CHENNAI: Ground Zero, the band, did not fail to wow the crowd with their soulful and catchy renditions of songs mostly from the Blues, Pop and Rhythms genres, along with a mix of classic rock at the Phoenix MarketCity recently.
The five young men in the band hail from Arakkonam, and they have known each other since childhood. They discovered their shared love for music, as they grew up in a tight knit community. “We credit our mentor Alfred Reneaux who encouraged us to form a band. We grew up listening to a lot of old school music, which really moved us, and we thought, why not give it a shot,” said Gavin.
Ground Zero derives their inspiration from 13AD, one of India’s leading yesteryear rock bands hailing from Kochi. “One of 13AD’s albums, a very famous one, was titled Ground Zero, and we are big fans of their work, so we decided to name ourselves after it,” he smiled.
With Gavin on vocals and bass, Shane on guitar, Michael on the drums, Aaron on Rhythm guitars and vocals and Melvin on keyboards, Ground Zero has been performing for four years. Starting off with playing at college culturals and weddings, today they have larger audiences to perform for. Do these guys face issues within themselves too? “Thankfully, we’ve had no conflicts so far but we do have a policy: every say in the band counts. The only thing that makes us mad is the bad sound systems,” he laughed.
“What we really want to achieve, through our band, is just to go out, have a lot of fun, and get some exposure,” he said when we prodded him for their raison d’etre.
The Ground Zero ensemble has toured across the country and played in some of India’s most exciting live music venues. Their influences span a wide range of genres and times. They cite Ed Sheeran, The Lumineers, Usher, The Lumineers and Zayn Malik, but if they had to pick one musician, dead or alive, to perform for them? “Freddie Mercury, who else! And Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven is our all-time favourite song,” he grinned.
Shuttling between Arakkonam and Chennai, the Ground Zero boys are becoming popular across India. Wherever they go though, they are happy to come back to Chennai. “We pretty much love our life in Chennai. We love performing in this city.”