Artist description Drawing inspiration from great bluesmen like John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan, B.B.King, Muddy Waters to name just a few, reggae legend Bob Marley and jazz music, MOJO create music that reflect these influences interpreted with the originality that stamps their art with an identity of its own.

Musical Influences The band’s songs spring forth from an array of omnipresent sources such as love, despair, and socio-economic ills, this proactive yet positive approach to lyrics taking the music to its deepest meaning and relevance. As of today, MOJO have recorded an album Blues for Brotherhood (1995) as yet unreleased. The band has toured the country extensively and are practically ready to record all of their compositions.

Artist History When five musician-friends from Shillong came together under the magical mantle of MOJO in 1993, it was as a result of a collective love and feel for rhythm and blues setting the binding tour de force. With all members having played with the legendary band The Great Society over the preceding 11 years, MOJO is a mature band of artists who have honed their musical and lyrical talents to a degree that now sets them a dimension apart from the rest of the crowd and with over forty original songs in their bag, the fruit of their labor of love is more than proof enough of that.The BandAfter bidding adieu to The Great Society in search of fresher pastures, Rudy Wallang, Ferdy Dkhar, and Sam Shullai performed as Tom, Dick & Harry as they continued their saga in search for the perfect niche. MOJO was born when Keith Wallang and Bob M joined the trio and the rest as they say, is history.

Group Members Rudy Wallang(born 14.09.62): He started playing with his instrument at a very tender age before graduating first to the ukulele and then to the guitar. He formed the bands “Jerk,” “Electric Head,” “Rubber Band” while in college and then had a long stint with “The Great Society.” He left the latter in 1992 to form “Mojo.” He is now the driving force behind the band, bringing each gig alive with his guitar licks and his voice.Sam Shullai(born 02.10.65): He is the ‘thinker’ of the band. What he thinks about only he knows! He started off on his mother’s pots and pans before graduating to the drums as the young age of nine. He got his own drumkit at fifteen and formed a band called “XLN.” He also had a long stint with “The Great Society” before leaving it to form “Mojo.” He now provides the steady grooves, with the little extra, for the band.Ferdie Dkhar (born 28.08.65): The gregarious joker of the band, he provides the “one-liners” when he is not playing bass. He too was with “The Great Society” before also leaving it to form “Mojo.” He is the guy who weaves the crazy patterns forming part of the rhythm section for the band.Bob (RG) Lyngdoh(born 10.03.60): This ‘high priest of sin’ did the ‘blowing job’ for “Rubber Band” and now does it for “Mojo.” When not blowing harp with the ‘angels’ he writes lyrics for the band. Also does the vocals for all raunchy songs. The only problem is he can’t stand still.Keith Wallang(born 02.02.68) the rasta-man started playing drums with the band “Jerk,” “Electric Head,” and “The Great Society.” After leaving “The Great Society” he teamed up with the other members to form “Mojo.” Taking a break, he left Shillong for Bombay and did a stint playing drums for “Kalki,” before returning to pluck the rhythm guitar strings for Mojo.

Albums Blues for Brotherhood

Press Reviews Mojo: Shining by their own magic light“Mojo,” in the tradition of music called blues, is evocative of magic and mystery. It is often used in the songs of blues singers to suggest that considerable measure of good fortune one needs to get by, and especially, to be fortunate in love. “Urban Blues,” which developed in the cities of America’s eastern seaboard as a musically more sophisticated and thematically harsher variant of the folk songs of the South (that the blues originally were), retained the notion of “mojo” with its aura of spells and incantations, perhaps as an unconscious symbol of resistance to the impersonality of city life. In later singers such as Jim Morrison (who was considerably influenced by Blues), “mojo” acquires all the potency of magical spells with which it was first issued, but here again, because it can no longer be used literally, symbolises yearning for the realm of the supernatural.Shillong’s Mojo may be only peripherally related to this briefly-outlined history but in its demonstration of musical talent and artistic commitment it partakes of the magic of its name. This was amply borne out in a Mojo concert held on the 20th of May in Shillong’s State Central Library Auditorium. The evening was as much a tribute to the influences that have shaped Mojo as a distinctive entity in the country’s western music scene, as an unveiling of their own talent at producing original and refined music. The ensemble of songs was a rich mix of rock and roll, pure blues and reggae numbers. The six self-composed pieces presented included two tantalising instrumental pieces, ‘Moon Magic’ (composed ion 1980), and ‘Back in Time; ‘Can’t Stop Loving You’ from their unreleased album “Blues for Brotherhood,” and three new numbers. Of these, “Reggae Living” with its simple, hard-hitting, one-line refrain characteristic of reggae numbers went well with the audience, who were quick to recognize in it the punch and passion of a genuine reggae song. Interspersed with their original music were a delectable bunch of such immortal songs as B.B. King’s ‘Six Silver Strings’ and Wilson Pickett’s ‘In the Midnight Hour’, a nod to Dylan in the form of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, a few Bob Marley rock compositions that roused the crowd out of its sombre mood, and a couple of instrumental rock compositions that demonstrated Mojo’s virtuosity in full measure, as also the months of dedicated work that must underlie it.Shows like these which reinforce Shillong’s musical culture are greatly welcome but they nevertheless make one wonder about the future of highly creative bands like Mojo. While it is part of a musician’s creed to perform publicly and look for both reciprocation and recognition from his audience, there is something about Mojo’s blues-oriented character that requires appreciation to be instant or not at all. It is difficult for them to ever be ‘popular’ in the more pedestrian sense of the term. For apart from the nature of their music there are also the challenges of working in the face of the indifferent and impartial music business and in the relative obscurity that surrounds everything associated with the Northeast. Mojo is a band that, in the true tradition of the Blues, plays for the sake of the art and the sense of personal fulfilment and pleasure to be derived from it. But this should not obscure the fact that blues has always been the voice of the common man, a voice shot through with humour, pain and gentle irony. Mojo, in the years to come, will have to meet the challenge of creating for themselves and identity based on an intimate relation between their own experience and the kind of music they enjoy playing. They have already demonstrated in “Blues for Brotherhood” their potential for making the blues their own. Perhaps it might not be too much to ask them to actually enrich this form of music, as successive Blues singers have done, by infusing it with the spirit of their own unique social and emotional realities and thus, hopefully, paving the way for a new sound. Given the skill and love with which they perform, they no doubt will be able to rise to this challenge and give us songs that are authentic, original, and most importantly, true to life as it is lived around them. Meanwhile, they continue to represent the undying spirit of all art that flowers in small places and shines by its own lightAnjum HasanThe feelings and raw stage performance with impromptu improvisations and melodic rifts were like a breath of fresh air[Eastern Panorama. March 1994]Mojo, arguably the best blues band in the country…[India Today. February 1997]Mojo, the toast of the evening… reflects an originality… the beginning of establishing their own identity.[Apphira Daily News. November 13, 1994]Love for pure Blues that was manifested in… fury built up over the years[The Sentinel. August 6, 1994]The group exhibits musical maturity in being able to extend and get involved… get the audience into little successive raptures… …chanting in unison.[The Shillong Times]Mojo… can satisfy an audience by playing their own music, and the discerning ear can really appreciate their particular blend of blues and reggae with rock & roll.[The Rock Street Journal. June 1996]A competent bunch of musicians who can execute almost any kind of music form convincingly.[The Rock Street Journal. September 1996]Mojo’s main thrust in its music is originality… the band asserts it the Mojo way, leaving a mark on each and every song they play.[D’Com]Mojo, a band that can play straight and fiery, sensitive and gentle.[The Nagaland Post. July 1996]

Location Shillong, Meghalaya - India

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