Band Lineup:

Gaurav

Anant

Rishabh

Abhishek

Anindo

Abhishek

Ashwin

Always a strange phenomenon, but the aftermath of a storm of any proportion, is one big lull. From the month of July in the year 2000, to their moment of glory at GIR 2003, the members of Friday The 13th were involved in a series of activities starting off from their first gig at the MusicWorld store on the 15th of September 2000 to travelling all over the country trying to make their presence felt at college festivals. But now that they have the winners’ booty of GIR, a trip to the US for a series of concerts, tucked in their collective back pocket, the members of Friday are, would you believe it, going back to college. “Yeah, we’ve not been practicing as a band because a couple of guys have their college exams,” says Friday frontman Gaurav with a chuckle. “So we are all taking a break from the band. But that does not mean that we are taking a break from the music. All of us are practicing individually as much as our schedules permit and we are all working on our songs for an EP that we intend releasing this year. We do not know which songs will make it to the EP but ‘Fears Left Behind’ and ‘A New Beginning’ will definitely be there.”

The rush of momentum for the Delhi-based Friday in recent months and the subsequent hiatus, have arranged themselves like some preordained pieces of a chronological sequence. Inspite of bagging the runners-up spot at IIT-Kanpur just two days after their first gig and then picking up trophies for Best Guitarist, Best Drummer and Best Original Composition at BITS-Pilani [2000, 2001 and 2002] and Gaurav being adjudged Best Vocalist at IIT-Delhi in 2001, Friday always seemed to miss the bull’s eye by the faintest of a fraction. But their aim was true when it mattered the most. After going through a supremely tight set, there was magic in the air when Shawn Lane announced ”...And the winner is Friday The 13th, the Freddy Krueger band…” The band had got it right, absolutely right.

Now what all of this means is that Friday will have to work like demons for their impending trip to the US because no matter how good they are, the band will have to get better seeing as how the American audiences don’t take anything less than a stellar performance quite seriously. That means endless days of unending labour and thye band will get down to it in due time. But for the moment, Friday The 13th are taking a break.