BLACKSTRATBLUES’ WARREN MENDONSA: ‘SOUL IS THE DIRT UNDER YOUR FINGERNAILS’

THE AUCKLAND-BASED ARTIST ON HAVING HIS DAUGHTER SING ON AN ANTI-WAR TRACK, WORKING WITH TWO DRUMMERS AND MISSING INDIA.

- By ANURAG TAGAT

To interview Blackstratblues’ Warren Mendonsa is to hear him geek out about the sonic choices he makes from album to album. Among India’s favorite guitarists, Blackstratblues’ new album Artificial Integrity leans more on synthesizers, and it’s not just because of the futuristic narrative that ties the eight-track album together.

The Auckland-based, Mumbai-born guitarist — who also gets on stage with Mumbai rock greats Zero whenever they have the occasional reunion gig — has spent over 15 years making evocative instrumental rock and cultivating an audience that shows up in droves every time he tours. Earlier in May, Blackstratblues played across three cities in the span of a week. There were two sold-out shows in one night at Mumbai’s G5A Warehouse, another packed gig at recently reopened Bengaluru venue The Humming Tree and closed at Antisocial in Pune with drummer Jai Row Kavi, bassist Adi Mistry and keyboardist Beven Fonseca.

There are shows with a different New Zealand lineup whenever he gets booked, but Mendonsa recalls Blackstratblues’ live beginnings as something the band did on the side, alongside Bollywood gigs with the likes of Amit Trivedi and A.R. Rahman. Does he miss being in India and spending time with his bandmates? Mendonsa is measured in his response. Living in Auckland has reduced the frequency of his India gigs by about half, he says, but that only makes the shows “a little bit more special.” “It’s something quite cool in itself, and it makes you appreciate it more as well,” he says over a video call from his home studio.

Artificial Integrity — his fifth studio release and first since Hindsight Is 2020 — has a bit of a sci-fi narrative: a museum of the future, set in the year 2203 (the model number of Mendonsa’s favorite Marshall amp), where an AI docent narrates the exhibit. The concept is there for listeners, but the music, of course, stands on its own.