Interview with ‘Pip of the Fourth Mother’

Their Myspace page may not say much about the band, but with a unique band name like  ’Pip of the Fourth Mother‘ or  PoT-FM as fans would love to call them, Pip Of the Fourth Mother is a immensley talented alternative/Pop Punk band from Shillong, India. We had a chance to catch up with the  band frontman Jason Manners for this brief interview

When I first heard the band name I wasn’t sure if I was hearing it right , how did you guys come up with a name like that?

IRMP3: Hi Jason, Thanks for the interview. When I first heard the band name I wasn’t sure if I was hearing it right , how did you guys come up with a  unique name like that?
JASON : Pip of the Fourth Mother is a solo project initially. It was a side project while I was drumming for some other bands. I wanted a name that was unique and something that sounded like something that came straight out of a literature character because I like poetry. So, “pip” means troublemaker and “fourth mother” implies to my mom who is fourth in her family. I was quite a troublemaker at home .

IRMP3: Please introduce current band line up
JASON : The current lineup is hanging by a thread.

Jason Manners –guitar/vocals

Ben Ryngksai – Drums

Steven Bareh – Ex bassist

IRMP3: Tell us How and when Pot-FM was formed and How do you guys categorize Pot-FM music?
JASON: It was a solo project until june 2009 when I got a gig offer and that was when I declared it to be a band. In June 2009 I met my music buddies Steven and Ben. It was easy for Steven and Ben to practice the songs because I have already recorded them. Recently, Steven left to take up a job in Delhi and im left with the drummer Ben to figure out the lineup. A jam room is coming up in our basement and we will be auditioning some people for the bass and additional guitar jobs.

IRMP3: Your hit single ‘Shillong‘ has been creating quite a buzz, tell us about the song
JASON : The idea of coming up with a  nostalgic song struck me just before my semester exams last year. I got a lot of phone calls from friends and relatives. They wished me well for my exams and it was nearing my vacations and really wanted to write a song about my hometown. I wrote “Shillong” (Listen) when I got back home for the winter vacations and recorded it in my room. The mix wasn’t proper but I uploaded it in myspace anyway. It got a lot of hits from various listener profiles and I got two offers from two different labels that want to feature it in their CD compilations as a single. I took the one that was more promising and more apt to the genre.

It’s a CD entitled “Vs. the World” and it’s a production of Quickstar LLC. A band I liked ie: “Dropout Year” featured in the same CD last year so it got more interesting. I did a little bit of polishing on the mix and sent it to them.

It created quite a buzz back home as well and everyone who heard it seemed to like it. Since it was a lil bit patriotic I decided to give it away as a promo track and fortunately enough TNT magazine was coming up with a CD called “The Great eastern Rock vol 1” , I got in touch with them and the track was accepted as song number “12”.(last song).

It has become a signature song for us and were proud of it.

IRMP3:  Shillong is home to some of the Biggest Indian bands like Soulmate, The Great Society to name a few, could you describe the current rock scene in Shillong to our readers?
JASON: Yes we do have a lot of music talent here but it cannot be implied to all because with music talent, we need inspiration and creativity. That is what is lacking in most of the local bands in shillong. Apart from that we do not have regular gigs and most of the gigs we do have pose a lot of problems on the organizing/management side. Restolounges are coming up here and there but they are yet to come up with promotional concepts.

Very few bands are coming out with original material. And being an amateur musician myself, I think that is unpardonable. I can understand bands playing few covers live, but there’s just no excuse for not composing Your own songs n more importantly Recording them n put it down to tape or CD rather……this is the age of Doing it Yourself…

Looking at the current situation of the scene, I feel we should start small. Have bands play garage gigs, birthday parties, mostly “do it yourself” gigs. If the people do have to ape the west, then do so by learning from them on how to organize gigs.

Another drawback about the Shillong scene is that people are not really connected. The Internet has yet to make its impact in every house…Once that is done, half the problems are solved..

IRMP3: How often you guys rehearse? And what you guys do when you are not plugged in?
JASON: We don’t rehearse much but we do try to practice individually at home at free will.

When were not plugged in, we hangout a lot. Ben has college to attend and Im working as a programmer at NIC shillong.

IRMP3: What is the goal ahead of Pot-FM , are there any challenges facing the band right now?
JASON : Our goal is to come out with good/catchy/sing along music that would adhere to the music listening masses. You may say its commercial but we like commercial music and we have been influenced by commercial music the likes of The Offspring, Jimmy Eat World, The Beatles, NOFX,MXPX , Pennywise, Social Distortion, Papa Roach. We would really love to go international and we do look at it as a possibility because our music implies to everyone everywhere.

One problem  we are facing as of now is that we are still working on setting up a jam room so that we can rehearse and become tight. That will be taken care of soon I hope and another problem is that we are not involved with any Promotion agency with regard to live performances.

IRMP3:  Would you like to thank some one for the ‘emotional or financial support?
JASON : Well. I have been getting a lot of advice from my dad and brothers. So id like to thank my dad and my brothers.  A lot of my friends have really helped out in criticizing my music.. so thank you guys. Your constructive critique is much appreciated.

IRMP3:  And the message to Pot-FM fans is …
JASON : Everything u do should make u happy, it’s really that simple, otherwise why are u doing it?