Meet India's only band in Global Battle of Bands' top 5

Zedde is currently India's only band in Hard Rock Cafe's global battle of the bands' top five list. Vote for them so they can perform in London alongside Bruce Springsteen and make India proud!

2Blue walks into the office wearing a white tee and a pair of worn out jeans. He has a tattoo on his left arm and has an air of urgency and restlessness around him.

The frontman of Mumbai-based band Zedde is mighty excited about his band making it to the top five of the Hard Rock Rising Global Battle of the Bands. And he has good reason to be.

Zedde is the only Indian band to make it to the top ten of Hard Rock Rising, an annual competition which sees bands from across the world competing for the top spot.

This year the band that wins the competition gets to play at London's Hyde Park on the same stage as Bruce Springsteen in July.

2Blue tells me there were over 12,000 bands from across the world in the running. Now there are about 86 left among which Zedde was at number seven based on the number of votes.

While this copy was being written, Zedde had a little over 5000 tweets. Earlier they'd climbed up to number two but a Balinese band Superman is Dead signed by Sony Music has shot up to the number one spot with over 8800 votes, a challenge that Zedde, an independent band will probably find hard to meet.

Here's how you can help Zedde represent India at Hard Rock Rising! Vote for Zedde by clicking on this link. Make your vote count! Voting closes on Tuesday at 11.59 pm. Click here to vote!

Zedde is desperate.

The band knows if there is a chance to make it really big it is this. Sure they've had their moments -- their first single Mumbai won the 'Anthem of the Year' at the world's largest indie music awards, AVIMA in 2010. The video for the song was played on prominent music channels in India and climbed to #1 on the Youtube India charts within 24 hours of its upload

Then, ArtistAloud.com a prominent online media-cum-distribution platform awarded them the best band.

But 2Blue as every other member of Zedde knows that nothing compares with this. If they make it, it'll be their moment in the sun, one that they desperately need.

"None of us are getting younger," 2Blue tells a Hard Rock Cafe manager when we reach there for a shoot.

There is a sense of pathos in his voice.

2Blue will turn 37 on March 24, also the last day for the voting. Later, he tells me everyone's in their mid- or late-30s. "We really need this," he says.

Around 2008, 2Blue was still with another band, Vaayu when he 'felt the need to break new grounds and create something new'.

"I approached (guitarist) Claver Menezes, who I had known for a while and loved his work. In less than half a minute Claver agreed and half the band was formed right there. Claver's cousin Trevor joined us on the drums soon after. We still needed a bass player and after some auditions we zeroed in on Deepu and Akashdeep who substitute each other."

While the two bassists are full-time musicians, Claver works as a promo manager at a local radio station and Trevor an operations manager at a BPO.

2Blue was an Assistant Vice President at IT firm till last September when he decided he'd had enough.

"One day you were this superstar with hundreds dancing to your tunes and the next day you gave up your rockstar outfit for a suit. I couldn't take this double life any more. It was like Jekyll and Hyde. Sure I've had to cut down on my expenses. I don't splurge so much any more but I have something I never had before -- time!" he says.

Read 2Blue's entire story here: The story of an MBA who quit his IT job to become a rockstar

2Blue likes to describe the band as 'four passionate middle-aged men writing about 'simpler things in life'.

"Sure it is difficult for a rock band in India to make things work for itself," he says, "But things are far better now. There are far more avenues to showcase your work and a lot more options to sell your music.

Earlier if a music label turned you down, you had nowhere to go. Now, you have the internet; you can upload you music to iTunes or Amazon and distribute your music for free and make your money through gigs.

Surely, it isn't easy. But it certainly isn't as difficult as it used to be. Which is okay too!"

You can vote for Zedde by clicking on this link. Make your vote count! Voting closes on Tuesday at 11.59 pm.