Tell us about the journey of HRC as a Rock music brand.
We started 10 years ago in East Mumbai. Since then we have opened 8 outlets and that has been the journey so far and we have 3.5 thousand live music performances and served over 8 million customers. It has been a fantastic journey.
How do you think HRC has evolved as a music venue from when it started to now?
I think music evolves. If we look back 10 years ago v/s today the music has evolved in itself. And with that so does hard Rock as it generally reflects the type of music people are enjoying at a given time. So through music we have evolved as well.
What is HRC’s USP that you don’t see anywhere else.
I think we’re always true to the fact that what we like to say “Love Music, Love Hard Rock”. I think our customers are coming to Hard Rock very specifically for the music. That is something we stay true to. Of course we serve excellent food and have alcohol as well but by and large people would say “lets go to Hard Rock, we love the music.”
HRC has also ventured into other forms of entertainment like Comedy nights etc. Don’t you think that deviates from the core?
Obviously there is a core, and you can build around it. So our core and what our philosophy is “Love Music, Love Hard Rock” but ultimately we are an entertainment space, so people are coming to our venues to have a good time. Basically we are encouraging people to come to us to have a great time and have a great meal as well. Over time that can change also, right? So like I said we need to be playing 100% classic rock which we perhaps used to do 15 years ago at the brand Hard Rock but that has changed so we will certainly play a lot of modern rock and also different genres of music. That is very true to our ethos “Love Music, Love Hard Rock”. So that’s very much our core, our core is all about having a good time while dining and stand up comedies – all about having a good time.
What are the plans for future in HRC?
Look, in terms of outlets, we’re adding two outlets for which the work has begun. And going forward in terms of our offerings is, again, we will stay very true to what we stand for – “Love Music, Love Hard Rock”. And the type of music can evolve and will change, however we will largely stay true to rock. Our mission, at Hard Rock Café, as a brand, is to spread the spirit of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Its not to spread Rock ‘n’ Roll but to spread the spirit of Rock ‘’n Roll.
We always have upcoming talents to perform at Hard Rock Café, so what are you doing as a brand to promote these upcoming talents to perform at Hard Rock on sorted nights?
I would first like to say that a lot of the really popular bands today in India started off with us, so that in itself shows that we’ve been working with a lot of bands since 10 years ago till now and I’m really glad to see them grow and become what they have and I do believe that Hard Rock has played a role in their growth. And that’s something we’ll continue doing. So we have a lot of new platforms for identifying new talent through various associations.
Is there something that you would do to promote these people separately as well?
When you say what we do to promote is always that, them performing in our venues will certainly promote them. So that is one thing. We also have various other opportunities that we give the band, in the sense that certain selected bands have the opportunity to qualify and play on an international stage. So that is something we’re also doing.
