KOCHI: Meet the German Rockband ‘Fire on Dawson'. With their awesome guitar tracks and explicit lyrics, the band has made it as one of the few international rock bands with an Indian member - Ankur Batra from New Delhi. Coupled with the vocals and the lyrics from Ankur, ‘Fire on Dawson’ has reached the forefront of their genre in the German music scene. The band was in India recently for their live performance. Formed in 2006, ‘Fire on Dawson’ initially started their journey as an experimental funk metal project. Over time it developed into a unique alternative/progressive rock. They like to call themselves ‘Prognative’. “We try not to categorise our music into specific existing genres, since it puts too much pressure on one’s creative ability and restricts artistic freedom. That’s why we coined the term ‘Prognative,’ to allow us the space to explore the whole spectrum of alternative/progressive rock,” Ankur told Express. Like every band, they express their thoughts through music, be it in a basement somewhere or in front of thousands. The current line-up consists of founder and bassist Martin Sonntag, guitarist Markus Stricker and of course, Ankur as vocalist.Ankur says the going is always tough as a musician. There are obstacles throughout one’s career, be it financial, emotional or personal. But at the end of the day if you love what you do, it’s all worth it, he feels. “As you develop as people and musicians, your inspirations change too. You don’t look up to the same people now that you did at 13. You progress with age. But if I had to name one vocalist that I admire, it would have to be Freddie Mercury.”At present they are working on their second studio album, which is expected to release end of this year. They also plan to tour India in January/February 2012. Martin Sonntag and Moritz Lietzenmayer, who were studying at the University of Karlsruhe at the time, decided to start a band in October 2005. They recruited German guitarist Nicolas Morales Ocampo and called themselves ‘Band Karlsruhe’. The initial direction of the band went towards funk rock/funk metal, owing to Nicolas being heavily influenced by South American music. “It wasn’t something serious back then, just an excuse for the three young musicians to hang out and play some music,” says Ankur. After a while, the trio decided to include a singer to the line-up and held auditions for a few months without much success. Finally, Ankur, then a mechanical engineering student at the University, was called up for an audition and the 18-year-old managed to impress the band with his vocal skills. “In early 2006, my neighbour brought home an advert that a band was looking for a singer. So I called the guys and we met up. Since I was more from a Grunge background, the new material we began writing was generally heavier in sound. That was in essence the absolute beginning of what ‘Fire on Dawson’ is today,” avers Ankur. Over the last four-five years, the band met a lot of changes. Markus Stricker, an old schoolmate of Martin, joined the band in 2007 after the original guitarist moved to Berlin. They released their album followed by a German tour. “After the tour, we started planning for the winter, which is when we decided that we wanted to come to India. Ole Steinhoefel took up drumming duties for our three-month India tour and is currently serving as our permanent drummer,” he said.When asked about the name of the band, Markus says “It comes from a restaurant in Dublin, Ireland, which is called Fire and it’s on Dawson Street.”Their album ‘Prognative’ with 13 songs quickly climbed the myspace progressive rock charts in Germany, peaking at number 2 in the second week after its release. The band has consistently maintained its ‘top 10’ status in the charts ever since. A big moment in every band’s career is its first show. The first accomplishment on a bigger scale was when their song ‘End of May’ was selected by Hewlett-Packard (HP) to promote their latest brand of personal computers in 2007. 40,000 copies of the compilation CD were distributed. “Last year I was also lucky enough to share the stage with the famous Finnish Metal Band ‘Apocalyptica’ after we were chosen to be ‘Myspace Featured Artists’ from the thousands of applicants. The recent Indian tour in Chandigarh was a very exciting one, where 5,000 screaming fans welcomed us,” Ankur says.
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