ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

ON A GOOD NOTE

The future is clear for Stubhy Pandav, lead singer and songwriter for Lucky Boys Confusion

You never know where you’ll find a rockstar. How about Downers Grove? For almost three decades, Stubhy Pandav of Lucky Boys Confusion, called this community home.

According to him, his coming up wasn’t necessarily “typical” of this town. Raised by immigrant parents, Stubhy’s father was one of the first people granted scholarship to the United States after the Civil Rights Movement. “I wasn’t really your standard Indian kid of that era. I didn’t want to be a doctor or a lawyer,” he reminisced. Despite very high test scores while attending Kinglsey school, then eventually trudging through the honors track at Downers Grove South, academics were never really his thing. “I probably wasn’t the easiest kid to raise,” he laughed.

Today, he is the lead singer and songwriter of Lucky Boys Confusion, and a soon-to-be-published author. He also holds five professional trading licenses. Despite all his lyrical success, he didn’t grow up musical, having only been exposed to Bollywood music in his traditional Indian household. Around 14 years old, he discovered western music through friends. “I was hooked,” he remembered. “I would spend hours just listening to all sorts of music, but it was the melancholier stuff, like The Cure, that I really identified with.” Unlike most musicians and songwriters who hone their craft from an early age, Stubhy really wasn’t aware of his talent until late in high school. Already a poet and self-proclaimed music junkie by that point, he wrote a song.

To his great surprise, others really liked it.

Having been part of several other bands along the way, Lucky Boys Confusion, a rock band from Downers Grove and Naperville, is his huge success. The group has spanned many different genres but rests heavily within pop rock and punk rock these days. Lucky Boys Confusion is known for high energy music, both live and on record, with lyrics inspired by growing up and living in the Chicagoland area.

Initially unsure of how a career in music would pan out, Stubhy began working at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange after high school. While training to get his trading badge, Lucky Boys Confusion got signed to Elktra Records. Mulling over the prospect of taking the plunge, Stubhy brought it up to his boss. “He said if I didn’t leave, he would fire me,” Stubhy laughed. “So, he helped me make the decision.” Shortly thereafter, the band left for California to begin recording their first album, Throwing the Game.

It was all downhill from there. 25 years and several albums later, the band still performs.

Days he’s not performing are spent working with TB Ameritrade, his daytime gig. Home is in Skokie with wife Megan, a teacher, and Leela, their two-year-old daughter. “They’re my everything,” he smiled. Leela inspired a solo album written during the pandemic; a new project for Stubhy, who typically gets together with bandmates to write songs. The idea for the album started during the pandemic, while singing Leela to sleep at night. “I kind of ran out of songs one night,” Stubhy recalled. “I was wracking my brain for a song, and I just kind of looked out the window at something outside and started to make one up.” He added a little more every night, and it evolved into Mr Ms & The Infusions, (pronounced Mister Mizz & The Infusions), a play on words referencing his 2018 diagnosis with Multiple Sclerosis.

Although Stubhy discovered he had a serious type of MS, he also learned that loss of mobility would be unlikely,

STUBHY IS A GRADUATE OF DOWNERS GROVE SOUTH Continued on next page

THE EVENT RAISED OVER $30,000 FOR THE CONDITION.

due to the positioning of the lesions on his spine. “As bad as it is, I got lucky. So, I wanted to give something back,” Stubhy stated. “MS Sucks, Singing for a Cure,” was a fundraising show Lucky Boys Confusion organized the following year, which raised $33,000 and much awareness of the condition. A dozen or so local bands gathered at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge to loan time and talent to fundraising efforts for the Accelerated Cure Project, an organization that facilitates research that determines the causes and mechanisms of MS. Finding local talent to fill the roster that night was easy. Lucky Boys Confusion has a reputation of being the “nice guys” in the business, opined singer Courtney Boyers of Take the Reigns, a punkinfused rock-n-roll band. “They had us open for them in 2018 at The Metro. It helped us gain visibility,” Boyers gratefully stated.

Stubhy recently started parlaying his song-writing talents into story writing. Along with his diagnosis came a serious push to accomplish bucket list items. “Then I found out I would most likely be okay, but it still reminded me of things I want to do,” he said. He used the extra time afforded by the pandemic to write a one-hundred-thousand-word book. A performer by nature, he plans to leave readers wanting more. Stubhy smiled as he stated, “I’m not showing them all I’ve got just yet. The book will have a couple follow-ups, but I haven’t decided in what way.” Next comes finding a literary agent for this project before starting sequels.

So, what’s upcoming? A show at Bottom Lounge (1375 W Lake St, Chicago) on November 5th and 6th. Lucky Boys Confusion be appearing with The Dog & Everything, Gelheads and Til Morning. Stubhy’s brother’s band, Temple of Dome, will also be playing that night. There are most likely more solo albums on the near horizon. “As long as the songs keep coming, I’ll keep going,” Stubhy said. “I know what I want, and failure doesn’t scare me.” ■

PANDAV AND TOM HIGGENSON OF THE PLAIN WHITE T’S MS SUCKS, SINGING FOR A CURE EVENT.