HSD pays tribute to Pearl Jam

Music band Pearl Jam, over the last 20 years, has been inspiring many musicians around the world, playing various genres of music and the same stands for alternative rock funk band Half Step Down (HSD). The Delhi-based band is all set to do a tribute to Pearl Jam in a gig today.

The HSD boys are actually more influenced by artistes like Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Dave Matthews Band Rachmaninoff, Bob Marley and Django Reinhardt but HSD lead vocalist Dhaval Mudgal says that Eddie Wedder has been the prime inspiration for him as a vocalist. “Our music is very different from Pearl Jam’s grunge but our band has been influenced by Eddie Wedder. I have definitely been inspired by his vocals,” says Dhaval.

For the gig, HSD has chosen to sing stuff from Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten, their second album Vs and many of the not-so-regularly played ones like No Way and Garden apart from the more popular Alive, Jeremy and Black. But do not expect them to play around with these songs. The band thinks that Pearl Jam songs are too etched in the fan’s mind to be experimented with.

“Firstly, we thought it would be blasphemous to change their songs. We still went ahead and asked a few hardcore Pearl Jam fans about whether they would like us to do some different versions and they said that it may not work,” says Dhaval. “Also, their tracks are not in that open metre for us to play around with unlike artistes like Bob Marley. They have very set guitar pieces,” he says.

The band’s going to be missing their lead guitarist Karan Dutta
though as he is moving to the US and will no longer play with the band. “KD is a fantastic guitarist with his own style of playing. We will definitely miss him. Our band’s sound is definitely going to change over a period of time as new members come in and bring their own influences and style to the band. The songwriting will also change according to that,” says Dhaval.

Catch HSD do the Pearl Jam tribute concert tonight at Blue Frog.