Anish Nadh’s Blog

 I taught guitar to some friends and Cherian was one of them. He was completely tech savvy! He had the latest softwares, lime wire at that time! Took two days to download a video or an entire album! Cherian had them all. You ask for an album he gave you the entire discography with bootlegs!  I got Steve Vai, Dream Theater, Satch and everything! And Cherian had even more! He was willing to share and write them down for me. I also got some instruction dvds written and we practiced a lot! Cherian was into the whole death metal scene while I tried Vai on my Givson and it sucked!  I owe the bulk of my music education to the wealth of information that came from him! God bless him!  

 I got my hands on stone more dvds, thanks to Joshi. This included G3 live in Denver and Racer X live at Whisky a Go Go. I watched the former a million times that I had another back up for that dvd.  Gradually I was introduced to Eric Johnson, Eric Clapton, Dream Theater, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani! I adored Steve Vai over all these artists. I liked that Vai was spiritually connected to the instrument. I discovered him through G3 series of concerts! 

National market was the hub of piracy. You could get copies of clothes, brands, electronics and also music! I went there to get some Adidas footwear and was window shopping, and inside there were some smaller shops selling belts and earphones and radio. They had MP3s and also VCDs. I browsed through them and saw one called Steve Vai, Alien Love Secrets. I bargained it down to ₹25 and the shopkeeper reluctantly let go of it! This was one of the guys that Joshi always spoke about, Steve Vai! I bought the CD and the way back home seemed too long.  I played it on our huge Sony Tv! There is was Steve Vai all painted in gold playing Bad horsie. I didn’t like the song. I was dumbstruck from the next song onwards. I’m looking forward to seeing and listening to Vai soon! 

Joshi took me to David’s house one day. I heard him practising. He also played some Racer X live at Whisky a Go Go dvd, on his computer. Joshi helped me get some of the dvds and wrote them for me.  I saw Yngwie playing with a symphony orchestra, but David didn’t want you share his rare music collection. I was mesmerized by the speed and accuracy with which Yngwie  played! The internet was not quick, it took about a week to download any video! I was upset that I couldn’t get Maalmsteen. Joshi gave me some more more dvds copied! And thanks to him I heard some amazing bands! 

 There was a small place that can seat about 50 people that served expensive coffee called Coffee House in Kammanahalli, near Kullappa circle! I went there every Friday evening, they had live music! The bands were amazing especially the band called claymen!  After a few visits there, a few of us friends mustered courage and played our first show there. We were called Stones Cry Out! It had Stephen and me in guitars and Johnin on vocals. We played some DC Talk there.  Coffee house was also frequented by amazing musicians, Naveen Thomas and David! These guys were so amazing that I wanted to play like them. 

The next week it was classes with Along. Satem introduced me to him in their mother tongue and I heard him say “talented”, they were talking about me.  Along started his classical guitar lessons with me and boy was he drunk. He didn’t stink as much but he was high as a kite. He was a good teacher, very methodical and talked highly of his teacher Kenny from BSM!  Along was very strict with the posture and technique yet he was patient. I did not have a classical guitar, I learnt to read notes again after those piano classes with Kaundinya, I was good at keeping time but not great at identifying notes.(I’m still struggling with that.). After lessons I would walk from shantinagar to Cathedrals to catch my bus. I still can’t believe that I walked this far with my guitar in my younger days! 

 Joshi took me to his teachers Along and Satem! We walked through the streets of Shanti Nagar and entered a half constructed incomplete building. Joshi showed me an old Hero Honda Splendor bike and said “Machaa he’s here” we had no phone. We had to make an appointment and just show up.  I met Satem that day! Along was not around. Joshi introduced Satem as the most amazing solo player who played Eric Johnson, Steve Vai and Satch! I was quite impressed with his playing.  They lived in an unfinished house lot of open windows, must’ve been very cold during winters. But Satem asked me to play on his guitar, and I did! He liked my playing and gave me a few exercises to do! I did them religiously! He said “Come next week, Along will teach you classical! And we’ll alternate classical and electric guitar”. I was thrilled to her this, I worked hard and never missed any class and waited for the next week for classes with Along!