Soulmate was a

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre, genre and form of rock music, rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electri ...

band from

Shillong Shillong (, ) is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India. It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in India, 330th most populous city ...

, Meghalaya, India. The band is primarily made up of Rudy Wallang (guitar/vocals/songwriter) and Tipriti TIPS Kharbangar (vocals/guitar), although they frequently teamed up with session musicians (on drums, bass, organ and possibly other backup instruments) when on tour. Tipriti is considered one of the finest female singers to have emerged from

North East India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political administrative division of the country. It comprises eight states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, M ...

and Wallang is considered one of the most respected blues guitarists of India.

History

Soulmate was a Shillong-based blues band, which came together in February 2003 playing their first concert at the ‘Roots Festival' at the Water Sports Complex in Umiam. Since then the band has performed many concerts all over The Northeast as well as in different parts of India, Southeast Asia, Europe, The Middle East and The United States. Soulmate gained nationwide recognition and popularity within jazz and blues circles in India after they became the only blues band to represent the country at the 23rd

International Blues Challenge The International Blues Challenge (IBC) is a music competition run by the Blues Foundation. Notable blues artists that have competed in the IBC over the years also includes Fiona Boyes, Eden Brent, Michael Burks, Tommy Castro, Sean Costello, ...

organized by The

Blues Foundation The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 blues organizations from various parts of the world. Founded in 1980, a 25-person board of directors governs t ...

of America, in

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...

, Tennessee, USA, in February 2007 and 2010. They were semi-finalists and performed at the

Rum Boogie Café Rum Boogie Café is a night club on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. It is one of the main venues for the International Blues Challenge and is the favored performance location of singer James Govan. It was named "Blues Club of the Year" by th ...

(Blues Club of The Year, 2007) and Ground Zero(2010) alongside 150 other bands and musicians from all over the world.

Festivals and events

Soulmate has performed at many prestigious festivals like ''International Jazzmandu Festival'' in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2004,2005 and 2008,"Mosaic Music Festival" Singapore in 2009."Du World Music festival" in Dubai 2011, ''Harley Rock Riders Season III'' in Bangalore in 2012, ''Maximum India Festival'' at Kennedy Center in Washington DC in 2011, ''Jakarta Blues Festival''in Indonesia in 2009 and 2010, "Monsteros Blues Festival", Sweden, Norway, "Baltic Blues Festival" in Eutin, Germany in 2012 ''Mahindra Blues Fest'' in Mumbai in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Opened for Carlos Santana at the Formula One Rocks 2012 event in Delhi etc. The band also played at Oasis 2013, the cultural fest of BITS, Pilani, which is one of Asia's largest student-organised festivals.

Awards

Tipriti had won the Best Female Vocalist and Rudy won the Best Guitar Player for 2009 in the Jack Daniels Rock Awards.‘Soulmate’ performing at Hard Rock Cafe Bangalore on Thursday, January 5th!
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Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a chain of theme restaurant, theme bar-restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos, hotels and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll ...

India''

Band members

* Tipriti 'Tips' Kharbangar (Vocals, Rhythm guitar, Songwriter) * Rudy Wallang (Vocals, Lead guitar, Songwriter)

Discography

*Shillong (2004) *Moving On (2009) *Ten stories up (2014)

References

External links

* at

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

Soulmate
at

Last.fm Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Utilizing a music recommender system known as "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm creates a detailed profile of each user's musical preferences by recording the details of the tracks they ...

{{Authority control Indian rock music groups Blues rock groups Musical groups established in 2003 2003 establishments in Meghalaya Shillong Musicians from Meghalaya