Warren Mendonsa was just getting out of a Beatles phase in his teens when he started listening to 1960s blues rock bands like Cream and the first few Led Zeppelin albums. "I started listening to what they were listening to," recalls Mendonsa, who would pour through their interviews to figure out their inspiration. "I would see songs in their albums credited to Howling Wolf and Skip James and wonder who they are."Today, the Mumbai-based guitarist, songwriter, producer and recording engineer is the frontman of Blackstratblues.He first exploded onto the scene back in 1998 when he formed the rock band Zero with his childhood friends Sidd Coutto, Girish and Rajeev Talwar. "That was the first band I got into after I got out of school," says Mendonsa. "It played everything from ballads to hard rock."In 2004, he moved to New Zealand and put together a recording setup with his brother.In the garage, they produced an album, `Nights in Shining Karma', which was the Blackstratblues's first. It came out in 2007 and "drew heavily from the vibe and soul of the blues", says Mendonsa, who is currently in the process of record ing `The Last Analogue Generation'. "We will be playing the title track for the first time at the Mahindra Blues Festival," says Mendonsa.According to Mendonsa, the festival has been instrumental in exposing audiences to more blues musicians. "The blues has very malleable boundaries.The moment you start pushing it beyond its traditional form there's a wealth of music," he says.

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