“The horn from hell” – that’s how a critic expressed his views on this instrument. Time magazine has listed it in its “10 most annoying sounds” list. As you have guessed correctly we are talking about the Vuvuzela. It is going to remain an indelible memory of this year’s edition of FIFA World Cup.

No one is sure about how Vuvuzela originated even though a musician called Freddie Maake claims that he invented the horn in the 70’s. Also the Nazareth Baptist Church came out with a demand to ban the horns at the stadiums as they consider it as their own and part of their rituals. The church uses a metal version whereas the Vuvuzelas seen in the stadium are made of plastic. The origins of the Vuvuzela can be traced back to the “Kudu” horn which was used to summon distant villagers to attend community gathering.

A Vuvuzela generates a pitch of B flat below C. An anonymous musician has written a concerto in B flat for Vuvuzela, more details are here. Here is a video wherein a Vuvuzela orchestra member demonstrates the proper usage the instrument.

The possibility of Vuvuzela becoming a regular instrument seems to be very remote. But it has definitely caught on the imagination or rather gathered the ire of the millions of soccer fans around the globe. So much so that Youtube recently introduced a new button to its videos. The button, denoted by a soccer ball icon, on clicking introduces the now-familiar vuvuzela drone to any video that you are watching. Not that I have seen it improve anything I watched as yet! The sound of an individual Vuvuzela has been compared to that produced by a flatulent elephant through its posterior. But the collective sounds of the Vuvuzelas resemble the hum of a million bees. Its incessant beehive buzz is posing serious headaches to the broadcasting companies covering the tournament. Accusations of ear damage and even viral infections have been made against the instrument. But the South Africans seemed to be unfazed and are blowing their own hellish trumpet.

Below is the concerto I had spoken of earlier. Though musically there isn’t a lot to it, it does sound way better than how the instrument sounds over a World Cup match!

Swarathma Album

Folk fusion has taken a new meaning with Swarathma, a Bangalore based band, who rocked the night of 3rd june, at Hard Rock Café, Bengaluru. With their quite unique sound, incorporating elements of contemporary rock and traditional music, Swarathma’s show that night at HRC went a long way in capturing the hearts of Bengaluru’s music following public. The highlight of the show was the release of the music video “Pyaasi” featuring Shubha Mudgal on vocals and Suhail Yusuf Khan of Advaita fame on sarangi, a social message to highlight the water scarcity problem affecting the country’s different regions.

The song “EE-bhoomi”, sung in Kannada is already famous in the music circles for its amazing ensemble of music, as well as being one where the crowd can sing along. Accompanied by a thumping bass line and a drum beat to go with, this one song was the cherry on the cake for the awesome night’s performance. However, having listened to the other songs in the album tells you one thing: This is not a one-trick pony(speaking of ponies, the kutchi ghodi is a feature u can’t miss in a swarathma performance ). Songs like ‘Jaana Kahan hai mujhe’ is a sentimental reflection on the dilemmas we have in life, while the rendition of ‘Sur Mera’ left one speechless with its slow kickup and intelligent fusion of indigenous percussion with the strings and the drums.

Originally formed in Mysore in 2002, Swarathma currently features Vasu Dixit on vocals, Sanjeev Nayak on violin, Varun Murali on lead guitar, Jishnu Dasgupta on bass, Pavan Kumar on percussion and backing vocals and Montry Manuel on drums. The band members come from various musical backgrounds, thus contributing to the rich texture in their music. Their passion for music is evident from their backgrounds, with some of the band members sacrificing high flying corporate careers to pursue their passion for music. Vasu Dixit took a 2 year sabbatical from the band to pursue a masters in film and video communication from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, while Jishnu Dasgupta was already popular in B-school circles as the bassist for Bodhi Tree, the band from XLRI, and composer of songs like ‘GMD’, ‘XL ki kudiyan’ etc.

The versatility of Pavan Kumar adds a lot of prowess to the band’s music. Adept at conjuring magic from various percussion instruments like Kanjira, Djembe, Ghatam and Dholak, Pavan also performed as the lead vocalist in one of their songs. Montry Manuel’s flowing drumbeats are dependable and the keen devotee of Pink Floyd and Safri Duo always never fails to miss a beat. The drum solo at the end of the HRC show was testimony to that fact. Varun’s climb to fame in a short time is an inspiration to all budding guitarists. The fact that he started playing only 5 years before was quite incredible, and amazing.

Sanjeev Nayak’s virtuoso violin performance incorporates elements of Carnatic music into the band’s music. A self professed admirer of L Subramaniam and L Shankar’s violin performances, the quiet confidence with which the violinist holds the stage is a lesson for all budding musicians. Vasu Dixit hails from a family with a musical background, with his mother and elder brother Raghu Dixit already in the music circles. A passionate photographer and filmmaker, Vasu’s versatile vocal range and sensitive lyrics form the soul of swarathma. Other than their self titled album released under the Virgin Records label, Vasu Dixit has recently written music for a Kannada film.

Going into HRC made me sure of one thing: We can expect more great things from this band, if the show was a sign of things to come!! A show never to be missed if u have the good fortune to be in the same city

Personal favourite song: EE bhoomi!!

Swarathma website: http://swarathma.com

Facebook fan-page

Rock music followers from the South would remember him as the erstwhile bass guitarist of the Malayali folk-rock band Avial. And the rest of India would recognize him as playing bass alongside his brother and Kailash Kher as part of Kailasa. As our latest entrant to the spotlight series, we present to you one of the leading bass guitarists of India, Naresh Kamath. And believe me, this is as comprehensive as an interview could ever get! If you don’t, read and see for yourself.

It must be fun to have a brother at home

whom you can jam with. So how did you

and Paresh get into music? Could you take us through your upbringing?

Well I’d have to say that my brothers( Harish is the eldest.. not a musician though!) have been a big influence on me in my child hood. They’d be hearing music on the radio since when I was a toddler. Harish knew all the hindi songs and used to sing them whenever there was a party. We all went to Boarding school in Panchgani( Hill station near Mahabaleshwar) called St Peters high school.There we had a music teacher that taught us the western style of music, like how to sing in a choir and sing harmonies etc. They taught us songs of the Beatles etc. We started making our own songs even before we knew how to play an instrument. So basically we were pretty deep into music by the time we got out of school. Paresh picked up the guitar right about the time he got out of school and soon he was part of a band and basically there was no looking back! For me, living in a house with an elder brother, who was already in a band and with me as deep into music as he was, I was destined to do the same. After playing separately in different bands for a while, we found ourselves trying to learn Jazz and fusion music under the guidance of Dinshah Sanjana, in a legendary band called  ‘Divya‘. It was quite a steep learning curve for us rocker boys at that time, but we realized that our hunger for musical knowledge could not be jailed by any particular genre of music and so we found ourselves playing jazz fusion music with Divya at international music festivals!

You used to be a vocalist once upon a time. Why did you drop that for bass guitar? Do you

have plans of going back to mainstream vocals in future?

My voice is the first instrument that I learned to play and later on I realized that I was pretty good at it. I remember when I was in the 10th standard, I used to practice air drumming and the first time that I sat on a drum kit, I actually played a proper beat, so I was super excited. I asked my dad if I could buy a 2nd hand drum kit, which amounted to 15 thousand rupees at that time. My dad said OK, but he asked me to take a day to think about it, to see if I was really sure I wanted to play the drums. That day Paresh told me that I was a very good singer and I should be concentrating on my singing instead of  learning drums. I took his advice and from then on I started concentrating on my singing! I started singing for various rock bands and even won singing awards at rock competitions around the country. The problem with rock bands in our country is that just don’t stick together. That’s exactly what happened to my band at the time and only the drummer and me were left. Drummer and singer are not a good jam combination, so I decided to learn the bass guitar so that I could jam with my drummer. I used to play basic chords on the acoustic guitar and could doodle around on it, so learning the bass became easier for me and I got really deep into it. I’d sometimes practice for the whole night into the morning. I became pretty good at it in a relatively short period of time. Around that time Paresh & me got into Divya and started learning jazz-fusion music which is essentially instrumental music, so singing straightaway took a back seat and before I knew it I was considered a bass player and not a singer really!

Since I had started singing Western songs in the rock bands while growing up, Hindi singing didn’t come naturally to me. I had to really work hard to be able to sing in Hindi and not sound like a foreigner! But over time as I’ve been working with other hindi singers and artistes,composing hindi songs etc. I’ve become more comfortable and confident with it. I have already sung songs in a few films like Luck (Jee le), Teen Patti (Intezaar), Pyaar Impossible (10 on 10) etc. I love to sing and singing actually helps me in composing my own tunes, so who knows I’ll come out with my own album some day !

Most Keralites would know you more as an erstwhile Avial member than a present Kailasa

member. Can you tell us a bit about your musical forays prior to Avial?

While I was in college I’d already become a roadie for Paresh’s band Witch Hammer, which was pretty well known in Bombay at the time. I ended up joining them when there singer quit, but It didn’t go too well for me,as I was new and didn’t have the experience, on top of that I was replacing a good singer with a big following and believe me, rock audiences can be really unforgiving. I then joined another band called Modus Operandi and we did pretty well in the rock scene in Bombay. We used to cover bands like Extreme, Mr.Big, Whitesnake etc. But that didn’t last too long and it ended up with just the drummer and me! At around this time I picked up the bass and withing 6 months I was playing bass on stage with my brothers band. That’s when Dinshah Sanjana spotted us and threw us a proposal to play at an international jazz festival within a year, if we joined his band called Divya. Divya completely changed my musical outlook and I was never the same again.

You were the only non-Malayali member of Avial. And if I am right in my guess, this is the

only musical ensemble you were part of without your brother being involved. How did you

end up with Avial? And why did you leave it? Have you considered a return (This is more a

hope than a query!)?

Avial has been a comparatively recent development. I used to play and make music for a dance company called The Daksha Sheth dance company and thats where I met Rex from Avial. We really got along as friends and musically. Between rehearsals we’d jam a lot and that was real fun. Rex told me that he had his own band and that they were recording their album soon. He wanted me to play on it and I agreed. It took about 6 months for things to materialize and I ended up going to Kerala to record with the Avial boys. I had a really nice time hanging out with Rex & Tony while recording the album, enjoying the Kerala experience and I also ended up eating Avial for the first time!

I was never really a part of the band Avial. The way I see it, I was invited to come and play bass on their album and so I did. Later they started getting show offers, but they still hadn’t found a bass player to play all that material, so they asked me if I could play live gigs with them too, but I was already a part of Kailasa, so it would’ve been very difficult for me to manage playing in both the acts. I did end up playing with them for a few gigs, but at the same time I asked them to find a permanent member for their own good.

How did you come to collaborate with Kailash Kher for Kailasa? How has the experience

of working with Kailash Kher been?

After our stint with Divya, Paresh & I had decided to get into music direction & production seriously, so we worked on making a home production studio. We had started producing remix albums and worked with Shaan on his album Aksar and were basically making our foray into the music industry. Thats when we got an offer to produce a new singer called Kailash Kher. We had never heard of this guy, but his representatives sent us a cd of his voice and a guide track separately of the song Piya re Piya re. They asked if we could make some music over it and send it back to them. When we heard his voice we were really impressed as it was not the typical bollywood voice and it had that raw element to it. We had not heard the original Nusrat version so we made the music we thought would work well with it and sent it back to them. Kailash loved it and wanted to meet us, from then on there was no looking back.

Working with Kailash over the years has been truly amazing and a great experience. When we started out, no one knew of him. All we had was our love for music and the mutual respect we had for each other. Now after all the success that Kailasa has had and all the fame that Kailash has achieved, those two things haven’t changed and that’s I think the secret of our success.

You had done a wonderful composing job in Dasvidaniya. And even the 2 tracks you did

for CC2C were neat. Why no movie scores after that?

Composing for movies is something that we’re really looking forward to. Unfortunately for us, after  CC2C & Dasvidaniya, we’ve had few opportunities to compose for a movies, although we have composed the title track Allah Ke Bande, for the film with the same name. Meanwhile we’re working on the material for our 4th album and along with our touring, we’re keeping ourselves busy.

Apart from Kailasa, what are your other current engagements? Do you do bass for

other composers in movies or otherwise?

Paresh & I along with other members of Kailasa have our own English band called Hipnotribe. We take every opportunity to play live, when Kailasa is not touring. Right now we’re working on recording our album, which should hopefully be completed soon ! As I sadi earlier, I do a little bit of play back singing myself, not just for movies but also tv advertisements etc. Apart from that I do music production for advertisements & tv shows. I also do background scores for movies.

As far as playing bass for other composers, it happens very rarely, as bass is an instrument that stays mostly in the background. Most music producers are happy playing bass on the keyboards, so if you are a bass player looking for studio work it’s gonna be few and far between. But saying that, I do get calls every now and then, to play bass as they want a ”live feel” to it!

You were into folk-rock fusion with Avial. Even with Kailasa there has been the

occasional sufi-rock fusion. Considering your experience in the field, what do you think

of the direction fusion rock is taking in India? What do you think of its future here? Do

you have any similar dream fusion projects you would want to implement?

The great thing about fusing folk music with contemporary sounds and music is that you can take a little of the old and mix it with the new to create something which is unique to you, which can represent your thoughts and ideas and still  have the ethnicity in appealing to a larger audience, especially in India which has such a humongous and vast repertoire of folk music. Anything that is done genuinely and from the heart has a high success rate according to me, so while there’ll always be fads or trends in music, the longevity of any genre or artiste will depend on the genuineness of their music.

As of now I don’t have any specific plans, but I have a lot of music in me which is waiting to be expressed, so I’m sure something will prop up soon enough.

Who are your inspirations? Fave artists?

As a musician I consider myself as a sponge which absorbs all kinds of music and stores it somewhere in my subconscious. All the music I heard from childhood, like hearing Pt. Bhimsen Joshi on the morning radio to hearing Lata Mangeshkar on tape singing Meera bhajans, not to mention all the film songs sung by Kishore Kumar, Mohd. Rafi etc. they stay with you. I learnt Beatles songs in boarding school, then got into western pop music, hearing bands like the Police, Duran Duran, not to forget Michael Jackson, Prince etc. After that hearing rock music in college, Guns n Roses, Metallica,Van Halen, Sound Garden, Red hot Chili Peppers, Extreme, Mr.Big etc. (and for me the biggest of them all) Led Zeppelin, all the staples of rock music, had a big influence on me. I got into jazz fusion music where bands like Tribal Tech, Trilok Gurtu’s Crazy Saints, Weather Report etc made a deep impression on me. Jamiroquai, Sting, Seal, more recently Cold Play, Imogen Heap, Jazzanova, John Mayer, Jeff Buckley… I can go on ! On the home front, R.D. Burman &  A.R. Rahman, always the path breakers, Vishal Bharadwaj, Lucky Ali’s solo albums too, I love them.

Having done so many live shows, is there any memorable live show moment you would

like to share with our readers?

There have been many memorable shows and some funny moments too.. recently Kailasa played at a show in HongKong for Kingfisher and it’s clients. Mr.Vijay Mallya the owner of King Fisher was called on stage to give a speech. If you have ever been on a Kingfisher flight you would know that a recorded ‘welcome aboard’ speech of Mr.Mallya always plays where he asks his guests to feel like as if they’re in his own home and if they had any complaints they could contact him “personally”. The whole band was familiar with this as we’ve travelled Kingfisher gazzillion times! As expected Mr. Mallya repeated his offer at this speech, asking all present to contact him “personally” in case they had any complaints or queries. The whole band was in splits, when we we heard the word “personally”. After the speech we gathered ourselves and got on stage for or performance, but before we started Kailash introduced himself  and Kailasa to Mr Mallya and then went on to tell Mr. Mallya that if he had any questions or complaints, Mr. Mallya could contact him “Personally” lol!

Here’s wishing Naresh besto for all his future endeavours. We shall be back with another artist pretty soon!

Naresh playing for Kailasa’s concert at IIM Lucknow’s Manfest 2010 edition

Studio version of my fave Avial song, Aadu Pambe. Naresh on the bass

Ronnie James Dio, one of the most popular singers of heavy metal music, passed away on the 16^th of May after struggling a long battle against stomach cancer. He had performed with “Elf “, “Rainbow”, “Black Sabbath”, “Heaven & Hell”, and his own band “Dio”. He is hailed by his fans as one of the most powerful singers in heavy metal, renowned for his consistent powerful voice and for his “devil’s horns” hand gesture in metal culture. He took over as the lead singer of Black Sabbath in 1979 after Ozzy Osbourne left the group.

He was born as Ronald James Padavona to Italian Parents. He made his first mark in the field of music as the frontman  in the band “Rainbow”, who released their first album in 1975. After he broke away from “Rainbow”, he was asked to replace the mighty Ozzy Osbourne in “Black Sabbath”. He recorded two highly popular and acclaimed studio albums with “Black Sabbath”, known as “Heaven and Hell” and “The Mob Rules”. In the 1980’s he left “Black Sabbath” and formed his own self titled band which earned a cult status in metal culture. On January 17, 2007, he was inducted into the Rock Walk of Fame at Guitar Center on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard.

We pray that his soul rests in peace.

Its not everyday that you get to see someone who leaves a high-paying job to go into music, a world of uncertainties. Well, Mohan did just that, and quite a good decision it turned out, considering his current repertoire includes – apart from Agnee’s songs, SEL’s chartbuster from London Dreams, Khanabadosh, soundtrack for Samsung Guru’s latest ad series, and a couple of songs with Amit Trivedi for Onir’s upcoming movie I Am. We decided to catch up with Mohan and know more about the man. And here is what we found.

Before we go into the interview, a BIG thank you to our dear friend Swetha without whose efforts this interview wouldn’t have happened. This post dedicated to her!

Your profile on Agnee’s site says that you belong to a

family of Carnatic musicians. Can you tell us about your

musical upbringing? Carnatic vocals, Hindustani vocals,

mridangam, guitar.. how did you manage to master all of

these?

My mother (Smt Vasantha Kannan) is a Carnatic musician (she sings and plays the violin) and my sister (K Srividya) also plays the violin and sings. My father (Sri S Kannan) runs a musical organisation dedicated to Carnatic music and my uncle and aunts and grandparents all play an instrument or sing.. so yes, it definitely IS a very musical family. I started learning the mridangam when i was found banging tin cans in the house at the age of 5 or 6, and my parents sent me to learn from Sri S Sekhar, my Guruji who taught me everything i know (and a lot more that i probably couldn’t grasp at the time) about music. It was great fun learning the mridangam, and I really liked it. Surprisingly though, I never thought it cool to sing at the time because all the women were doing it around me, and it sounded manly to play the mridangam. A decision I definitely regret now! On the subject of mastering any of these instruments or the vocals, am sure I’m a VERY long way off from that, just enjoying music and composing and singing and playing! (Quite humble that, coming from a man who has won the Best Mridangam player of the year thrice at the Chennai Music Festival, and been awarded with the prestigious Palghat Mani Iyer award!)

After doing an MBA from a place like XIMB and landing a dream job like Deutsche Bank, it

takes courage to leave all that and go after your passion. What prompted you to take the

plunge?

Well, every bold step really looks quite stupid, naive and maybe a little TOO gutsy when it’s taken.. but I’m glad it’s worked out and I have the luxury of being able to look back at that decision and say “Thank GOD!”. I have to admit, there were times when I thought it wasn’t such a great idea… the comfort of a nice fat paycheck does take a while to get out of.. and by the time i really started missing it, we had already been signed on by SONY BMG and it wasn’t a situation anymore! The one person who made me change to music was (and will continuously be) Koco, our lead guitarist and co-composer with me on the band. He asked me to come jam with him one day and then we started composing.. and before we knew it, we had songs that we wanted to release.

Was Agnee your first musical initiative, or were you part of some other ensemble before

that?

How did Agnee come about? Why the name Agnee? Are you connected in any way with

the 80s band Agni? And how did you get signed by Sony BMG in your debut itself,

something of a dream for every band?

2007 was a watershed year for Agnee, so to say. You came out with your debut album and

gave music for the movie Dil Dosti etc.  But why did Agnee not come out with a complete

album post that? It is not even as if you have run out of creative fuel. Frankly, Raanjhan

Yaar Di is too good a song  for a show like Splitsvilla!

2007 was great for us. And thankfully, the years ahead have gone better and better. The decision to release singles and not an album is not about running out of creative fuel (at least not yet). The reasons are simple. We release song by song so that each song gets its due on promotion, airplay etc. Having an entire album out at the same time means at least 2 or 3 of the songs will have to go without videos, and sometimes that means keeping not so good songs on the album as well just to have the required playing time of 45 min. We also have a difference of opinion when it comes to selling a medium and not the product (i.e. Cd’s and cassettes as opposed to the music itself) and therefore would rather give everyone an opportunity to listen to our songs, no matter what the medium. So the decision to release the songs free as well. And as part of the promotion for each song we get the chance to look at different platforms and different methods.. one of which was Splitsvilla for the love song as well as for Raanjhan Yaar Di. Hence the release with the show! We will definitely release complete albums, but that will be only to reach those who do not have access to the internet.

It was on the release of London Dreams music there was this widespread search for the

singer named Mohan who sang Khanabadosh. Even among followers of Agnee, not everyone was

acquainted with your name (I myself being among them!). So how did Khanabadosh

happen?

Am glad there was this “widespread” search for the singer who sang Khanabadosh.. wasn’t aware of it myself! The song credits were supposed to be “Mohan (Agnee)” but that got missed in the final print unfortunately! Ehsaan called me one day and said they wanted to try out my voice for this song just as a test.. I went there and sang the first few lines and Shankar said sing the whole thing now. So I sang it and had a lot of fun doing it. There was a LOT to learn from interacting with Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy.. on small things like how professional they are, how ready with their stuff, clarity on direction, they way they’re fun to be with and still such kickass musicians (or is that the other way around??) .. so it was a great experience for me.

You seem to be quite busy on the ad jingle scene as well, Samsung Guru being the

latest one. So is music your sole occupation currently?

You have worked with Amit Trivedi? Thats news! Tell us more about it.

I worked with Amit on a couple of songs.. One for this film called Udaan, which is going to Cannes now (the first hindi film in 7 years to be selected in the mainstream category).. And another for this film called Megha (part of 4 short films in the feature called I Am by Onir). Both were written brilliantly by Amitabh Bhattacharya, the first’s a solo song and the second is a duet with the amazing Rekha Bhardwaj. The Samsung Guru ad is also composed by Amit, with lyrics by Gulzar and directed by Anurag Kashyap.. So it’s been fun doing all this!

What are your current projects-in-progress? And what is the way forward for Agnee and

you as a playback singer?

We’re working on an exciting tour starting May 27th going all over India and it’s a Create with Agnee tour where we’re going to be collaborating with our fans. It’s going to be super fun.. goes on till July 10th. We’re also going to Europe to play in 4 countries there and collaborating with European musicians on some songs. We’re making music for a film called Gulaab Gang, which will be shot towards the end of the year. The future of Agnee is composing, recording and playing live shows.. we wouldn’t change it for the world! We’re just going to try and keep improving our music, have fun doing it, and enjoy meeting other musicians we like and collaborating with them. It’s a fun road.. and we’re determined to enjoy it to the fullest! I really have no plans as a playback singer, all my plans involve Agnee.. the other things happen to me rather than me planning for them or having an ambition for them. Hence, will take the playback singing as it comes!

Today is legendary lyricist Kaifi Azmi’s eighth death anniversary. On this day we dedicate to him one of his most memorable songs, Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho from the 1982 film Arth. While the movie itself made news for the Mahesh Bhatt-Parveen Babi affair-based storyline, the one other greatest contributions of the movie was its soundtrack, penned by Kaifi Azmi and tuned by Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh. Tum Itna.. was the best song of the soundtrack and is still considered to be one of the best works of Jagjit Singh, both as a composer and as a vocalist. Therefore on his death anniversary we couldn’t find a better tribute for Kaifi Azmi than this song! Below is a stage version of the song, followed by the lyrics.

Tum Itna Jo.. Muskura Rahe Ho (2)
Kya Gham Hai Jisko.. Chhupa Rahe Ho (2)
Tum Itna Jo.. Muskura Rahe Ho

Aankhon Mein Nami.. Haseen Labon Par (2)
Kya Haal Hai.. Kya Dikha Rahe Ho (2)
Kya Gham Hai Jisko.. Chhupa Rahe Ho
Tum Itna Jo.. Muskura Rahe Ho

Ban Jayenge.. Zehar Peete Peete (2)
Yeh Ashq Jo.. Peete Jaa Rahe Ho (2)

Jin Zakhmon Ko.. Waqt Bhar Chala Hai (2)
Tum Kyon Unhe.. Chhede Jaa Rahe Ho (2)
Kya Gham Hai Jisko.. Chhupa Rahe Ho
Tum Itna Jo.. Muskura Rahe Ho

Rekhaon Ka.. Khel Hai Muqaddar (2)
Rekhaon Se.. Maat Khaa Rahe Ho (2)
Kya Gham Hai Jisko.. Chhupa Rahe Ho (3)

As the next guest in our series of interviews, we bring to you Sanjeev Thomas. Sanjeev owns a studio in Chennai called Rainbow Bridge with its headline band by the same name. Another distinguished honor for Sanjeev is that he has been the lead guitarist for A.R. Rahman in his studio recordings as well as live concerts.

So where and how did it all begin for you?

I was born and brought up in Kuwait where I picked up the Guitar at the age of 8 after some coaxing from my dad. Although I learnt the guitar for some time, there was a lot of theory involved which got me bored and I had left it for some time. I completed my schooling in Kuwait and then moved to Chennai where I completed my degree. Although I was good at studying, I could never really see myself doing a day job.. I wanted to be a rockstar. So after playing the guitar for a few years, I started a few bands such as Buddha Blown and Buddha’s Babies. Then I started my own studio called Rainbow Bridge and the Rainbow Bridge Band started as the headline band for the studio.

How did the band come about? And what is the funda behind

the name Rainbow Bridge?

I started the Rainbow bridge studio around 5 years back.. And since the studio needed a headline band, I formed the band. The name just came from the studio’s name. Rainbow bridge basically stands for all kinds of artists coming down under one roof.

Fusion is too generic a term to classify your music. How would you describe Rainbow

Bridge’s music?

I had a couple of bands before Rainbow Bridge(Buddha’s Babies and Buddha Blown).  Rainbow Bridge started by taking those songs and reinventing them. We do all kinds of music and it would be difficult to classify it into any one genre. This is what we call the Independent or indie rock.

Where is the Indian Rock scene headed? Would it ever be as popular in India as it is in

the west?

Be it India or west, the Indie Rock scene does not have popularity. It has always been an underground movement. However, the west has the infrastructure to support upcoming underground artists. India so far does not have that. So, most of the upcoming artists find it difficult to sustain themselves and end up either going into mainstream commercial music or quit music altogether.

Playing alongside A R Rahman is a dream come true moment for any Indian musician. And

you have been playing with him for quite some time now.  Tell us more about your

experience with the maestro.

Around three and a half years ago I got a call inviting me to work with Rahman on the “Vote for Taj” campaign. It was a shocker for me. Ever since, I have worked with him on a number of projects which include studio recordings and live concerts. Live concerts with Rahman are always great fun because there are a minimum of 75,000 people at any concert. A particular concert I remember was one at Cochin. I had entered in a crane that was high above the ground and balancing ourselves in the crane while playing the instruments was a real adventure.

Being a guitarist it is quite obvious you would have your idols. Could you please name

them?

Having been brought up in the late 70s/80s, I was initially a huge fan of disco music. So I would say, my first influence were the Bee-Gees. Later on I got into heavy/death metal where I liked bands such as Sepultura. . Ony after this did I discover the 70s Rock’n’Roll with bands such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin etc.

Any plans of getting into mainstream commercial/bollywood music?

I am already into commercial music. I do production for a lot of commercial movies and albums in my studio. Although as a youngster I was against pop music, I have grown to believe that no kind of music is bad music. So now I produce all kind of music including hip-hop, bollywood etc. Although I would always have a soft spot for indie rock music as I started off with that music.

What are the future projects, both on your individual front and the band front?

The first thing I am looking forward to is the release of my album later this year. The album will have a variety of genres of music. Secondly, I am looking forward to the world tour with Rahman. I am also doing a lot of projects in bollywood with the likes of Anu Malik and Pritam. Although I have always been a guitarist, I am also looking forward to my career in singing. I am already singing for my own band but I am also recording a few songs that would be released in movies in the upcoming year.

We eagerly look forward to the release of Sanjeev’s album and wish him the best for all his future projects!

For more on Sanjeev’s music visit his myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/rainbowbridgeindia

Wake

Meherbaan – Instrumental

Freewill

It is always a great challenge for a musician to make his debut with a classic song, which has in the past been covered by many great artists, and turn out a commendable job of it. And if that wasn’t challenging enough, consider a case where the musician himself does the instruments, modified lyrics and in the end launches the song on his own label. This “all-rounder” happens to be Dilpreet Bhatia, a Delhi-based folk-rock singer/songwriter, who recently came out with his debut single, a tribute to the great Nusrat Fateh Ali. Dilpreet is our spotlight artist for the week.

Let us start with a brief about you, your

musical background and so on.

I am based in Delhi, but spent most of my childhood in a small town of Fatehabad in Haryana, Started learning music from my teachers at school there. Performed in school and college fests but never thought that I would take music so seriously. Went to Bangalore for a Software Job and suddenly I started feeling that something is missing out here…I cant live without performing, without music. I came to Delhi and started learning Hindustani Classical from my Guruji Sumitra Guha and kept on trying and trying to do what I love to do, perform where ever I could and write whatever I felt….

Trying to cover a classic, especially by someone like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, is always a

high risk venture, with high chances of the song not going down well with purists, fans et

al. Nevertheless you chose to do just that (and did a beautiful job of it, we should add!).

So why Nusratji? And why this particular song?

I must say that I am honored, and thanks a lot for your kind words. I am a great fan of Nusrat Ji…his compositions are legendary. And the simple reason I chose this song was that ‘I loved it’ and I could relate to this song. I was not thinking of any risk when i was improvising it.  I hope you would have noticed that the antra of this song is not what Nusrat Ji have sung. What he has done, is legendary. And lot of artists like Kailash Kher, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and NFAK have sung this song before.  but extending it, writing new antras and giving them a whole tune…ya it may be scary but this is how I feel one with the song and I am honored that people liked this version and I hope that if he(Nusrat Ji) could listen to this song from up there, he wont scold me after hearing it…

At a time when most Punjabi songs tend towards the cacophonous orchestration, it is

refreshing to hear purely acoustic songs which bring out the real beauty of Punjabi Sufi

music. Was the arrangement entirely handled by you as well? And who is the pianist?

Ya, I did the music arrangement, recording and mixing for this song at my home studio, and all the intruments on this song, including piano, are played by me.

Today the easiest path to fame is quite evidently reality shows, and there have been many

who got their 15 minutes (and more) of fame through this. And considering you have good

talent as well, why did you not opt for that route?

I never thought its a good option for me.

This song has been launched via your own private label, Sur & Soul Records. Do you plan

to go big on the labels front, by trying to launch albums of other artists as well, or are you

going to employ Sur & Soul for your songs alone?

Sur ‘n’ Soul Records will not be limited to my songs alone, we have plan to launch other artists as well, mostly associated with hindustani classical. But it will remain an Indie Label.

Needless to say, launching a single costs a lot of money. Is music your sole bread-winner,

or are you employed otherwise?

I am also working as Lead Software Engineer for creative software giant Adobe Systems Inc.

You have come out with your first single now. When do you plan to launch a full album? And is that going to be all covers or are you working on some own comps as well?

The full album is already ready, Its in Punjabi, and songs have been written, composed and sung by me and directed by Leslie Lewis of Colonial Cousins. I have also collaborated with 6 times Grammy Winning Mixing Engineer Ken Lewis for one of songs in this Album. We are right now showcasing it to labels and hopefully it should be out very very soon.

The staple musician question – who are your influences?

Ghulam Ali, Nusrat Ji, Pt Jasraj, U2, A R Rahman and my Guruji Sumitra Guha, have had the greatest influence on me and my music.

A lot of Indian musicians are currently collaborating with international musicians with

great success. Have you explored that possibility?

Yes, I have recently completed recording a song for UK based producer Shammi Pithia, Did one song with Ken Lewis, which is featured in my upcoming album, and currently working on a multiple song project with Canadian band Nawticks.

Next pitstop would be Bollywood we are guessing. Anything on that front yet?

Nothing on that front right now, this Single and Album have been keeping me busy for now, but ya, I am surely gonna give it a shot.
We wish you all the best, and hope your debut album happens soon indeed.
Another spotlight artist coming up your way soon!

The name Amartya Rahut might not ring a bell in most minds. But I doubt there is a person who wouldn’t have heard at least one of his many works on TV, which range from the jingle for Cadbury’s Perk to Colors Channel Signature Tune to his award-winning Punjabicized version of Jingle Bells created for Nickelodeon. His religious views, as per facebook, is “John Lennon is God”. That gives a general idea of how committed this guitarist-composer is to music.

Amartya’s first shot to fame was his fusion band in early 2000s, OM, which he formed with the now-famous Amit Trivedi and three other guys. He did his Bollywood debut last year with Aagey Se Right, but it unfortunately didn’t attain success in spite of being a good album. The man is currently busy with the works of his new band Nine which debuted at the Kala Ghoda Festival on Feb 12. We decided to catch up with Amartya aka Bobo and get his story for our readers. Read on then!

Let us start with your pre-OM days. Your

musical upbringing et al.

I have been a professional freelance guitar player from my school days in Calcutta… Have played with some of the premium bands of that time… Namely Shiva, Fifth Dimension, Asteroids, Cactus, Paras Pathar….

But personally I have always wanted to compose original songs and ideally wanted to do it on a national platform and not be restricted to any regional space… So shifted base to Mumbai in 2000.

In Mumbai started off with whatever little work I would get initially in advertising… And the struggle which I guess every migrant in Mumbai faces in our industry….

How did OM come about? The five of you are seemingly people from different

backgrounds, both geographically and musically.

During my initial advertising days in Mumbai I started working with Amit Trivedi (Dev D/Aamir)… He used to be my arranger for all my advertising sessions… His friends were Sriram and Ram…and one fine day we got together and created Om… We were pretty lucky I must say to get times music to spend on our album pretty much as soon as we had started the band…

I have read you as being credited as composer for OM in many places. Just want to clarify

whether it was entirely your effort, coz in at least a couple of songs (Baadal and Tum Tana

especially) I have got an improv sort of feel.

My part in Om was being the composer and guitar player for the band… Sriram composed a few tracks on his own… Amit arranged all the songs and Baadal was a traditional piece which we jammed on…

Om was formed in 2002. I believe you came out with the album some time in 2004. And

after such a brilliant debut nothing was heard of Om again. What happened? Is there a

possibility of a reunion in future?

Unfortunately, after the album released, although we did get decent response, our personal goals seemed to be pretty individualistic…as for myself I was already composing on a regular level for premium mainstream advertising commercials, Amit the other key member of Om was working with me… Ram and Sriram had full time corporate jobs… So it fell apart… And now it seems pretty unlikely that there will be a reunion…

Coming back to your individual exploits, after your stint with Om you were lying low, at

least to the public eye, till Aagey Se Right came about in late 2009. What were you doing in

this long hiatus?

After Om, I scored the music for for 2 Marathi films for a friend of mine , director Bipin Nadkarni… The National award winning Uttarayan and Evdhasa Aabhal… I got the State award, Zee Alfa award, and the V Shantaram Puraskar for the above films…

Along with all this my advertising stint continued on a regular level… Personally I love composing for ads… As the time frame is limited, the money being good… And the job, very challenging… One needs to be on his toes everyday to score advertising music…

Along with advertising I do a lot of television work as well… The channel signature tunes of Colors and Real have been composed by me. Last year, ‘KHATRON KE KHILADI”, “CHOTE MIYAN”, “BIG BOSS” AND “NATIONAL BINGO”etc…

In 2009 I did Aagey Se Right… Again for a friend of mine from my advertising background, Indrajit Nattoji… I still wish the music had been promoted a little… There was almost zero publicity as far as the music of the film was concerned…

What other Bollywood projects have you got coming up?

Currently, working on a couple of film projects …but no point in naming them now…as I have realized one simple thing as far as feature films are concerned…till they release one never knows what the outcome is going to be…because it is a big affair and I guess there are lots of variables attached to a film…so, being a little superstitious about it (hehe)..

Congratulations on your debuting your new band Nine at the Kala Ghoda festival. Tell us

more about the band. When is Nine’s official album going to hit the shelves?

Currently I am occupied working on the band Nine with two extremely talented and dear friends, Neelesh Mishra and Shilpa Rao… Nine was completely Neelesh’s idea…I am simply composing the songs and creating the music to his thoughts….. And things are shaping up well… Hopefully this year the album should release…

To be parting on a light note, mind telling us the history behind your famous nickname

Bobo?

As far as Bobo is concerned…a very strange uncle of mine (this is the story passed on to me by my dad), had this brilliant idea of naming me Bobo when I was a baby…and its stuck till date (hahaha)…

Whoever I meet for the first time, I introduce myself as Amartya…by our third meeting he starts calling me Bobo…so that’s a comic tragic affair I have to live with I guess!!!

Well here is wishing Amartya all success with his upcoming Bollywood ventures, and Nine. As an ardent fan of OM I do sincerely hope that a reunion of OM happens in spite of Bobo’s misgivings! We shall be back with another artist soon. Below are some videos of Amartya’s past works.

Piya by OM, reproduced with the artist’s permission

Amartya’s rehash of Jingle Bells for Nickelodeon which won the Promax 2009 award for best music

A Condom awareness ad with music composed by Amartya

The creature shown in figure below shares its name with a certain mental condition. What?