We asked our suit guy to get us to look like gangsters,” smiles Anek Ahuja. When you’ve just launched your debut Blues album, it seems ‘new suits’ are mandatory. Dressed in their black pinstripes and snazzy top hat, city-band Blues Conscience certainly looked their retro best at their launch concert recently. Lounging with band at Savera hotel’s Bay 146, one had to wonder out loud, how their album’s suggestive title, Down and Dirty came to be...was there a groupie involved?
Aum Janakiram laughs, “Actually it’s a pretty tame story.” He goes on, “As we got closer to releasing the album (which has been in the works for two years now), we needed to get ‘down and dirty’ to get things done right.” From the major stuff like reworking some of the songs with music producer Ed Degenaro right down to the nitty gritties of the 70s style cleavage-showing maid bent over an ironing board on the album cover. They certainly know how to hook you with a visual. Did we mention both the founding members are both advertising professionals?
Apparently Anek (bass and vocals) and Aum (guitars and vocals) go back as far as the fourth standard. And before Blues Conscience came together four years ago, each had a rock outfit of his own. And it wasn’t until a wedding in the family that the idea of a Blues group even came into the picture. “It was my sister’s wedding, so I got the guys together to do some tunes,” Anek recalls. “And we put together a setlist with songs like Roadhouse Blues and Cocaine...” After that, things quickly feel into place. The rest of the band is made up by Neil Smith (drums) and Sid Kumar (keys).
But back to the album. Out of 14 tracks, Aum reveals that his favourite on the list is a composition that traces down his girlfriend his history from where it started to the present date. “It’s called Looking for a Girl, he says with a laugh. He adds, “It’s nice and country-style and ‘cartoony’...and when it just sort of flowed when we started making the song.” Ladies, if you’re a fan of this very single, very good looking guitarist – now you know where to find little bit of dirt on him!