Interview with Sifar

Q. When was the first time you realized you wanted to make music? How did you realize the dream of starting a band?
A. Amit: I wanted to make music since I was 16-17 year old. I didn’t actually start making music until I was 20, though. The dream of starting a band was realized a couple of times before it happened again with Sifar in 2008.

Anshul: Dreaming to make music since my college days. About 10 years ago. Have been starting bands for last 14 years.

Deepak: I was interested in music and esp drums ever since school, but never thought of starting a band. I was lucky that I met Amit, and Anshul sir during my first year of college. They had a clear vision of what they wanted to do and achieve in terms of music. i was really excited to be a part of this as this was something VERY different from what other people around me from the “music scene” were doing.

Q. When and where was Sifar’s first live performance? What songs did you play, and how did it go?
A. Deepak: It was at IIT roorkee. We were very nervous esp ME, because with sifar, the onstage setup was a bit different and very new to all of us. We played only our songs and people there actually knew them and were singing along which was truly awesome.

Nikhil: Sifar's first performance was at IIT Roorkee last year (Oct'10). We played our own songs. It went pretty well. Some section of the crowd was singing along. They already knew our songs!

Q. What exactly was on your minds when you started work on your first album?
A. Amit: When we started thinking of an album, the songwriting was already done on most of the songs. So the real challenge was to turn them into the best sounding songs that we could while being completely true and honest to the songs.

Anshul: Wanted to make songs which truly reflected our state of mind in barest honesty. Nothing much else really.

Q. Where do you see yourself as a band in the next five years?
A. Amit: We would have probably recorded 3 more albums in next five years. Maybe more. One of the things that we really would want to achieve in next few years would be to be able to perform for our fans everywhere in the world. It’s a really daunting task, but we’d love to achieve something like that.

Q. Other than being Sifar’s members, who are you people in your individual lives?
A. Deepak: Balancing 2 professions is not easy at all, but for the time being, a man’s gotta do what a man’ gotta do! I work with Mercedes Benz T&T motors. I take care of marketing in the delhi/ncr region. I wish to pursue my higher studies very soon.

Nikhil: I am an Architect during the day.

Anshul: I am an entrepreneur currently.

Amit: I am a freelance Sound Engineer/ Music Producer also. And Yapang works at a KPO.

Q. Your band has been nominated in four categories for Indiego Music Awards. How does it feel, and how important is it for you guys to win these awards?
A. Amit: It feels great, of course! Awards and Nominations are important as they help you reach out not only to new fans, but also to many Industry folks. It’s a validation from the Industry. And for a relatively new band like us, that’s pretty awesome!

Deepak: We feel truly humbled by this kind of recognition and although it would be amazing if we were to win, just the fact that there are people constantly supporting us is more than what we could ever ask for.

Anshul: If we win this, this will be the first thing we ever won at anything – especially in music. So, it is going to be a supremely unique experience.