Strings of a lifetime

KOCHI: “Those days playing live music didn’t fetch much. Not even sufficient for a comfortable living unlike today,” says John Anthony, who was once the guitarist with the band ‘Roots’ along with AR Rahman, Shivamani and late Jo Joo. Right now he is the guitarist for the band ‘Karnatriix’ which will be touring Germany next month, by the end of which they will be bringing out their second album scheduled to be recorded in Germany. Apart from the concerts, John has played guitar for more than 2500 movies including regional and foreign languages, but mostly in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu movies. Born in Pune, John moved to Kochi for his education. It was his mother Alice Anthony who coaxed him to learn any instrument. “My mother used to sing well. At family parties the ball was in her court when it came to singing,” says John. As a child he was fascinated with the guitar and moreover a hardcore fan of Carlos Santana, the Mexican-American rock guitarist. The love John had for his music prompted him to have Santana’s signature model guitar.At the age of 14 he went to Kalabhavan, a cultural academy at Kochi were he learnt guitar. Then he went to Yesudas’ Taranga Nisari School of Music at Thiruvananthapuram, but were things started to take a turn. There he was destined to be a maestro.From his tenth grade he began playing serious music with bands ‘The Stone Age’, ‘Hijackers’, ‘Resistance’, ‘Wet Dreams’ and ‘Roots’ which were all an amazing experience. He has also performed live abroad in South Africa, China, Dubai and Germany. There have been concerts  he took up as a noble cause and one among them was ‘No More Bhopals’.‘Roots’ which he was a part of was among the first bands to have their own compositions. “That was how Rahman (who was one of the band’s key members) got a few offers in the film industry. He said that he will be back with the band after two movies, which never happened. After a while when I asked Rahman about his return, he laughed and said that those two movies are not over yet,”John smiles.It was at the music school that he met his lady love Supreetha. She was one among the top five students, who was good at playing classical guitar. “We fell in love and got married in 1977 when I was 21,” says Johnny,as his wife lovingly calls him. It didn’t take him long to realise that income from bands amounted to very little, and hence he stepped into the film industry. In 1984 he left for Chennai for good. He was offered to play music for the movie ‘Poochakkoru Mookkuthi’, Priyadharshan’s first Malayalam movie. From there on there has been no looking back for this guitarist. He says,“My guitar strokes which the Kerala crowd still adores is of ‘Thaalavattam’. Even today I am being appreciated for that piece of work.” As for John, his favourite is from the Tamil movie ‘Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya’. “For me playing for movies is just for a living. My passion is to be active with the band and to start a school of music at some point of time,” says John. Now he plays the guitar along with Oliver Fox on the Saxophone and flute, Carola Grey on the drums and Navieen Kumar as the base guitarist for their band ‘Karnatriix’.Their first album ‘Namasthe’ was released in 2004.“As a professional guitarist even today each song is a new experience for me. I feel that the more I learn, the more complicated it gets,” says John who has been a professional guitarist for over two decades now.“By the end of this year we plan to have a concert at Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi,” John adds.