Suparn Verma
I just wanna say 'Thank you' to my girlfriend Kamal Sidhu,"
the rockstar-cum-star Veejay drawls. "She is more than fifty
per cent of this album, and I hope that she will say yes when
I ask her to marry me."
Which, for me, is a first - I go to interview Danny McGill, and
end up acting as some kind of unofficial conduit for a proposal
of marriage from one star VJ to another?
Or rather, not VJ actually, for McGill was here in the Bombay
office of MTV in his other avtaar, that of lead vocalist
of the underground band Power Onions.
Danny had been MTV's star VJ, later performing the same office
for Channel [V], before a much-publicised falling out led to his
vanishing from the small screen for almost a year. "I'm back,"
he says through a deep drag on the omnipresent cigarette, referring
to his resurfacing with the grunge album Mother Oblivion.
McGill obviously has a lot on his mind that he wants to talk about,
and despite his romantic opener, we find ourselves shifting gears
and talking of the MTV philosophy and its presumed impact on the
audience, first crack out of the box. "There is a lot less
depth in the MTV philosophy than is being made out," he says.
"Everybody thinks that we are trying to influence the youth,
but in my opinion we are trying to give them quality music. We
are not a social-issue channel. We are here to make the youth
music channel a global unit - music to unite…"
So why, since he was the hub around whom at one time the channel
revolved, did he take a break from doing what he obviously believes
in? "I needed to get away from being a presenter, to
be totally unrecognizable so that people would give my talent
a chance, and not judge on the basis of my image. After leaving
Channel [V], I went to the US because I didn't want any favors
from anybody, and raised the money to do the album on my own -
I guess that is why the album is so hard-hitting."
And, to quote the cliché, behind every man's success
there is a woman - Kamal Sidhu [ left ] in this instance? McGill smiles.
And nods.
We walk towards the studio, and on the way his eloquent hand-gestures
remind me of something I had read, about his martial arts training.
"I trained in martial arts for about 13 years," he recalls.
"It is all about self defense, and self discipline . I learned
this very early in life when, as a kid I decided to show off
by picking a fight with this guy in my class . The next day the
Sensei` called me and asked me if I was showing off , he asked
me to strike a defense pose and guard myself and then hit me in
the solar plexus. I was writhing in pain for an hour after that,
but I had learned my lesson."
Showing me the eight "depth points" he had on the back
of his palms, he continues, "Actually, there are 12 but when
I was receiving them I broke my concentration by flinching."
He then struck a pose and, holding it, said, "This was how
you were supposed to stand, for an hour a day."
Totally lost with the arcane mysteries of martial arts, I gently
steer the conversation back into safer realms - to wit, music.
"I'm really fond of mr president, right down
from the subject matter to the music. It's a deep song, and its
time signature has five changes in it. It is a very complex thing
to carry off, that structure - luckily we succeeded, and it sounds
nice. Lies is another song that means much to me, it has
to do with my experiences and with quitting Channel [V] . My explanation
is I never quit MTV, and will never return to Channel [V]."
While we were talking about the album that has brought Danny back
into the limelight, studio factotums summoned him for some urgent
work - so we parted, setting up a fresh date for the next day.
And surprise, surprise - when I land up in his room to pick up
the conversational threads, I find him accompanied by his lady
love, Kamal Sidhu, dressed in navy blue T-shirt and blue jeans
and looking drop-dead gorgeous.
Ask me a question, he says once we settle down with mugs of beer
and peanuts, so I pop the one that has been on my mind for a while
- why name his group Power Onions?
"Actually," he says, "we are a strictly underground
group - only a select few like us are part of the underground
movement. We are trying to grow in Asia. And since we are an underground
band we wanted to name it after something that grows undergroup
- so, Onions…" He smiles.
So how does he create his songs? "Usually I write
the song first," he explains. "Sometimes I get the sound
and work around it . I usually lie down at night and I have whole
song written down and the music arranged by next morning. When
I get an idea at night, instead of sleeping over it I sit up and
formulate it, then call up the band in the middle of the night
and we go to the studios and record it."
Danny will, he reveals, do a promo tour under the umbrella of
the Indian Association of Independent Artists - an outfit that
has besides himself, Dinshaw Sanjana and Kamal Sidhu as partners.
"We formed the IAIA because we wanted our own independent
outfit, we were tired of being dictated to."
The IAIA, Danny says, will include painters, writers, actors..
the works. "We want to create a community and to create art.
Our outfit is supported by a foundation called Independents
Quest for Knowledge, we plan to have an alternative music
tour called Feed Your Mind.
The show will last, as planned, for 18 hours and is scheduled
to be held in 15 Indian cities including Nagaland, Goa, Bombay,
Bangalore… "Our aim is to bring together previously
unknown voices, and give them a hearing. The show will have all
kinds of bands that are not part of the mainstream and are deemed
to be not commercially viable. And all the proceeds from the concert
will go to youth centers and slums," Danny says, adding that
the line up will have bands and Indian performers ranging from
Parikrama, Orange Street and Millennium on down. "We will
also have a 70 year old Indian artist from New York, Markand Thaker,
coming down to perform."
The idea, Danny says, is to create a sort of renaissance atmosphere.
"We want to create an alternative society of beautiful people."
The rebel with a musical cause, I discover, is also a painter
with quite a nifty touch with the brush - the cover of his album
has been created by him, and shows a mother holding a baby. "I
saw a program about stillborn babies being brought up Christian,
the whole concept is that your soul is damned. The painting is
the depiction of serenity, of never having to do a good or bad
thing , it is the serenity of an angel coupled with eyes not so
serene," explains Danny.
And what is his next album going to be about? "We
want to expand - not make our statements so much as create a grunge
band . I want to deal with softer music and maybe a love song,
we wanna experiment. We don't want to be classified as a 16-18
all male band , we want to grow musically. We will always be a
rock band, a fusion hybrid," comes the response.
Kamal Sidhu has been quietly sipping beer and nibbling peanuts
all this time, refusing all attempts to draw her into the conversation
by saying that she just wants to sit there and "Hear you
being interviewed!"
So, ripe for some mischief, I ask Danny whether he has asked her
yet - you know, popped the question.
Kamal looks up with a smile. "Yes, he has asked me,"
she grins. "We will be getting married very soon, we plan
to have a duo public-personality marriage."
"Sooner rather than later," Kamal chips in.
"We also plan to start a fashion line called, natch, Kamal,"
adds Danny, leaning over to kiss his lady love.
Noticing that the mood had turned to the romantic, I decide to
test the poet in Danny McGill. Handing him pen and paper, I challenge:
"Okay, since you say she is your inspiration - write a poem
for her. Right now!"
Danny accepts the challenge, and the paper. And with barely a
pause for thought, this is what he came up with:
All of the people pass by each day,
I just can't see their faces ,
All of the reasons we can't learn to fly.
We're just stuck here in our places.
They say beauty is skin deep.
I've seen deep down in your soul
The thing I'm really trying to say
is there ain't no way ,
I'm ever gonna go away...............
Around that point, I figured that there was some truth to the
old cliché, about two being company and a third, even if
that third is a journo, being superfluous in the romantic scheme
of things. And so, exit, leaving Danny and Kamal to continue their
soulful explorations…
Photographs : Jewella Miranda
