Other Articles “STILL WATERS” RUN DEEP
| “STILL WATERS” RUN DEEP |
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| Written by The Northeast Today |
“STILL WATERS” RUN DEEP
Siddhartha B. Gurung
The year was 2002 when Sikkim got its own taste of GIR. The band heading to Delhi was Still Waters who later went on to wipe out IIT Guwahati taking away the best bass player as well as the best guitar player that year. I got in touch with lead singer Ananth Pradhan who gave me a low down on what is sinking in those deep waters. The name ‘Still Waters’ as interpreted by the members came out as a direct reference to the band members’ personalities – they are a down to earth bunch of people who are not into flashy glitz n’ glamour. So, they are more or less calm on the surface but hyper-active with rock n’ roll deep inside! Surely goes with what they say: Still Waters run deep!
Still Waters, started up as a nameless entity around Aug-Sept of 2001, and saw their name up in the list of bands selected for RSJ’s Great Indian Rock Fest 6 (GIR-VI) in February 2002 with their song ‘Happy Go Lucky’. Since then there has been no looking back for the band with strings of achievements piling up every now and then with IIT-Guwahati’s Rock-O-Phonix in February 2003, Unwind Center’s Fest JRO-2005 held in Chennai, major college fest victories, a full-length album release, headlining gigs, T.V appearances and Best Indian Band nominations.
Like any other band, SW had its fare share of line-up changes which Ananth says ‘are all part n’ parcel of what comes along for almost every band ever to come up!’ But the music remained the same keeping their trademark loud riff-rock which matters the most for the band. Such changes never showed in their music or live shows.
Of late, SW has been concentrating mostly on composing and recording their yet untitled second album. ‘We’ve already finalised on which songs we’re going to put up in the album and we’ve already recorded 5 and 3 more are on the pipeline! Believe me when I tell u…..it’ll all be worth the wait!’ says Ananth. Their first album ‘Such a Long Time’ was a ground-breaking rock album from Sikkim. The one major difference that can be expected is that this new album will have 6 numbers in Nepali and two in English unlike ‘Such a Long Time’ that had all 8 songs in English. ‘We’re quite sure we’ll outdo the first one’, updates Ananth. Although Still Waters has been on a low profile for the past two years, their passion for music is still high and soaring. They are the ones who introduced original rock music in Sikkim. Despite their numerous line-up changes, they are still called Sikkim’s number 1 band by many ardent followers. Let us hope they make an exclusive come back with their second album. Till then let us wait and see what these guys have in store for us.
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Suman (bass) and Ananth (vocal) came across each other as batchmates while at NIIT Gangtok. Routine introductions shed light on their desperate need to rock onstage and along came Sonam (lead guitars), Suman’s former band mate and childhood buddy. A few casual jam sessions later, with tones of cover-bands and concerts, they tried stepping into an unfamiliar terrain of making some good original music together. The whole country was doing it and they simply had to be a part of this revolution. Nothing less was good enough. And a trial-by-error recording session at a local studio led to their first recorded song ‘Farsighted Woman’. It got some good reviews and personal reactions from all who heard it. And it was only after actually recording this that they started realising that they really did have a great thing going for them. This was highly in contrast to what the general trend of only playing covers was in fashion for bands in Gangtok, Darjeeling and Kalimpong during that time. The birth of a whole new full-fledged rock entity was inevitable. With Netra and Sameer, on drums and rhythm guitars respectively, Still Waters was born.