ARBITS has really outdone itself this year. The club has organized for world renowned guitarist Guthrie Govan to headline Oasis 2018. Guthrie, has collaborated with artistes such as Steven Wilson and Hans Zimmer, and is widely regarded to be one of the finest guitarists of our generation. OEP sat down with Pankaj Tawale, the coordinator of ARBITS, to find out how his club managed such a heist, and what other plans the club has for this year’s Oasis.

Pankaj said that bringing Guthrie Govan to campus was very smooth, and that a lot of things worked out well. ‘He announced the tour at the right time. We had already fixed a couple of bands. As soon as he announced the tour we got in touch with him. It all played out well,’ said Pankaj. The virtuoso guitarist’s performance, as of now, will be held in the Audi – but it might be shifted to SR grounds if sufficient sponsorship comes in.

When asked what Guthrie Govan will be playing, Pankaj listed out some of the guitarist’s previous works – his album Erotic Cakes, and songs from his band The Aristocrats will likely form the bulk of his show. Mohini Dey, a talented Indian bassist who has toured with AR Rahman, will accompany Govan. Gino Banks, one of India’s best drummers, will also be performing with Govan.

ARBITS has also planned prof shows with well-known Indian bands. Zokova, a Delhi based band, will be opening Rocktaves on day two of the fest. On day three, ARBITS is bringing The Backyard Shrooms – a Gurgaon based psychedelic band – in keeping with the theme of the fest.

Following this will be a performance by the Hansraj Projekt, a fusion act. Pankaj then moved on to the topic of Rocktaves. For the first time this year, ARBITS conducted online elimination rounds for Rocktaves – rather than onsite eliminations at all cities. “We covered Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore with physical rounds, but for other cities we used online eliminations.” The online system had its upsides and downsides. Pankaj said that the new system allowed for a lot more bands to participate, since there weren’t time and place constraints. Bands that earlier couldn’t make it to the events were now free to submit their work online. “Based on the number of signings for the elims, we got a lot more bands than last year.” Some of the bands that qualified this year have already been featured on channels like Music Mojo and BalconyTV.

But on the flipside, Pankaj said that it’s much easier to publicize an onsite event than an online one – and so a lot of bands may not have even heard about the event. This year, ARBITS had Daniel Rego as a judge for the online elimination rounds. Daniel Rego is a very versatile guitarist and musician, who was earlier associated with the Indian Death Metal band “Demonic Resurrection”. Each of the onsite rounds had a different judge – either instructors from reputed music academies, or members of well-established bands. The groundwork for the onsite rounds was done by ARBITS members, and Pankaj did the
managerial work, such as booking venues and making calls.

To account for potential delays, ARBITS has changed the format for Rocktaves. They plan to do soundchecks for all the bands in advance, to minimize the delays between performances and keep the crowd engaged. ARBITS’ other event for Oasis is Axetacy – a guitar competition for aspiring musicians. It will be judged this year by Abhishek Mittal of Submarine in Space.

Speaking about his experience as coordinator, Pankaj admitted that a lot of the work is
managerial in nature, but he said that he enjoyed it nevertheless, since he is passionate about music. ‘It’s about connecting with people. You get to form contacts with a lot of good musicians.’ As a final message to the BITSian audience, Pankaj, clearly very excited, asked all BITSians to attend the Guthrie Govan concert. ‘I want to open the audience to a new kind of music. This will be one of the biggest things for Oasis. This is the first time we’re having an international artist this big.’