No body is ever satisfied: TAAQ

Thermal And A Quarter (TAAQ) whose humorous name comes from the band members ethnicity -- three Malayalees and a quarter Malayalee.
They are first band in South Asia who put their music under the Creative Commons Licensing is more than a decade old and still the most sought after band in the country. This may be one of their reasons to success. "Creative Commons Licensing is a great way to share music in a way that benefits the artist as well as the listeners," says Rajeev."While starting off as a band it is a good idea to let your music spread viral and more importantly to not let someone rip you off by selling it without your permission," he says.
The legendary band that started out as a college band in 1996 has come a long way with a number of fan following from the country and abroad. "Like Jimi Hendrix once said, 'You are experienced only when you have been experienced'," says Rajeev.
Talking about the difference in the music scene in the past decade Rajeev feels nostalgic about the day and age when they started. "It used to be a lot greener in the past, now it is more of the green bills that count. But there have been so many great bands mushrooming into the scene that the green stuff might get back in vogue," says Rajeev, who talks about their music school TAAQADEMY where over '250 music buffs come in day in day out'.
What do they think of the independent music industry and their hardships? "Full time musicians or accountants or lawyer or journalists are all suffering. No body is ever satisfied with what they earn," says Rajeev. Although, he has dreams that people be paid peacefully without having to do anything at all. "Then I'll say to myself 'What a wonderful world'," he adds.
TAAQ members Bruce Lee Mani, Rajeev Rajagopal and Prakash KN will first head to Singapore and then the US, where they will spend 10 days playing at venues in New York, Dallas, Seattle, and Amherst. They say that they have had some surreal mind bending experiences during their 16 years of gigging. "One day we play in Hong Kong, then in Vellore, another day we are on the sandy beaches of Maldives, next back to a gig in Chickajalla," says Rajeev. "It is just brilliant to be up on stage and do our music the way we like it," he adds.