His life is far from crazy!

“I’ve always loved coming to Bengaluru, to perform as well as just to visit,” says the musician who was earlier also a part of Whirling Kalapas and Alms of Shanti but is now back with his first band, Rock Machine aka Indus Creed – a sensation that in 1988 launched India’s first all original rock album. Needless to say, they’ve been on the scene a long time. “Very simply, the love of what we do – cranking it out, deeply and heavily is what keeps us going. It’s cathartic and energising and we’re hooked to the whole process: the creation of new ideas, turning them into songs and then finding our way to a state of bliss by playing the bejeebers out of them,” he explains about the band with whom he has performed extensively across India and abroad, won an Asia-wide MTV Video Music Award, performed live with Guns ‘N Roses guitarist Slash, shared the stage with Bon Jovi, and played at Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festival in the UK!

It’s this love for music, with the blessings of his very cool parents who only taught him to stand by his choices that took him places – even rocking on in Bollywood. “Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy, who I’ve known for many years, thought I’d be the right guy to sing Life is Crazy. Apart from the ease of working with old friends, I liked the song a lot, so it was a great session to be a part of. I’d be happy to create for the new Bollywood where my knowledge and explorations in contemporary music, not just rock, could be applied towards movies looking beyond filmi formula. But, no one’s called me yet,” he quips.

Aside of rearranging tracks like Bombay Meri Jaan, Nimbooda and the folksy Kesariya Balam for Soundtrek, his other cups of tea include ad jingles that are all over your television sets. While most times it’s to a specific brief, sometimes he comes up with them from scratch. “That’s rare and challenging, since it’s usually a 30-second tracks with varying degrees of voice over layered atop the music,” he says belting out tunes for ads. Aside of that, “I almost became a waiter. Okay, maybe not a waiter exactly but close – I studied hotel management before I decided that rock n’ roll would be more fun to bust my butt for,” says Uday who believes, that he otherwise would make a good host for an exploratory food-music-travel series on the TV or Internet. He would have possibly made a good English professor too. “I’m picky when it comes to grammar and punctuation. The writing habits of people across the world these days are making my sanity a touch-and-go predicament,” he says.

Kicking up a storm with his band which has done plenty to influence the independent music scene to be true to creating original music, Uday is a food nut and enjoys cooking. “Trying out new ideas releases me. A fulfilling movie has a way of making me feel really good. Music, of course, plays the biggest role – a great album is something I can return to again and again. And then I move on,” he smiles.