Bijit Bora & the story of PSYX

The first question that comes to mind when you are asked about the meaning of Psyx is the very reason I gave the band this name. It could mean anything. It can’t be tied down by some genre. Hence I created a genre for our music and called it “Versatile Rock” because as far as our covers are concerned, we actually play a diverse range of music from rock n roll oldies to new generation thrash, progressive rock and heavy Metal. Others may claim they listen to a lot of music, but we actually do listen and play a lot of styles and probably one of the only bands (if not the only) who can pull off a “Sultans Of Swing” by Dire Straits and a “Hangar 18” by Megadeth on the same stage in the same set. However, that doesn’t make PSYX a covers only band. Our originals draw influences from a much wider variety of music through the years. In other words we are capable of entertaining a wide variety of people and ages because we like to look at music as one genre and I call it “MUSIC”.

Our Original CD will be released in December 2009 as I plan to make this album something I can put all my 22 years of musical experiences and experiments into. I plan to take my own sweet time. Life doesn’t end tomorrow, but what finally etches into the vinyl is something so special that one would like to listen to it over and over and over again. The listener should not say, “very good band” and dump the CD into the back of his collection. We will keep on composing and writing stuff and actually start playing them live before the final CD is released.

I formed my first band called “Overdoze” along with one of my engineering buddies called Sameer in 1990. We started very raw, but upped our musicianship by sheer determination and grit in a place called Manipal without the aid of the internet, modern day CD systems, tabs or any of the new fangled gadgets we take to be a part of our everyday lives today. A small National Panasonic cassette player belting out an Alexander The Great (Iron Maiden) was the only source of picking up the guitar notes or vocal lyrics for an Overdoze concert. However, this is not when I had started liking western music. I drifted towards it at a very early age and was also in the choir of my school, St. Paul’s, Darjeeling, where I guess I started ingraining the qualities of harmonic structures and melodic lines into my system. Well, I chose to skip the period 1987 to 1990 which is when I had accidentally learnt guitar and developed my style in the early years. That’s because this article would become way too long so I shall leave it for another time.

Carrying on where I left, “Overdoze” started becoming a well known name down South, where we started winning every competition that we joined or banging every head in the audience of a headlining show. This was at the time of the rise of Extreme Metal bands like “Millenium” from Bangalore, Rock band “Tall, Fat and Thins” from Pune (who had a hot chick on keyboards), 13 AD from Cochin, Agni etc. Overdoze chose not to take a very public profile and doing what we do best, Rocking it “live” and word of mouth publicity. It had 2 lineup changes, but I remained common to all the avatars. Style of music was Sultans of Swing to Rush to Symphony of Destruction even then. Fans would come great distances by the power of word of mouth to watch the almost “Cult” like Overdoze play even 3 songs. Our most famous covers were “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name”. We used to open and close with these numbers. The difference being that at that time most of the songs were contemporary songs to me. They were still on the charts and we were playing them. Now they are considered classics. Of course there was no doubt that the crowd would not enjoy them. Also keep in mind that cable TV had not yet come to India during a greater part of this phase. When cable came to India in 1992, we would give anything in the world to watch “Headbangers ball” on Wednesday night 9.00 P.M. on the Hostel TV come hell or high water. It was such a refreshing feeling to watch music videos. It was in the final Year of my Engineering when I pulled out the name PSYX. I had a classmate nicknamed Psycho and we used to call him Psyx. I wondered how I could spell that name. That’s when I formed the name of my future band. I did not think of any name for it knowing that it will come to me in some way or the other. It took about 3 months till this happened and I was so happy when it did. The reason being that I could play anything I wanted with a band name like that. If I gave a name with a demonic twist, I would have to stick to that kind of music. I would never be able to play some of the melodic softer rock or something progressive. Conversely, if I named it something like twisted junkies, I would not be able to play the heavier stuff that I really liked .. Say Iron Maiden or Megadeth. So with a name like PSYX, I can play Pink Floyd or Dire Straits or CCR or Extreme or Megadeth or Joe Satriani or Smokie or what have you without a worry, because my band name is not tying me up.

Back to 1994 . At this time PSYX is inside my head and my head only, so what do I do? Nothing! I went back to my homeland, Assam taking a long rest between 1994 and 2000 going ahead with my own engineering / administrative career while dabbling with bit parts in various friends’ bands in Assam, but playing the instrument nevertheless. I could never leave the guitar even for a day. Then came a new stint trying to reform “Overdoze” in Delhi with my ex – guitarist Sameer Sabharwal in 2000. We had got back together thanks to the sudden proliferation of the internet and contacted each other from two opposite sides of the country via Yahoo Chat. As a result, the Overdoze Reunion happened and we played a millennium gig as Overdoze in Talkatora Stadium, Delhi. At the time, the worst place to play rock covers or originals was Delhi. It was so overtaken by Daler Mehendi and Vengaboys and the public was so ignorant that there was an incident when Def Leppard was invited from England to play a small set before Daler Mehendi and the crowd asked Def Lep to sing “Bolo Tararara”. That would say it all about Delhi then and just check the situation today. That’s the haven of Rock music. We thought of shifting to Bombay, but gave up the idea as we were not convinced that we could make a career out of this, where the only thing I would be able to buy from my first pro gig there, would be a bicycle. End of that story.

Back to Assam. Helping my dad with our tea machinery factory and simultaneously forming a band called PSYX so I could continue the dream. The problem was finding musicians of a similar caliber. I picked up a small bunch of young guys (against my Dad’s wishes) for an NIIT annual day function at the behest of a friend. The enthusiasm of the lads, led me to teaching them how to form a good rock band drawing from my earlier experiences. That’s when ‘my’ PSYX became PSYX. And we toiled and tilled the soil so we could crash course ourselves to be the best rock band to come from that region. We started winning most competitions in Assam and made ourselves into well oiled, pedigreed thoroughbred musicians. We came to Mumbai in 2002, made it to the finals of Livewire (IIT Mood Indigo), had some bad luck because I broke a string when playing “Summer Song – Joe Satriani” and were disqualified due to some rigged results which is a doubt I always have with that particular event to this day. We played our Original “Insanity/Sanity”, Dread and the Fugitive Mind, Symphony of Destruction and Hangar 18 (all by Megadeth) and found it pretty weird to have the guitarist of AFS winning the best guitarist against the hard work I had put into these songs. Well Gigpad understood this and gave us 5000 bucks off the record because they appreciated what we did with the crowd as I always do. We love winning hearts and not competitions.

Then I stayed back in Bombay and did not disclose to anyone back home where or how I was, but that’s another long story. The rest of the guys went back and formed “Faith”, which with their new found experience continued the tradition of winning laurels right to the National level, being Runners Up in Campus Rock Idols all India 2006 and Independence Rock 2007 held in Mumbai. Psyx was dormant, but simmering. Back to 2008, the fire could never be extinguished and the flames broke loose with the new PSYX, where I collected a selected bunch of handpicked youngsters who were most importantly, good people at heart (very important in a band situation) and ready to learn under my guidance. I was already known in Assam and I finally fulfilled my personal challenge of retuning to my tiny hamlet of a town called Jorhat in Assam back with PSYX to rock my motherland. An amazing show at the Jorhat Gymkhana Club, New Years eve 2008-2009 and HEADLINING an annual multi band rock show in Eleye Hall in Jorhat on 2nd January 2009 the entire tour highlights being uploaded on youtube later (if anyone is interested in viewing it). Back to Mumbai. We’ve won most of the competitions we joined and within a very short span left behind a prominent PSYX STAMP at every show we have played whether competing or headlining. The last two gigs being IRONIZE at Xaviers Mumbai and Not Just Jazz By the Bay, Mumbai. An upcoming show at Jodhpur, Rajasthan and some new transnational gigs in the near future. In other words, it seems that I am on the right path! And as I found out years later that the electronics company LG stands for Life’s Good. So this is a selected part of my musical journey and thanks a lot if you have actually read through this sometimes incoherent reminiscent rambling of mine!

But I need to sign off somewhere so I guess this is where it will have to be! Cheers . You have been inducted into the PSYX fan club.

That's just not all, Bijit's much awaited Guitar Academy has just come up...check out for more details!!!I