Tripwire was formed around a time when the Indian rock scene was unaware of the sounds of punk rock. Formed in 2002, Tripwire comprised of Ameya (Guitars/Vocals/Stand up comedy), Tanveer (Bass/Vocals/Cable Operator) and Aditya (aka Jack, Drums/Vocals/SYJC Maths flunking) and played their first gig at IIT Mumbai’s Livewire competition. Ameya recalls their first performance vividly. “As soon as we told the organizers that we are a ‘punk’ band, they gave us the first slot of the competition,” he reminisces.

So Tripwire played their first gig at 3 in the afternoon to an audience of two, and punk rock had arrived!

Things changed when Tanveer left for Australia to pursue bigger dreams, especially for Sagar, a call center talk machine and good friend, whose dreams of one day becoming Slash were shattered. He became Tripwire’s bass player! And their lineup has remained unchanged since.

Tripwire continued playing their brand of “punk rock” music at venues such as a denim showroom launch, a fashion college festival, Tantra at Pune, a fresher’s nite at an IT institute, Slap Pop – an alternative fest, a terrace gig, etc. opening for helpful bands like Psychomotor.

2004 saw Tripwire headlining their first proper show—the Smells Like Punk Spirit gig at Razz Rhino. Things changed for the better as Tripwire got professional management from ennui.BOMB. A blitzkrieg of gigs followed—Rock By The Beach, Alternative Nation, and the series of Punk-O-Ramas, creating a niche not only for themselves but the sounds of punk rock and emerging punk bands. This also resulted in the band making money off gigs rather than paying to play (the situation on many earlier occasions)!

Newer challenges followed. These included a two-hour set at Not Just Jazz By The Bay, an all-acoustic set at The Boat Club, Knife Party (where they played as P.A.O – Punkaj Art Orchestra!) and at RAM Fest in Pune. The band distributed copies of their EP freely to whoever cared at all their gigs, helping spread their sound.

It was around this time that the band got its major break. Tripwire took Indian punk rock to the next level by being the first punk band ever to be chosen to play at Mumbai’s prestigious Independence Rock (2004) competition.

Their single “Norm The Guy Is Cool” has been featured in ennui.BOMB’s compilation of Indian rock music called We ARE The Scene – Vol. One. Their live performance of the same track at Independence Rock 2004 has been featured in Enter-Exist-Exit, India’s first rock videos compilation. WATS 2 features Tripwire’s brand new single—That’s Not What I Want.

The band also released a VCD of their performance at GIR 9 in Delhi on front man Ameya’s newly formed record label—CT Records (www.ctrecords.cjb.net). By being selected for and having rocked Delhi at RSJ’s Great Indian Rock 2005, Tripwire has proved that having musical influences that range from Bad Religion and Black Flag to Green Day and The Ramones ain’t that bad after all. The band is currently busy recording their first full length album at Throatlatch Records along with working on their website

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