And from the darkness, comes a ray of hope called Kali
By Naughty Mickie  notymickie@earthlink.net

Pasadena, California resident Sonny Koliwad is the lead singer and founder of the hard rock band Kali. I found their CD, "Death and Rebirth," a step away from the usual pounding rock found in the local clubs-- it had a touch of the exotic. After one listen, I had to find out more about this rising band and Koliwad.

Koliwad was playing guitar in an alternative band several years ago with a female vocalist. When their drummer left, they searched for a replacement and Sonny met Mike Brillantes. The two knew that the current situation wasn't really their thing, in the first place, Sonny wanted front his own band.

"I wanted to do much heavier stuff and I wanted to be the frontman," says Koliwad. "So we said 'Let's start our own band.'''

Koliwad and Brillantes quit the group and, in 1998, they started writing and recording some "skeleton" demos. Brillantes would produce the planned CD and they started shopping the industry.

"We did it backwards," explains Koliwad. "The two of us could do everything we needed to do for the recording. We did everything for the CD we could do. We had a couple offers and decided to go with Odin. They pretty much financed us, the CD, which was totally cool. We started recording. We had a couple of studio guitarist come in; people that I know would come in and do some stuff on it. We had some backup vocalists come in. But nobody was doing any writing.''

In a split from the normal routine, the duo started recording, but they still had a lot of writing to do. Still, it only took them from December 1999 to March 2000 to complete "Death and Rebirth."

"At that point we had already lined up shows starting in June. So then we started auditioning band members,'' says Koliwad.

They had the usual band line-up problems of musicians dropping out or not working out, until they reached their current group-- lead guitarist Nick Roy, bassist Matt Acker and Chad Johnson on keyboards and percussion. Brillantes remained on drums and Koliwad kept with vocals and guitar.

"We're all really happy. We're set now,'' Koliwad smiles.

The name Kali, did not come from Koliwad, as many may first think, nor is it as ominous as it sounds.

"Our goal, when we started recording the CD," explains Koliwad. "We knew what the music was about, what we were trying to put out, portray in our lyrics, and where we were coming from and we wanted our name to symbolize what we were about. We didn't want something that was totally random or that kind of thing. There was a lot of Indian influence in the music, Middle Eastern stuff, in some of the instrumentations that we used. And, obviously I'm Indian, so we would find something that was cool and stick that in there. The music was kind of dark and I what write about is darker emotions and feelings and struggle, like questioning the answers and that sort of thing. It took me a while, we were looking for a while, and finally I came across Kali and I started reading more about it. She's the goddess of destruction, but it's not destruction like we think of destruction, it's destroying and starting again.

"Most people when they write about death, that's it. They write about the negative side and that's it. I write about the negative side, but I try to show that there is hope within the darkness. That is where Kali comes into play and 'Death and Rebirth' comes into play on the CD.''

Brillantes and Koliwad currently write all of Kali's material. I asked Koliwad to explain their approach.

"The way it works is usually I come up with a progression or guitar lick or sometimes Michael will come up with it. We usually get together and start formatting the song. What I try to do is, is find out what the music means to me and then I put that into my lyrics. A lot of people do it the other way, there's no right or wrong way.

"Sometimes it happens on the spot," continues Koliwad. "We're finished with the song and I'll be working on lyrics for another one and then there are days, when we'll have to skip a song and go to the next one because we can't come up with anything. (Sometimes) I'll be laying in bed and something will pop into my head and I'll jump up and turn on the tape recorder.''

The local scene has been getting a mixed review from bands lately, but Koliwad seems pleased.

"I think that it's cool. The clubs have been really nice, at least to us. It's not as easy to get people out as it used to be. The bands have to work hard to get people to the shows. If you're a good band, you'll rise to the top, no matter how long it takes people will find you. But it helps to be promoting.''

He exudes this same confidence when it comes to the industry, maintaining that if you are persistent and talented, you can make it.

"There's a lot good bands out there," says Koliwad. "A lot of bands are naive too. A lot of people get into music because they want to make it, obviously, but they don't know really what it takes to make it. And when they do find out what it takes and the amount of work that it takes, they're not willing to put that in. They say they are, but they're not.''

Koliwad also applauds the Internet.

"I think that it's great personally," says Koliwad. "Just the way that it's a great way to reach a large audience. It's a great tool if you use it right. But it's not just the fact that you have a Web site or the fact that you're selling your CD somewhere doesn't mean that people are buying it or they go to your Web site. They still have to know about it. You've still got to make them want your music and it's still takes a lot of work.

"Napster's good for us, because someone put us on there," adds Koliwad. "And it's good for us because people find out about us, which is cool. But I totally understand the point of view of the industry. Hopefully I'll be there one day. It's like 'this is what I do for a living.' It's like whatever your job is, you're not going to sit there and say, 'I'll work here all day for free.' You know what I mean? It's not fair to them. Napster affects bands like Metallica and bands who have been around a long time a lot more than it does new bands. If you just have one CD, that's one CD, but if you have eight or nine CDs, you're making money off them still. They're giving away your whole catalog.''

Koliwad feels that the main target audience may not use Napster the way it was intended. Napster still maintains that it is a source for people to listen to a variety of artists and then, whey the person finds something they like, they will buy it.

"Napster's saying that, but I don't buy into it," Koliwad counters.

"Let's say you're like a kid, how much money are you going to have? For $30 which buys about two CDs, you can buy 50 blank CDs and then burn 50 full discs. Why not do that? I don't understand that logic. It's a great idea for new bands that are trying to get the word out. It sucks for old bands.''

Koliwad started out with a different dream. At La Canada High School, in California, he played baseball, in the positions of pitcher and shortstop. And like many guys, he briefly considered pursuing it as a career. He had also always been musical, playing saxophone and violin in elementary school, singing in sixth grade and going on to guitar by seventh grade. It was then, that he realized that he wanted to pursue music. Koliwad started studying guitar with Chet Thompson who had studied with Randy Rhoads.

"I picked up the guitar so I would have something to do while I was singing," explains Koliwad. "After I had been taking lessons for a while (Thompson) said, 'There's not really much more I can teach you. You know the scales, you know this, you know that, you know technique.' We were just figuring out songs. I could do that on my own. He basically said, 'You
don't need me any more.'''

Koliwad got into bands during high school, mostly playing at parties, but had still not found his niche.

"I was always into hard rock and I could never really find, well it was unusual because I was into sports too, but I could never really find anyone at my high school that was into the same things musically, but it was cool just playing.''

He also found that he he got lots of  girls' attention from his sports and his music. I tease Koliwad, asking him if he got a lot of dates.

"It was good," he grins widely. "That was one of the reasons I started playing, but after I started it didn't matter anymore. I didn't care. I was going to play because I liked playing. But it didn't hurt.''

Koliwad was a realist, attending UCLA and majoring in engineering and economics, while getting more serious about his music.

"I was kind of sheltered in La Canada," says Koliwad. "I didn't really go outside of La Canada. I had friends and I hung out. But I didn't go to the city, I didn't really know what was going on. But when I got to UCLA I started going out a lot and meeting people, getting my name out there, jamming with a lot more different people, getting my own style going there. And then I started playing in small clubs.''

Currently, in addition to devoting as much time as possible to Kali, Koliwad works in marketing for a non-profit organization.

"It's cool I get to help people, it's a cool day job that I have,'' he remarks.

He also goes to the gym, watches a lot of sports- especially basketball and coaches La Canada Junior Baseball for seventh and eighth graders.

Koliwad has two cats, Maguire (as in baseball player Mark) and Makenzie. They were twin sisters as babies and he brought both of them home because he didn't want to separate them.

"Me and my old roommate, we got them together... Mark Maguire was one of my favorite players. I thought he would name his Sosa, but he named his Makenzie. I said, 'What the hell are you doing?' It was because of his girlfriend,'' Koliwad laughs.

Koliwad feels confident in the future of Kali.

"We're pretty much right on course of where we want to be, actually we're ahead. I talked with a lot of people in bands and a lot of people are amazed that are band has only been around for five or six months.''

Kali has already headlined at the Key Club in Hollywood on a Friday night, which is highly unusual for a non-national band. And it was only their second live performance.

"It's not like we're better than anyone else, we work our asses off,'' says Koliwad. "Our main objective is to get a deal.''

Kali is constantly working on new music, including a cover tune to surprise their fans. It seemed that Koliwad had told me just about everything there is to know about Kali, but I wanted to hear a little more about their gig at the Key Club.

"The second show we ever played was at the Key Club," Koliwad starts. "We were the headlining band. They had the green room stocked with beer, a fridge, it was so awesome. We were sitting talking and I said, 'You know, I've never ever broken a string on stage.' They were like, 'Really? No way.' 'Never.' I was so confident and, wouldn't you know it, that night I broke a string. We get out there and the first hit.''

Koliwad had brought his trusty Les Paul, but no back up guitar.

"I didn't want to look like an idiot holding my guitar," he continues. "So I took it off and started singing. During the change I ran out and changed the string. It took me literally two minutes. I said, 'The band will play, I've got to go change my strings.' So I get back and they're playing jazz. What the fuck?! But it was really cool. It shows the diversity of our band. They were playing jazz, I was tripping out.''

And the crowd was still captivated by the group. Catch Kali and their CD and you will be too.

For more information on Kali visit ww.kalikali.com

Editor's note: Odin is no longer in business, but you can still obtain copies of "Death and Rebirth" at the Kali Web site or at their shows.

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