Members of Fire on Dawson
Indo-German rock band Fire on Dawson is slated perform in India this month. An initiative in association with Rock for a Cause and VH1, the shows in Mumbai (Feb5) and Kolkata (Feb 7) arefundraisers for the CRY (CHildRights and You) Foundation that supports education and development of underprivileged children.
The band is made up of Ankur(vocals), Martin (bass), Markus(guitar) and Max (drums). They are currently working on their second album slated to release this year.
In a chat with DNA, band Delhi-born vocalist Ankur Batra talks about Fire on Dawson’s music, their latest album Prognative and things in between.
Fire on Dawson. How did you all come up with that?
There is an interesting story behind this. A friend of ours went for a company trip to Ireland where he invited a few buddies to join him at an expensive restaurant in Dublin at the company’s expense. They had quite an entertaining and eventful evening which resulted in a bill of a few hundredeuros. While we were all hanging out one evening, he narrated the story and showed us the bill as proof. The name of restaurant on the bill was Fire on Dawson Street. We liked the sound of it and the story behind it so we decided to keep it as our bandname.
You have refused to categorise your music but if you had to, what broad genre do you think it falls under? Do you think the ‘progressive’ tag is justified?
As you mention, we refuse to categorise our music. We connect the word Progressive with creative freedom rather than a particular band or sound.
What influences the band in terms of vocals and music?For us music is a personal feeling and is an interpretation of emotion and state of being. We get influenced by everything around us, which includes music too but not exclusively.
Which audience would you say is most receptive to your kind of music?
An open-minded one.
Does playing at college festivals help in the popularity of the band?
It definitely helps us connect with the youth of a country.
What is the philosophy behind your last album Prognative?
During the time Prognative was being recorded, Markus had just recently joined the band.Therefore we had quite a bit of the older material which was written by Nico, the band’s founding guitarist as well as the newer songs that were being written with Markus. So we decided to incorporate the past, the present and the future into the album.
What would you say would be the band’s proudest moment since its inception?
Probably our debut album Prognative. When we started making music almost 6 years ago, we never imagined that we would be recording an album let alone releasing one that would reach so many people. We hope our second album would take this to the next level.
From funk metal to the kind of music you are playing now, do you forsee Fire on Dawson evolving further? Which direction do you think it will be heading in?
Evolution is inevitable if extinction is to be avoided. So I hope we keep evolving musically. People will notice an evolution on our next album as compared to Prognative.
Have you seen any major changes in the Indian indie scene in the past few years?
There are some really good bands coming up in India. They just need a support structure to flourish. We would be happy to see some of these bands perform in Europe in the future.
There are so many causes people support. Any particular reason Fire on Dawson supports CRY?
We support education as we believe everyone has an equal right to quality education and that education is the only tool that can ensure the uplift of society.
Fire on Dawson performs on February 5, Sunday at Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and on February 7, Tuesday at National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.
For tickets: http://in.bookmyshow.com/events/Fire-On-Dawson/ET00008864
source: http://www.dnaindia.com / Daily News & Analysis / by Blessy Chettiar / Place: Mumbai / Agency: DNA / published: Sunday, February 05th, 2012