Girish and The Chronicles

Girish and The Chronicles (commonly abbreviated as GATC) is an Indian Hard rock/Melodic Rock/Heavy Metal band from Gangtok, Sikkim, formed in 2009, by Vocalist Girish Pradhan. They have been based out of Bengaluru, Karnataka, since 2013, after their return from Hong Kong (2012 - 2013).[3][4]

Girish And The Chronicles(GATC)
Also known asGATC
OriginGangtok, Sikkim, India
GenresHard rock, heavy metal, Melodic Rock
Years active2009–present
LabelsUniversal Music India, Lions Pride Music (Denmark)
Members
  • Girish Pradhan
  • Suraz Karki
  • Yogesh Pradhan
  • Nagen Mongranti
  • Krishh Datta
Past members
  • Mishael Jiwandan Pradhan
  • Annutri Kaushik
  • Noel Lepcha[1][2]

History

The line up started in 2006 with Guitarist Suraz Karki and Girish Pradhan. Nagen Sarki, a drummer who was working with the band Still Waters, joined the line-up, on Suraz’s recommendation. The guitarist’s long time friend Vishal Pradhan also joined the band as the bass player.

Prior to this, Girish was a part of a band named Anarchy, from Gangtok, of which his brother Yogesh Pradhan was the drummer. He later became the bassist and producer of GATC. Suraz, Nagen and Vishal collectively were also a part of a band named Mukti, in the district of Namchi, in Sikkim. The new group formed decided to keep the name Mukti. They started playing small gigs in Gangtok and Darjeeling.

From 2007 to 2009, the line up was broken. In April 2008, Girish temporarily moved back to Gangtok and reunited with Suraz to form a line up to take part in a local band competition. The group was named “Revolving Barrel”, with drummer Ronald Pradhan and bassist Noel Lepcha.

The later half of 2008 saw Pradhan travel to Nepal, Kathmandu. Ronald had moved to the city and suggested that they reform Revolving Barrel there. Joined by bassist Lokesh Thapa (Gingerfeet/Still waters) and an old time friend of Ronald, Jatin Pradhan on the guitars, Revolving Barrel was now based out of Kathmandu. Back in Gangtok, Suraz and Nagen joined/formed “A.live!”. A.Live went on to win the Mangan Rock Fest in the district of Mangan, Sikkim, and the line up of Revolving Barrel came to an end.

Girish returned to Gangtok in the later half of 2009 where Yogesh had come too. As the two brothers met, Yogesh suggested that they record a single original. His YouTube channel, then named “Girish Pradhan”, could be used as a platform to promote it. They started working on a song which Girish had been working on during his stay in Nepal. It was named, ”Angel”. It was completed in autumn 2009 and was first released by the magazine T.N.T (The Northeast Times) in their seasonal CD release, Great Eastern Rock Volume II[5]. The brothers started performing acoustic sets in Cafe Live and Loud. However, Yogesh had to leave to complete his course. Girish started doing solo unplugged sessions in the pub. Soon, Noel and Nagen, who no longer worked with “A.live!”, joined on bass and drums. Girish took up the role of a vocalist and a lead guitarist. The YouTube channel, the solo single, “Angel” and Cafe Live and Loud had turned the singer’s name into a small brand of its own. The line-up was finally named Girish and The Chronicles, with Yogesh acting as the producer for the band. The band had weekly performances at Cafe Live and Loud and did a debut open concert with the spastic society on Friday the 13 October 2009, sharing the stage with Lou Majaw.

The band was invited to participate in various competitions and went on to headline small college fests. The first competition they took part in was Alcheringa, Rock o Phoenix, annually held at IIT Guwahati. They were temporarily joined by violinist/keyboardist Mischael Jiwandan Pradhan, a college mate of Girish. Soon in the weeks that followed, participating in such competitions because a regular routine for the band from January till April. Parts of Assam, West Bengal and other parts of the country were covered. In April, the band won auditions to a music awards festival named “Suncane Skale”, to be held in Montenegro. The band recorded an original single which was to be complied in the festival’s CD release. The tracks were sent to Yogesh for drums/keyboards and arrangement. The lyrics was written in collaboration with an old friend of Girish, Mausami Khushbu Rai. The song was named “Angel’s Angel” and later changed to “Yesteryears”. They travelled to Montenegro, where the band was awarded first runners up to the title of “Summer song”. The song was played in European radio. On returning to Delhi, the band was covered by various TV channels such as Aaj Tak and CNN IBN along with printed media like The Telegraph[6]. They were also invited to the Sikkim Governor’s office and The Chief Minister’s office of Sikkim for receiving congratulations. Later the same year, the band was empaneled in the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

In 2011, the band was invited for a performance at the Heritage academy, Kolkata when Noel decided to leave the band. They called Yogesh, who was originally a drummer-turned-guitarist to fill in for the bass. While the YouTube channel was doing a good job of marketing the band, it was around September when an event organising company Ojone - O3 events led by entrepreneur Ujjwal Mukhia, invited the band to perform at the Hard Rock Cafe Bangalore. The band did a series of small shows around the city. During this time an earthquake struck Sikkim. The band still in Bengaluru, worried for their families, came up with the song “A New Beginning”. In two days, the song was recorded at Sound Glitz Studio, and released. Girish also participated in the Yamaha Asian Beat national Finals with his other project Silver Tears during this time, where he won the best vocalist award.[7] The band got a chance to participate in the finals of the same competition on an international level, held at Seoul, South Korea.[8] At around the same time, Girish was offered a contract in the clubs of Hong Kong as a vocalist. Back in Gangtok, it was decided that the band would take in Abhishek Lemo Gurung (Still Waters/Gingerfeet) as their temporary vocalist. They decided to take part in the Hornbill Festival held at Nagaland, where they were runners up, with Suraz named best guitarist and Abhishek best vocalist. In their return to Gangtok, they formed a blues trio and were performing regular gigs in the town.

2012 saw the frontman of the band spending a few months in various clubs of Hong Kong as a singer. One club in particular was named Escape, located in the streets of Wanchai . After a few months of working. He successfully made a deal with the club owners for bringing GATC to Hong Kong for a small tour and then join the clubs under contract for a year. After a year long stay the band finally decided on going back home and compile an album.

After returning to India, Pradhan started with a solo performance at the Punjab Engineering College Fest. In early 2013, the band stayed in Gangtok for three months (January-March), where the album was completed. It was backed up by the editor of TNT magazine Pradyot Manikya. Although the album was complete, the band wanted to re-record everything replacing the Fender Stratocaster guitar takes with Gibson Les Pauls. Angel was re-recorded wholly along with the other songs. The band reconnected with Ojone and decided to relocate to Bengaluru, Karnataka. They started off by co-headlining BMS college fest along with Lagori and Kryptos. Soon with Ujjwal Mukhia as their new manager, the band took an independent house in the city where they started finishing off the album. The band got a chance to open for Hoobastank, who were to perform[9] in Shillong, Meghalaya. It was organised by TNT magazine. GATC started performing frequently in the Bengaluru city’s prominent venues such as Take 5, B-Flat, Hard Rock Cafe and Vapour.

GATC released their first album - 'Back On Earth’ consisting of 14 Tracks in August, 2014 under Universal Music Group label. The album release was followed by a national Hard Rock Cafe Tour. The album was promoted by Contrabands, which was a property of Universal Music Group, VH1 & Hard Rock Cafe. Angel was chosen for featuring on VH1.

2018

GATC did an intensive North-East India tour during the months of November and December covering regions of Meghalaya, Sikkim, Manipur, Mizoram and Assam.

The band ended the year by releasing their single, “Rock the Highway”, on YouTube and other online platforms, worldwide. The song gained a good response from many parts of the world. It was also featured by Classic Rock Magazine in their “Tracks of the week[10]”, section. Soon after, it was featured in the rock magazine Sleaze Roxx [11].

2019 Started off with the band associating with the renowned guitarist Baiju Dharmajan. They performed at the annual Sikkim Tourism Red Panda festival together and then headed off to Bengaluru to open for TesseracT at Indian Institute of Science. The team was then invited for North-East festival, held at Central World, Bangkok, Thailand. They performed for two consecutive nights. Coming back to Bengaluru, they started writing new material for their second album, which has already started with the release of “Rock The Highway”.

The band signed up with Lion’s Pride Music[12][13], a Denmark based record label on the 22nd of May, 2019, for their upcoming album by the name “Rock The Highway”, which is scheduled to release world-wide, in April 2020.

Members

Members of GATC.[14]

  • Girish Pradhan – Vocals/Guitars
  • Suraz Karki – Lead guitars
  • Yogesh Pradhan – Bass guitars
  • Nagen Mongranti – Drums
  • Krishh Datta – Keyboard

Songs
  • Angel (2009)[2][15][16][17]
  • A New Beginning (2011)[18]
  • Golden Crown (2009)
  • Ride To Hell (2014)
  • Smile Little Child
  • Loaded
  • Revolving Barrel (2014)
  • Endless Road (2016)
  • Rock the Highway (2018)
  • Born with a big Attitude (2014)
  • Yesteryears (2010)
  • Hey you (2014)
  • I wanna get that loving again
  • Rock 'N' Roll is Here To Stay (2020)
  • Identity Crisis (2020)
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See also

References
  1. http://indianbandshub.blogspot.com/2010/09/girish-and-chronicles.html?m=1
  2. http://scribidomagazine.com/girish-and-the-chronicles-unplugged/
  3. http://metalassault.com/Interviews/2013/02/07/a-detailed-conversation-with-vocalist-extraordinaire-girish-pradhan/
  4. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/music/news-and-interviews/Musical-journey-of-Girish-Pradhan/articleshow/10115401.cms
  5. "TNT- Great eastern Rock volume 2 Cd features 17 bands from the Northeast". Assam Times. 5 January 2010. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  6. "Suncane invite for Sikkim band - Girish 'N' The Chronicles off to rock europe". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  7. https://www.deccanherald.com/amp/content/187255/metal-singer-girish-pradhan-wins.htm
  8. https://id.yamaha.com/id/news_events/contents/asianbeat/history/2011/index.htm
  9. "Hoobastank To Perform In Shillong -". My Site. 8 June 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  10. Rock, Polly Glass2019-01-02T14:49:21Z Classic. "Tracks Of The Week: new music and videos from The Raconteurs, Paul McCartney and more". Classic Rock Magazine. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  11. Olivier. "Girish and The Chronicles release video for "Rock The Highway" – Sleaze Roxx". Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  12. "GATC (Girish And The Chronicles): nuova band dall'India nel roster di Lions Pride Music | MelodicRock.it". www.melodicrock.it (in Italian). Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  13. Paradise, Heavy (24 May 2019). "HEAVY PARADISE, THE PARADISE OF MELODIC ROCK!: Lions Pride Music new signing Girish And The Chronicles (GATC)". HEAVY PARADISE, THE PARADISE OF MELODIC ROCK!. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  14. The Telegraph
  15. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/entertainment/indian-band-girish-n-the-chronicles-at-suncane-skale-music-competition_100391912.html
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 20 September 2013. Retrieved 22 April 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-26/news-and-interviews/30201095_1_musical-journey-music-school-gnc
  18. http://isikkim.com/a-new-beginning-a-song-by-girish-the-chronicles-to-sep-18-quake-victims/
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