..." (Whew!)

Sovit (Rhythms/Vocals) : "Guitar is Samick Greg Benett AV1, with Zoom G1 processor to go with it."

How it all began

Blame or respect the omnipresent Orkut, but that is how GRB got its foundation stone laid.

Anant started with a thread in an Orkut community way back in 2006 asking for interested people to join up to form a band. A lot of people replied (check out the thread:
http://www.orkut.co.in/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=18429620&tid=2480308164953903973), a lot of plans were made, but little progress was made.

I didn't know Anant personally at the time and got to meet him at one of our booze sessions. One thing led to another and there we were jamming together at my previous residence at BTM layout, Bangalore. The gadgets we owned then were very basic (primitive would be a better word I guess). Anant had a Givson electric guitar that was as old as his engineering days and I had a 5 piece drum kit that even kids wouldn't think of buying. Anyhow, we jammed and were joined by the BTM Boys too (aka Harish, Dammiee, Ashok, Khagen). That was our first jam room - and it remained for a pretty long time too.

We called ourselves "The Resoultes" then and even had a band logo decided, when we found out that there was already a band with that name. Around that time, Zoe too happened to reply to the thread posted by Anant in Orkut and was eager to join the band. Zoe came over to jam in our BTM pad and after the first song that we jammed on, Anant and I knew that Zoe had to be in the band. So now we were a three piece band...without a name. We were name hunting and somehow "Green Room Boxes" popped up. And we agreed.

A couple of more jam sessions at BTM and Sovit was asked to join the band. Sovit happens to be the brother of a friend of ours and also the brother-in-law of another friend! In he came to the band to take the rhythm guitars spot. Sovit impressed us with his clean guitaring techniques and also with immense talent to provide solo riffs in between the songs which lent an entirely new dimension to the songs.

Jamming in BTM, however, was getting a setback because of the constant neighbors complaining. So we aborted jamming there altogether, and didn't jam for a good period in 2008. Again via the omnipresent Orkut, Zoe found Vineeth (aka Vinnie). We were looking for a good keyboard player and Vinnie fit the bill perfectly. Not to mention the other two bonuses he brought along - first, the jam room and secondly his experience with the Kannada music industry. Whoa! We were finally ready to rumble!

Although a relatively new band which is still in its "gelling" phase, that is the story thus far for GRB. Watch this space for more on us!