Student band on top 10 music video list in India

High school nostalgia — all college students are hit with it at some point, and Steinhardt junior Shreyans Jha is no different.

Jha was watching old videos of his high school band, Null Friction, from India and rather than simply dismissing the memories, Jha decided to act on them.

Two years later, Null Friction had produced an album and had a top 10 music video in India.
Their journey, however, was a long one.

Jha revived the band in March 2008 after meeting with his bass player Abhishek Singhal. The two then reunited with their third member, drummer Ansh Sanyal, in Ottowa, Canada.
But the band still had many obstacles to overcome.

All of the members lived miles apart. The only way they could write songs was to send e-mails to each other of guitar licks, drum grooves and recordings they had come up with. But meeting up briefly in Ottawa was enough to motivate the trio. By the time Jha, Singhal and Sanyal saw each other again in Mumbai in June 2009, they had already been writing music for a year.

"We just had this huge hard disc filled with recordings," Jha said.

The three discussed going on a tour in India and releasing their debut album.

According to Jha, their earlier performances were fraught with mishaps.

After the band's first show the boys caught the 6 a.m. train to their next venue only to realize hours later with horror that they had forgotten the bass and guitar.

"We were just really nervous and stupid back then," Jha said. "Because we didn't, and still don't, have a manager or record label, all the booking, securing deals and marketing are left to us. It took a while for us to learn to pick that up."

They started scouring newspapers for sponsors and after meeting as many as 100 people in two days, they finally secured one.

"In India, it's all about Bollywood," Jha said. "Nobody gives two shits about rock music. Especially if it's in English."

But when Null Friction's self-made music video for their single "Madras" was released in October 2009 on YouTube, the band reached No. 9 on the list of Top 10 Most Watched Musicians in India.

Last month, Null Friction performed for the first time in New York at Sullivan Hall. It was also the first time they had seen each other since their July 2009 tour in India.

CAS freshman Vishrut Kanoria attended the concert and enjoyed the show.

"I must say that I loved it," Kanoria said. "The best part is that they were able to include the crowd in their act, so it didn't even seem like they were singing songs that nobody had ever heard before."

According to Sanyal, another tour is in the works and the three hope to release their second album sometime in 2011.

Null Friction will be performing at Sullivan Hall on March 17 at 10 p.m. Go to myspace.com/nullfiction for more information.