“When The Beatles visited India, they came and took away a lot of influences, ideas and concepts without really giving anything back,” says Reverend Sound System’s Jon McClure as he reflects on the state of the global exchange of music today and adds, “Now the scene has changed. It’s a two-way exchange. Bands seem to be coming to India, taking away a whole new perspective and giving back a new perspective to local bands and audiences.” The British act performed on the Eristoff Wolves’ Den stage on Saturday to a relatively small yet fired-up audience. The performance saw Jon and rapper Matic Mouth hop the barrier and jump into the crowd midway through a track, without so much as missing even a solitary beat.
For those not yet in the know, RSS is, as Jon explains, a band that plays indie songs with dubstep music. “People love dubstep, people love indie. What we do is to mesh dubstep music with indie songs. We call it ‘indie-step’,” says the human skyscraper that is Jon and adds, “But the dubstep aficionados and those who love indie aren’t too fond of us at all.” The group (completed by Laura McClure), he goes on to mention, hasn’t released any material yet and hasn’t played many shows. But it is slowly building up a rabid following in a time when originality is finding very few takers.
“The thing with Britain is that alternative music has been around for a long long time. No one is really innovating anymore. Everyone is imitating things that have already been done,” he says, adding, “It’s like a jigsaw puzzle with a million pieces, but people are sticking to the same way of putting them together. But in India, people aren’t as jaded. They seem to be trying out a variety of different ways and means to put the puzzle together. They appear to be more open-minded about checking out something they’ve never heard before, as we saw from the response to our performance on Saturday.”
According to Jon and the hyperactive Matic Mouth (real name: Marcus), who confesses to seeking inspiration from fresh music that pushes the envelope, Pentagram is one act that pushes all the right buttons (in addition to the envelope). “There’s some sound production tricks that those guys do that just make me stop and keep listening. They’re incredible!” gushes the rapper. “I really want to create a solid fanbase in India, because it’s here that people are actively trying out new things, they’re not jaded,” Jon chips in.
But that’s not where the fascination with the subcontinent ends. A student of history at Sheffield University, Jon burned several nights worth of midnight oil to bang out his dissertation paper on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. “He wasn’t swayed by religion or anything of the sort. He was a revolutionary like Ché Guevara and wasn’t too bothered about taking on the mainstream in his attempt to achieve his country’s freedom,” states the man who enjoys referring to himself as Jon “Subhash Chandra” McClure once in a while. In addition, as a youngster, he found himself fascinated by a number of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan songs and unable as he was to understand the words, Jon invented English lyrics to go with some of the songs he liked most.
“It’s also good to see a country where people are so passionate about their politics,” states the human flagpole (yes, he’s that tall) and laments, “In complete contrast, in Britain, people are far too accepting of whatever is happening.” Given that the band has yet to release anything, this correspondent felt more than compelled to ask how people could get hold of some of the group’s music. “You can contact us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/thetruerss) and invite us over to perform at your house,” laughs Jon. Probably best to keep watching this space.