St Xaviers College in Mapusa, is one of the front-runners incollegiate events. Their long-standing rivalry for excellence with ChowguleCollege in Margao is stuff of Goan collegiate legend. Yet, when it comes tomusic, Chowgule has always taken a backseat to its northern counterpart. It’scurrent crop of musicians, known simply as ‘The Xaviers Band’, feel that theyare second to none.
Unofficial band leader, Jonas Monteiro says, “Five days isall we had to practice. It was really stressful. Because we are a jam band, wepulled it off I think. It’s fair to say that we are versatile, and can playacross genres…except Bollywood.”
Leading the group is the rarity of a female drummer in theform of Anastazia D’Mello, a First Year student from the stream of MassCommunication who lives in Mapusa. The college, and therefore the band, faced anacute shortage of keyboard players, which saw their college’s GeneralSecretary, Jonas Monteiro, step up to the plate. A student of Second Year BAfrom Merces, his area of expertise is rhythm guitar. The band that is clearlynot shy of female members playing obscure instruments in its line-up alsofeatures Mapusa-based bassist Maryjane, who is set to play her last few gigswith the band as she is on the brink of graduating with a degree in arts. CleonD’Souza from Merces, a student in the second year of his arts course playsrhythm guitar, thereby filling the void created by keyboardist Jonas Monteiro.On lead guitar, the band has a lad who goes only by the name Christopher. Afirst year student of the science stream, the young Siolcar is a shredder witha bright future in front of him. Rounding up the stack is vocalist EfigeniaMiranda. The girl from Margao, who like Maryjane is in her last stint with theband, finds herself in a whole new position. Her repertoire, which ispredominantly limited to Portuguese folk music and the Fado, has found itselfpushing its boundaries over the last couple of years, with regular performanceswith the band.
“It has been an interesting experience all round. We keepseeing this shift and change in the group. I for one will not be a part of thecollege band experience next year, but the journey has been immense. I cannotwait to see what lies in store for them,” says an emotional Efigenia Miranda.
