mind (n.) that which thinks, perceives, feels, wills, etc.; seat or subject of consciousness. snare (n.) anything dangerous, risky etc. that tempts or attracts; thing by which a person is entangled; trap. MyndSnare is : KP on guitars and vocals, Narayan on bass, Yasmin Claire on drums. MyndSnare plays progressive thrash / death metal, with technical overtones. MyndSnare: A brief history The mind of KP first decided to try snaring others after he’d released the ‘MyndSnare 1’ demo (3 compositions, one cover) at the Mumbai DeathFest 2000 after an intense recording spree the week before; it met with good reviews and sold out (well, almost 2 CDs remained, out of 100) at the venue. Looking at the response and the lack of live playing capabilities as we all know, you can’t bang your head to a pulp listening to a mere disc of mylar, it insults you he started sniffing down people who could play the remainder instruments, and thought of themselves as the intellectual kind. MyndSnare, you know half the name’s the mind! Anyway, after staccato bursts of distortion with various guys which didn’t work, Yasmin was jokingly asked to join. She agreed, equally cheerfully. And as you can see, the joke is still very much alive Promptly, the song Paranoid was dusted off, polished, a tooth was checked for stray food in the polished gleam, and the song was used for the umpteenth time for an audition of a bandmember. But no joke is complete without a bassist So the two-thirds of the nonexistent whole trooped around gulping huge quantities of barley water until a bassist bobbed up Sam. After snaring his mind, MyndSnare played a few shows, like BIT (Bangalore), IIT Mumbai, NLS (Bangalore), etc., and Sam decided to un-snare himself and departed to grow heavier in Intestinal Butchery. He also put on weight. KP and Yas retreated to the confines of their beer bellies, and when the collective mind finally woke up they found that they had another bassist in a former bandmember of KP’s, from a long lost era Visahan. Only problem was, he lived in Mars. Well, close Virudhunagar. He was taken in, and brought down to earth and MyndSnare departed to play at the DeathFest 2002 soon after. And in August the same year they played the Independence Rock XVII festival in Mumbai to rave reviews. Then came a huge hiatus when KP decided he didn’t want to be a suffering rock star (?!) anymore, so departed to the land of opportunity Mumbai to start work as an automotive journalist, while Yas became a music journalist. Visahan departed back to Mars to study further. One of the Mynds finally got bored with pistons, and agreed when a plan to Dominate the DeathFest 2003 was suggested by the other Mynd and after jamming a record five days (3 in Bangalore and 2 in Mumbai), and taking in Narayan (from Clockwork Orange, Bangalore), the show was played with zest. And MyndSnare was resurrected. With the recording of a three-song demo ‘A Preliminary Quest’, the band finally put their sounds to disc, and have received an extremely good response from those of the audience who have been waiting to hear something played under controlled conditions, without the messy live audio systems playing havoc with the music. The messy live audio systems were played havoc with, too, though with MyndSnare capturing the third place at IIT Delhi in September, out of 65 bands from all over India, along with an almost clean sweep of the individual prizes, namely best guitarist and drummer. The Strawberry Fields fest at NLS, Bangalore saw them coming second out of 45 bands, and Yasmin was adjudged best drummer again. And then, MyndSnare’s ‘metal’ was displayed to good effect at IIM Bangalore early this year, where they bagged the First place, picking up Best Rhythm Guitarist and yet another Best Drummer as afterthoughts. And then there was R.A.I.T. Mumbai, where MyndSnare managed another top slot, with another Best Drummer and an all new Best Vocalist! In addition to the various awards and prizes won by the band, MyndSnare has also been featured on a compilation entitled ‘DEEPER UNDERGROUND #2,’ released by Sonnengott Music, Indonesia, which contains tracks by various bands from Singapore, USA and India. Reviewers and critics haven’t been far behind, and a review of ‘A Preliminary Quest’ is featured on The Metal Gospel website, an interview and review is up on the TrendCrusherZine website, as well as a couple more underground sites, in addition to India’s own InfinityMag webzine, MetalIndia webzine and Gigpad.com. With the recording of a three-song demo ‘A Preliminary Quest,’ the band finally put their sounds to disc, and have received an extremely good response from those of the audience who have been waiting to hear something played under controlled conditions, without the messy live audio systems playing havoc with the music. A full-length album is slated for recording and release by the end of this year (2004). MyndSnare is on a roll, and will hopefully continue to be so, irrespective of any beefs they might have with circumstances. Right now, shows lined up include a whole bunch of competitions all over India, and a couple of pro gigs in Bangalore. With upheavals being the norm in the Indian music scene, there are bound to be more, but the Mynds are Snared as of now, and will keep the metal faith alive. As they say, the show must go on. ‘They’ are also very cruel and unreceptive to practicalities. MyndSnare: Achievements Played the Independence Rock XVII in 2002 in Mumbai Won 3rd place out of 60 bands in IIT Delhi’s national competition, along with best drummer and best guitarist Won 2nd place out of 45 bands in National Law School’s Strawberry Fields competition in Bangalore, along with best drummer Won 1st place in IIM Bangalore’s competition, along with best rhythm guitarist and best drummer Won 1st place out of 45 bands in R.A.I.T. Mumbai’s national competition, along with best drummer and best vocalist Other shows played include the IIT at Mumbai, N.S.I.T. and the Delhi College of Engineering at Delhi, and various shows in pubs in Mumbai and Pune, such as the Razzberry Rhinoceros and Cyclone respectively. Upcoming shows include the June Rock Out in Chennai, an annual, month-long gathering of the top rock bands in the country, apart from other shows in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Bombay. Over 350 copies of the demo ‘A Preliminary Quest’ have been sold with further on order. “Layers of Hypocrisy” from ‘A Preliminary Quest’ is featured on a compilation entitled Deeper Underground #2 from Sonnengott Music, Indonesia, featuring other bands from India, the US and Singapore. For details, visit http://www.sgmdf.cjb.net/ Yasmin, the drummer, has been featured in quite a few magazines in India, such as the Rock Street Journal, RAVE, Business Standard, a couple of daily newspapers etc., not to mention an appearance on national TV (Star World) Demo reviews and interviews of the band can be found on the following websites: o TrendCrusher Zine: http://trendcrusher.bravepages.com o Metal Vault Webzine: http://www.metaltronic.com/mv/main.html o Heavy Metal Universe: http://www.heavymetaluniverse.com/home.php o Infinity Mag: http://www.infinitymag.com/myndsnare.htm o GigPad.Com: http://www.gigpad.com/index.php?module=prodreviews&func=showcontent&id=78 o Metal Terus E-Zine: in http://www.metalterus.com (go to webzine album review) Live gig reviews and features can be found at these links: o Infinity Mag: http://www.infinitymag.com/gigrev.htm o http://www.infinitymag.com/myndsnarecover.htm