Life beyond advertising: Keegan Pereira, on being a vocalist

(Life beyond advertising is a weekly feature, where we feature advertising’s interesting people; people who do crazy, creative things after working hours. We try and understand their passion and drive for what they do, what makes them tick and what it takes to wear multiple hats.

If you fit the above description to the tee and would like to be featured, write to us at mukta.lad@web18.in _.)_

If you’ve just heard about the exotic, sensual woman doing the rounds on the indie music circuit, you should probably go check her out. We are talking about Laxmi Bomb , , the band and the ’love-child of the 90s and your latest fling’ as per its Facebook page ._Firstbiz_spoke to its frontman Keegan Pereira, creative controller with Grey Digital, on his relationship with music, with ‘Laxmi’ and with a career in advertising.

Read excerpts below:

How did your journey as a vocalist begin, and how did it culminate into ‘Laxmi Bomb’?

My ‘journey’ started off with me idolizing glamour rock models/pop-stars of the late 80’s. After that, I moved into participating in mime-beat competitions. Then came an all-boy choir. I then graduated into singing along with rockers at Rang Bhavan and soon after, a band named Aftertaste was formed. And finally Laxmi.

That wasn’t a very portfolio worthy answer, was it?

Tell us more about Laxmi Bomb - about the name, the band members, the kind of music you play, your first break as a band…

Levin (Mendes, also a drummer with Bombay Bassment) knew he had a sound - a particular vibe with a strict local flavour. It had a certain quirk to it, a school-boy infatuation so to speak. The music had a sense of mischief that could be pulled by ‘first-benchers’; it had to straddle both these sentiments. And that’s where she came in.

Laxmi comes from a humble background. Her DNA is represented through her name - a ’true old-school romantic’ who still believes in the message and the melody,sansthe make-up. As for the ‘Bomb’ bit; that’s just her wicked little wild side.

Levin is the man responsible for what we’ve come to term as his ’love-child’. He shed light on ‘Laxmi’ to me in April 2013 after devoting endless ‘man-hours’ into developing, shaping and honing her sonic identity. Over the next five months and countless ‘sessions’ of creation and combustion, Laxmi Bomb, the love-child, was finally rendered with a voice, vision and a visual.

Later that year, Joaquim Fernandes (keys and samples) and Ruell Barretto (bass) added to her company and Laxmi was complete!

Who are your biggest musical influences?

In no particular order: Van Halen. Guns N Roses. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Metallica. System of a Down. Silverchair. Muse. Apache Indian. Kriss Kross. TLC. Madonna. Smashmouth. Vanilla Ice. Peter Gabriel. Bob Dylan. Radiohead. Portishead. Black Sabbath. Led Zeppelin. Alt-J. The Arctic Monkeys. Fear Factory. Coal Chamber. Staind. Cold. Counting Crows. Stone Temple Pilots. Soko. R.E.M. Dorian Concept. Isbells. Fiona Apple. Alanis Morisette. Baths. SBTRKT. Daft Punk. Aluna George. TOSCA. The XX. Fink. Hot Chip. Tracy Chapman. Beastie Boys. Gorillaz…I don’t know…so many less, so much more.

Watch ‘Major Major’, Laxmi Bomb’s first music video

What do you enjoy most about being a vocalist? What would you be if not a singer?

I enjoy that there is something I do without thinking about its monetary value. It’s just the plain simple joy of opening out and “being free”.

There is no real reason for me being a vocalist to exist, but I enjoy the fact that it does. It wouldn’t take much for the world to give our music up, but I’d give my world for it. It’s that simple pleasure that is hard to earn. And that’s the trick about being a singer or a painter or someone in theatre. The simple kick of it all, minus the kickback. If not a vocalist, I’d be a patient listener.

Could you share some fun anecdotes from your gigs?

You could take a look at L.O.L. (Life of Laxmi), there are quite a few funny incidents that we’ve documented through the strips.

How do you manage to keep a balance between work and life, what with crazy advertising deadlines and jam schedules?

I don’t manage. I never make it on time for the scheduled jams, I’m never able to respond quickly on mail due to another “priority”. There’s always the issue of outstation gigs having to be pre-planned and blocked at the earliest. There’s always the issue of passion versus sustenance. And to top it all, one can never lie. These days, everything is pretty transparent. So you cannot tell your boss you’re sick at home while you’re actually cranking it hard on a social stage.

So the best that one can do when there is no time? Make time!

Do you ever want to quit your job and do this fulltime?

If the job quits me, I will have no choice.

Has being a vocalist made you a different person? How?

I’ve been the same person. I only keep becoming a different vocalist.

Liked ‘Life beyondadvertising’? Read about the people featured previously, here.

Kartik Iyer

Rahul Jauhari

Akash Das

Agnisha Ghosh

Hari Chakyar