The Score Magazine February 2013 by The Score Magazine

ISSN 0974 – 9128

Vol 06 Issue 02 - February 2013

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India's NATIONAL Pan-Genre Music MagazinE

Muzik Lounge

RaJakrishnan on breaking through with audiography.

FEST FOCUS

SUNBURN

We take a look at India’s most coveted EDM festival and somehow manage to penetrate the haze.

Cover Story

Modi Digital

RAVI SHANKAR talks about how his karma caught up with him

Band of the month

BAREFACED LIAR The new young face of Indian Rock n Roll

SURAJ MANI

About tripping on Tattva and Rediscovery of the self.

A PUBLICATION

The bottom line: Where there is a will, there is a way. We present to you the 5 ways to screw up your gig

the edit PAD Managing Director Ajay Prabhakar

Director, Business Development Pragash VM

Editor-in-Chief Nikila Srinivasan

Associate Editor Siddharth Venkat

Marketing Manager Sneha Ramesh

Regional Marketing Manager,BLR Subikka GS

Creative Director George Vedamanickam

he last 35 days have been quite mad at Score. We have organised 6 concerts, taken our facebook interaction to a record high, made record breaking sales on the advertisement front, and prepared another beautiful issue of The Score Magazine for you.

On that super duper note, I present to you Volume 6 issue 2, our tribute to the late Pandit Ravi Shankar. Arguably the Godfather of Indian fusion and world music. He was undoubtedly India’s cultural ambassador to the west. We managed to get a hold of his last interview, which we have reproduced in our pages. You’ll love this one. As I write this editorial, main-stream media is abuzz with news about an all girl Kashmiri rock band which had a fatwa issued against them. We all feel strongly about cultural terrorism because fringe radical groups control what we get to see and hear, but seldom do we take them to task. It is my ernest hope that we stand for what is right and hope that free speech will once again be restored to it’s full glory in our wonderful democracy. Now is the time for us to act. We would love to hear your thoughts on this subject, and any other feedback you might have. Just drop us a line: contactus@highonscore.com

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i nside

ravi shankar

We talk to the man who redefined the face of Indian Fusion Music.

5 ways to screw up your gig

24 MODI DIGITALâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Band of the Month

Barefaced Lairs take centrespread as Band Of The Month

Quirks and Queries

A step by step guide for dummies.

Beat Route

Neeti Miham talks about love, life and music. And Sousphones, and bagpipes!

Star of the Month

Shantanu Pandit, talks about many things, but mainly about pulling out hair on stage.

Suraj Mani

Vineeth Vincent travels on the less beaten path, beating the odds to success. More bad puns follow.

Tattya Trip and a new musical identity munus Motherjane.

Indie PAtrol

Fest focus: Sunburn Goa

We pick acts from around the country that are hot right now & present them to you, loaded with idealistic metaphors. Audiovisual evidence on www.highonscore.com!

Indie Reviews

The best and the strangest albums out in markets now, from Nu Metal to Nagamese Folk

We check out one of the most prestigious EDM festivals and give you a quick tour

mihir sinha

The Life & Times Of Pandit Ravi Shankar No Strings Attached

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In a life spanning 92 years, Ravi Shankar specialized in setting benchmarks. His catalogue of individual achievements have been subsumed within the irrefutable perception that he was the premier flag bearer of Indian culture. To many, it seemed astonishing that his sitar could become an iconographic summation of something as deep and ancient as the Indian being, but Ravi Shankar’s own reluctance to climb the high horse, combined with a genuine empathy for cultural differences, led him to truly becomea global citizen, long before that term was conceived.

Ravi Shankar gave us light through vibration and sound. – Lenny Kravitz It’s a great loss, not just to Indian music but to world music. He was a world musician – Shiv Kumar Sharma, santoor player.

Bred among the Holy

Go West

Born Robindro Shaunkar Chowdhury on 7th April 1920 in Varanasi, his earliest inspirations were drawn from the hypnotic Vedic chants devotees recited as they converged on the banks of the Ganges and Robindro Sangeet. Maybe, here developed young Shankar’s innate sense of rhythm. This later would lead him to choose complex beat layouts in his composition, drawing cues from Jazz and setting him apart from other Indian virtuosos.

Ravi Shankar quit his job at AIR immediately and decamped to London. This move out west initially entailed numerous performances in America and Europe, before Ravi Shankar returned to London in ’56 to record his first LP, Three Ragas. He would also eventually get-together with his admirer, Menuhin, to perform a concert for the United Nations General Assembly in 1958, forming his first enduring international association. The two collaborated on an eclectic fusion album, East Meets West. The album won a Grammy in 1967 for Best Chamber Music Performance – the first such recognition for an Indian artist.

His sibling Uday Shankar, a renowned dancer, had performed with the legendary Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, in the 1920’s. Uday went onto form his own dance company, setting the stage for Ravi Shankar’s first attempt at performing arts. He was incorporated as a dancer within the troupe and toured the United States and Europe with them, performing cameo sections; all at a stillnascent age of thirteen.

You’ll be a Man, My Son It must have helped him become who he did. All the French he learnt, and the jazz he heard, imbued him with the cosmopolitan flair that would become the hallmark of his musical persona from then on. He’d given up his globetrotting lifestyle to join Baba Allauddin Khan, the famed musician, as his livein disciple in Maihar in 1938, his name had made the metamorphosis. The ‘Chowdhury’ had been done away with a long time ago and the Ravindra was shortened to Ravi. He was now – and would forever remain – Ravi Shankar.

Finding Neverland As the 1940s ended, Ravi Shankar was again grappling with a change in life course. His first assignment as the music director of the All India Radio added significance because, after all, the AIR represented the attempts of a new republic to crystallize and assimilate a new national identity. In his official capacity, he recomposed Saare Jahaan Se Accha, while also providing melodies for the ‘Discovery of India’, a unifying concept based on a book by Jawaharlal Nehru. All of this seems like a footnote now; even the landmark soundtrack he created for friend, Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, or his bringing together of the first Indian National Orchestra. By the 50’s rolled around, Ravi Shankar had almost already done all he could in India, including the dissolution of his marriage to Annapurna Devi. Meeting with American violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, in 1952 was the awaited point of inflexion. Menuhin understood Ravi Shankar’s cross-cultural potential a little before Ravi Shankar himself, inviting his new friend to a show in New York City in 1955, which was turned down. Only when Ali Akbar Khan, who went instead of Ravi Shankar, received rave reviews from the audience in America did the tide truly begin to turn.

He was, though, circumspect when reflecting on his own influences in the west, most notably documented in the invention of ‘raga rock’. It was brought into vogue by The Byrds, who shared a Los Angeles recording studio with Ravi Shankar. They were the original link between Ravi Shankar and George Harrison eventually getting The Beatles too into the realm of oriental classicism. The product being Harrison’s classic sitar-borne compositions: Norwegian Wood from Rubber Soul and Within You Without You from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Shankar & Friends Ravi Shankar’s relationship with George Harrison was more ethereal, drawing on the primacy of the guru – disciple relationship in Indian ethos. Harrison, by all accounts, was a dedicated disciple; he travelled to India in September 1966 and spent time in the tranquility of Srinagar to learn the sitar from Ravi Shankar. 1967 was a watershed year for both. The Beatles and Ravi Shankar; for Ravi Shankar, in part, due to his association with Harrison and – by extension - The Beatles. But it was to prove to be more than a relationship of convenience, outlasting the belated skepticism about Indian mysticism that swept through America and the rest of the west at the end of the ‘60s. In time, it transcended that traditional guru-disciple framework, as Harrison became Ravi Shankar’s frequent collaborator, occasional caretaker, organizer, tour sponsor and for the second of the Shankar autobiographies, Raga Mala, the editor. They were like “Father and son, but also brothers”, as George Harrison’s widow, Olivia, described them, when eulogizing Ravi Shankar. Ravi Shankar’s other abiding musical relationship was with Ustad Alla Rakha, his accomplice on the tabla for the best part of forty years. After taking over from Chatur Lal in 1962, right on the cusp of Shankar’s ascent to stardom, he played a significant – but understated – role in embellishing Ravi Shankar’s ‘world’ sound. Both the performances by the ensemble – at Monterrey and Woodstock – included searing tabla solos by Alla Rakha. . Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead anointed him the “Picasso and Einstein of rhythm”, and he wasn’t far off.

The Long Goodbye He never really retired from performing, though his concert at the Babican in London in 2008, which was suspected to be his last ever in Europe, was the closest he ever came to accepting his farewell. He waved to the crowd and thanked them graciously. But his lust for living remained unquenchable, exemplified in his current tabla accompanist, Tanmay Bose’ account of a visit to the maestro’s home in Encinitas, California, on Shankar’s invitation to jam in October 2011. Over four days, they composed seven new ragas, all of them reeking of passion and low octave energy that Ravi Shankar’s music has drawn on. His fingers still loved twisting and turning the notes, like thoughts. This would go on to make his final release, titled ‘Living Room Sessions Part 1’. Ravi Shankar’s existence was a celebration of living, and so was his death. A crowd of thousands gathered to pay him their last reverences at his memorial service on a clear December morning in San Diego, California. There was little condoling to be done, anyway, for Ravi Shankar had lived a lifetime and more. Things had been precarious since an operation on his lungs a week earlier, as Anoushka Shankar acknowledged in the communiqué that accompanied the official news of his demise on 7th December. A little bit of the poignancy will be reserved for the Grammy Awards this year, when Ravi Shankar won’t be there to collect his fourth Grammy; this one for Lifetime Achievement. He had been told about it a little before he passed away and was elated. But this once, he couldn’t wait to share the joy with the world. The Score Magazine

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Ravi Shankar’s Last Interview In the night of 12.12.2012 the legendary sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar died. A month before, he gave his last interview. He talks about his restricted childhood, first time visit to America, dislike of Woodstock, his daughter Anoushka and why he never took any money from his students. You have a concert coming up in Long Beach and it is a promotion for the Ravi Shankar Foundation. What is this foundation about? The foundation was established in 1997 and we put a lot of the money we make into that. I perform almost every year just for the foundation, so everything from that show all the funds go to the foundation. So we were able to build a center in Delhi where students from all over the world can come and stay. We have a recording studio there and a concert hall a platform for young musicians to come and perform and show their talent. We also sponsor students from the States to go there and study. It is also a beautiful place for dance performances and art exhibitions. We try to do the same thing here in the states and it is our dream to have a center like this in California. We also try to keep some of our traditions as well.

You are in the music business now for so many years, what is the most significant change you think you have seen?

Highlights and recognition > Ravi Shankar has been awarded the three highest civilian awards bestowed by India; Padma Bhushan in 1967, Padma Vibhushan in 1981 and Bharat Ratna in 1999. > He was also awarded France’s highest civilian honour, the Knight of the Legion of Honour. > Elizabeth II anointed Ravi Shankar a Knight Commander of the British Empire for his services to music. > He was awarded the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association. > John Coltrane named his son ‘Ravi’ as a tribute. > George Harrison once called Ravi Shankar, ‘The Godfather of World Music’.

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I started many, many years ago to bring Indian music to the audience all over Europe and then to the United States and at the beginning there were no ears and no understanding for it. But I loved this music and I loved performing and talking about it and writing articles and books. I think all that has changed over the years, it is different these days to come out here and perform the reaction is different and there is much more understanding. Everything that has an influence on the music has changed too.

Do you think it is important for every kid to play an instrument? I think it is very important for every kid in every lifestyle or culture. The rhythm, the melody or the lyrics all that helps our minds. It helps kids growing up understanding this world. Music is very, very important I think. The discipline also that goes with it helps with all other

things in life, to work hard for something, to practice. It just helps young people building their minds. It is great to be musical and to get musical training and feel comfortable in the nature of music. It is also important to have a good relationship to your teacher and to have that experience as a kid. Some people don’t care about that so much today but I think that is very important too.

When you started as a musician what dreams did you have? George Harrison, U.S. President Gerald Ford, and Ravi Shankar in the Oval Office in December 1974. Ravi Shankar was India’s most esteemed musical Ambassador and a singular phenomenon in the classical music worlds of East and West. As a performer, composer, teacher, and writer, he has done more for Indian music than any other musician. He was well known for his pioneering work in bringing Indian music to the West. As an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and member of the United Nations International Rostrum of composers, he received many accolades worldwide, including fourteen doctorates and two Grammys.

At that time you have a lot of dreams. I was lucky I was at the very young age of ten with my great brother, my older brother Uday Shankar and I toured with him from the age of ten all over the world as a dancer and a musician. I played the sitar and the flute and other instruments and I was a dancer. And we toured all over the world and there was such great music everywhere not only Indian music just all the music all over the world. We came to the states when I was twelve and I heard all this great music, the great jazz musicians and great classical musicians and all that helped me to build and fulfill my dream. Then I met my Guru in the Indian classical music. I was so lucky I was in the music and dancing all the time. My dream was to graduate with my Guru and there are so many other great things in my life that happened I didn’t even dream about. I am so thankful for all I have. So I can absolutely say that all my dreams come true and even more.

Let’s talk about your friendship to the Beatles, do you listen to Beatles records a lot? To tell you the truth, I have never listened to a lot. Whenever it was played, I have heard some of their songs, but I’m not completely knowledgeable about their music. The few that I have heard are the personal ones of Paul and George and John. I’m ashamed to say that I knew almost nothing about them when I first met them, but I knew that they were very popular. I was very impressed by George, he was so interested in everything and asked me so many questions, about music and the sitar and spirituality. His enthusiasm was so real so I taught him to play the sitar because that was the only thing I was very good at. He was amazing with words, he wrote songs, and poems, such beautiful words.

George visited you in India to learn from you, right? Yes, he wanted to stay with me for six weeks but he was so famous at that time that people recognized him everywhere so we couldn’t stay where we were, we runaway to Cashmere and lived on a houseboat. It was crazy at that time with the Beatles, I could not believe that four people could create that reaction all over the world.

How did that change your life and your fame? I was well known at that time, too, I played concerts in Carnegie Hall and other places but my state of fame was a different one. I tried to put my music in the focus but that was very difficult for many years then because when the people found out that I was George’s teacher I became very popular for the young generation. I become a kind of a superstar but I didn’t like it so much because of the association with drugs and things like that.

Would you like to tell us how the process for the “Concert for Bangladesh” started? Yeah, Eastern Pakistan and the Pakistan government had problems, they wanted to get separated, and they wanted to name it Bangladesh. It was actually a

language issue and became a big political issue. A lot of my relatives were there at that time, as refugees. I wanted to do something and help so I thought of a benefit show to raise maybe 25,000 dollar. I met with George because he was in Los Angeles at that time, he noticed that I was very unhappy and I told him everything about that Bangladesh issue and that I wanted to do a benefit concert. He was very interested and said: “Let’s do something bigger.” He got on the phone and organized a concert at the Madison Square Garden, he called friends like Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan and everybody wanted to be on board. George wrote the song “Bangladesh” and it ended up as a magical, unforgettable concert.

I read that you didn’t like being on stage at Woodstock. Is that true? It is true in a way but it can be misinterpreted. I actually just didn’t like it because it was raining very much. And the audience was in the rain and the ground was muddy. The music was actually very happy and what they were feeling but there was so much of grass. So I was just very unhappy about that. But that was the only thing, I actually liked Woodstock. It was a mind blowing experience having a half a million people there but somehow it just was not very ideal for me and my music. But I was very happy in Monterey at the festival, my audience was only four or five thousand people but it was fantastic. It was afternoon, open-air and I had a wonderful audience including all the musicians like Jimi Hendrix and “The Mamas & The Papas” and all those great people so that was a wonderful experience.

You are 92 years old and you are still able to be on stage and play music. What is your secret? I love music and I love life. I drink a lot of water, eat healthy and meditate and do yoga. Nowadays I don’t do the yoga that I did in the past, but meditation and music is very helpful. I eat a little fish and chicken but I’m actually a vegetarian and eat lots of vegetables.

You have two musician daughters who have become celebrities in their own right. I am so grateful and happy for this blessing. My daughters are so wonderful. Norah is completely American, she was born and raised here, she got her musical influences from jazz, country and western, and she does the music she loves. Anoushka is different she was with me and studied with me since she was 8 years old. She is extraordinarily talented in everything she does, playing the sitar, writing, conducting, even modeling. When she performs, I feel she is completely what I gave her but with her own individuality of course.

After such a long and illustrious career, is there anything left for you to achieve? I am a turbulent person. I want to do new things, new ballet, new musical productions based on our mythology. There are enough people doing modern stuff. They are younger and have better vision and education. But I want to recapture beautiful things from the past and make stage productions. All these dream projects of mine are big in scope and no one has as yet shown the guts to come out and finance them. I still want the people to understand the music ad make it easier for them. It’s all about peace, love, for equality, for trees, for nature, for human beings, body, soul, everything. 30, 40 years ago these were absolutely not heard. That is different these days already and that makes me happy. The

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Buying a piano can seem like a daunting prospect. Such a huge instrument can never be purchased impromptu. With so many versatile parts and the headache of tuning a piano, one must be very cautious while selecting a piano of choice.

Size Matters. Larger pianos have a better tone and action. Get the tallest upright or longest grand you can accommodate.

Ask your teacher. Most piano teachers are familiar with the brands available locally and are a valuable source of advice.

Look at several brands. Trying a few different brands will give you a better idea of the variety and prices than just looking at one particular make.

After sales and support. Many retailers are happy to sell pianos without knowing how to fix them. Ask the retailer who they have available locally to maintain the piano after it is sold. Be specific about what qualifications their technicians hold.

Traditional is best. The piano was invented in the 1700s and has evolved fully over the last 300 years. The finest manufactures still use traditional manufacturing techniques. Most technical innovations in piano design lead to other problems in the long run and are abandoned in favour of the original design.

Get the best you can afford. Buying the cheapest is not always the best idea. Quality instruments, especially grandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s can be a good investment, as well as a pleasure to own and play.

Think about where the piano will live. Pianos are very sensitive to humidity changes and careful thought needs to be given to where they are housed. Ask an expert about the best location in your home for the piano, it may affect your ultimate choice.

Choose an attractive instrument. Pianos are available with many different finishes, from natural wood to sleek black or even a funky red colour. You will have to live with this piece of furniture for many years so make sure you are happy with the aesthetic qualities as well as the tone.

Consider renting or buy back schemes. Piano lessons can turn out to be a flash in the pan. Many good retailers offer excellent buy back, or rent to buy schemes for those who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wish to commit to a purchase right away.

Educate yourself. Piano technicians study for 3-6 years. Take some time to look up the basics of how a piano works and how it should be maintained.

And the BEST PLACE to get all this under one roof is Furtados, with its showrooms in every location, and a multi brand piano showroom that they are, they can offer you a wide choice of brands and models to suit your taste, preference and budget.

PATROL with

ily cheese fam the: blues ,alternative

We pick acts from around the country that are hot right now & present them to you, loaded with idealistic metaphors. Audiovisual evidence on www.highonscore.com!

GENRE

me bum a WhAT? I know family cheese from the time they let obviously cigarette off of them at Strawberry Fields 2011, so this of bands lot a are there But source. biased fairly a from comes guys are around here playing the blues these days and these indubitably one of the best. y about it, Why? Their music has an almost addictive intensit keep you humming all day long. And that’s not a

and most songs have that earworm quality, that’ll that make every set an experience to behold, bad thing, with mad improvisation and jamming skills the bassists pants down on stage). Call especially when the lead is riffing with his teeth (or pulling g musicians who seem to be having fun on watchin in joy certain a there’s but will, you if puerile me natured jibing and well worn jokes that get stage, and Family Cheese fulfills that need to see good music. insane, , brilliant some with along funnier each time, Cheese” and “You and I are” to instantly make your day better. In short, their the lack of a more imaginative adjective, are the drummer is brilliant, and the music and lyrics, for endation to listen to these guys to their bluesy brilliant. And hence you have my unreserved recomm alternative stuff, and have a thoroughly good time.

out their songs “The wHEN ? When you want to love your breakfast. Checkguitaris t is brilliant, and the bass is brilliant,

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GENRE: hard rock, progressive

WhAT? The Heisenbergishly ambiguous Rise Of Uncertainty were born in Delhi, and play one of the better fusions of hard rock and progressive music.

project of Why? An experimentalSrir out with am Ved, Swara Sutra starts

Why? Now the thing about this bastard genre is that

there are a lot of bands playing it, and very few of them doing it well. It is so easy, and I suppose, so tempting, to get lost in the fretting over the fret board and those ear-crushing drum solos, that somehow the actual construction of music gets left out of the process . Rise Of Uncertainty follow the rules, but they follow them well, and the product is music that you can listen to and love. Here is a band that shows a lot of potential in its nascent stage, but what they do with that potential is going to be of tremendous interest. So here is a band to follow, and possibly, maybe form a cult around.

wHEN ?

When you’re constipated, their energetic riffs will easy the way for you. Listen to “Planet Of The Fools” and “Astraea” for two very differen t songs that shows off the band’s versatility quite nicely. Their songs are difficult to find on the internet, so if you get a chance to see them perform, I suggest you grab it with both hands, they might just be the next big thing.

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GENRE: brit pop (yes!)

WhAT? We’ve finally done it. In a twist of events that turns imperialism on its head and spinning in its grave, India now has a Brit-pop act. The Fringe Pop, two years old and just coming out with their debut album, is an Indian act are reminiscent of The Boo Radleys, in both their British-ness and their Pop-ness. Alt rock bands are dime a dozen these days, but Fringe Pop do what they do unabashedly and do it well. Like they put themselves in their bio, “If you don’t mind the attitude, come watch us, and we’ll show gratitude.”

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Why?

Now you wouldn’t expect that originator of above line to be capable to stellar poetry, but The Fringe Pop apparent ly live to surprise. From frolickin g-ly fun “Little Mistake” to the apocalyptic “Destiny”, they show great range, verve and surpassin gly strong vocals in their music. Like any good rock band , they break out into semi-inc redible guitar solo at regular intervals. Their new album “Roc kstar” is supposed to be out any time now, so I advise you to keep your ears wide open for this one. If nothing else, you coul d trip balls trying to determin where the lead’s accent comes e from.

wHEN? When you are swearing allegianc e to Queen and Country, their nicely set off your anglophilia. guitar work will

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tunepatrol.com/beta/pages/Skra

Don't let the randomness freak you out! These bands are worth checking out. Audio visual evidence on tunepatrol.com/beta

Compiled by:Nilankur Dutta

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AISHWARYA TILAK

BEAT IT

Along The Routes At a Crossroad of Life, Vineeth Vincent, India’s most celebrated Beat boxer and Guinness World Record holder for the World’s Largest Beat Box Ensemble, took the unexcavated path, the one less travelled to find himself touring over a 1000 miles across several Indian cities to inspire and encourage a large variety of local artists, school children, hippies (yeah, he really calls them so!), kids in need, small entrepreneurs among many others who make a difference or want to make a difference in their righteous demand for a sustainable living out of doing what they love. In this world possessed by the rat race syndrome, the space for Alternative Education must be ransacked and the reasons for the existing negative forces raked. While budding artists explore creative fields that are quite contemporary and novice to existing cultures, they dream of living life on stage and being the archetype of creativity, but the fear of financial stability seems to be a taunt to them. Vineeth Vincent and Glen Ivan Suchitha, the tour manager for Beat Route India hope at bridging this gap.

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Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost said it. Beat Route did it.

The Beat Route World “India today is a growing nation with a plethora of possibilities like many other nations. We have a rich culture and heritage. Artists, in society are the ones that represent culture. However, they are also amongst the least respected. As a growing market, the demand for music has also been raising; how can we connect the two? We are working on a project that promotes artists, educates children and also helps create social awareness. I believe artists have the ability to create a value based, sustainable market. We will have artists perform at partner venues and on route, they meet, interact, experience and share what they see. It could be a child who is HIV positive or an injured animal; we will create a bridge to help fill that gap. Beat route is not just another reaction to a cause; it’s a solution to a problem. A solution that has a tangible social, financial and educational impact.”

Beat route

An initiative like nothing ever before. Vomit the idea! VINEETH VINCENT: The artists on the beat

route are like storytellers who also seek for interesting stories and tell them through the looking glass of an artist. “Promoting artists in social responsibility and artist self sustainability”. Big words there, sir. Mind to clear thoughts?

GLEN IVAN SUCHITHA: Today, the youth

Music is the sole soul that keeps artists bound and its power transcends all forces to bring about a positive change. With this belief in mind, and with the heart in desperateness to honour artists with what they deserve, Vineeth Vincent and the tour manager Glen Ivan Suchitha think it’s high time for a socio-economic-mindset change. Beatroute India, they feel, is one way to bring about the needful distortion, not just by bridging cultures but by bringing artists to believe in their art.

tend to be influenced by artists quite easily. Why not have them to be change agents? Additionally, artists need to make a living out of their job, just like any other job. Coming from an artistic background, we understand the struggles and know that most artists do it for the love of it and aren’t necessarily chasing fame. We want to assist them to find a formula that helps them pay their bills and puts food on their table. With Artist Self Sustainability being one of your targets, how has practice before preaching treated you? Do you believe an Indian indigenous band/individual has a decent living/future?

VINEETH VINCENT: We believe in being one

part of a large movement of individuals who are trying to change attitudes of the general public towards artists and we’re trying to insist on the respect they deserve. It is definitely a massive task trying to make ends meet in a market that does not understand the importance of paying a decent sum for entertainment. Clients, who demand for a perfect end product, prefer to give artists “a platform to showcase their talent” over pay. On the other hand we prefer the due respect in the form on financial remuneration. In practicing what we preach, we never do a free gig irrespective of the caliber of the platform. In the words of “The Joker” - “When you’re good at something never do it for free” Instead of a mere embracement of a Be Human tee, you have resorted to an onground make-a-difference theme. I’m inspired. What was your inspiration?

VINEETH VINCENT: We are tired of the talk. We walk the talk. In this particular case, we drive the talk. Every time I step on stage as an Emcee and Beatboxer, I’m reminded of the power that lies at the tip of my lips when it touches my microphone. The ability to influence a crowd has always humbled me. As “Uncle Ben” says - “With great power comes great responsibility” St Johns Medical College - Mysore- Street Show with a French couple - Residential school at Coorg- Mangalore with HIV-

Photo credits : PaperPlane production, Audi Photography

positive children- Seven Beans, Hubli with 10 local musicians- 4 shows at Bangalore. It sounds tiring enough, but with a cause before the team, where do you think it took you and the audience?

GLEN IVAN SUCHITHA: I think it took us

to a place of greater respect for what art can do. Breaking language barriers’, spreading a message and even bringing a smile to a child’s face, speaks for itself. Of all the shows we’ve done before, with beatroute we had a more intimate connect with the audience. Unlike other shows that run more on the monologue lines where only the artists handle the microphone, this was more of an interactive session between the artists and the audience, making it more impactful. As an artist, what is the best thing you have in store for them and what, in return is the best thing you’ve got from them?

VINEETH VINCENT: We do not just perform

as artists. We interact with people. Everyone has something interesting to teach if you are eager enough to learn. On the first day of Beatroute, as we drove our car into a residential school’s ground at about 7 in the evening we switched on the lights of the car and set our sound. After the boys carried the benches and set them up they stood to the side and waited. We assumed that they were waiting for confirmation from their headmaster to sit down. We then saw all the girls walk in and it was not until the last girl was seated that the boys then headed on to sit beside the girls. Completely blown away by what just happened, we asked the headmaster to explain. He said he believes teaching them life skills was more important than book knowledge. Teaching kids to be better human beings was the main priority here. As artists on the Beatroute we learnt humility, ethics, symbols of respect in human behavior and the fact that there are pockets of youth around who have the ability of saving the face of the youth of today. To promote Alternative Education in music, what according to you is a must need to achieve it in India?

GLEN IVAN SUCHITHA: Primarily, I think

it’s the exposure to the alternative forms that will lead to alternative education. Usually people aren’t acceptant to new ideas till they try it out or see it for themselves. It’s not that people today aren’t interested, it’s just that society has put ideas into their heads that deter the idea of who an artist is. We believe it is a powerful educational and change driving tool, it should just be harnessed and put across the right way.

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ith

I am not at all brand conscious

though I love Zara’s collection. I wish I had more time to indulge in street shopping.

When I was younger, I wanted

Aasma - the winner of Channel [V] Popstars’ second season - made her a household name. Remember Chandu Ke Chacha? Not only has she sung immensely popular tracks like Ishq Wala Love & Jiya Re, but she has also toured the world with A.R. Rahman as a Lead Singer. She is bubbly, jovial and highly affable - all in one package. Presenting to you, Neeti Mohan.

to be an army officer & I used to be a part of the NCC.

I love my job

because I get to travel. I’m dying to go to Tahiti, Boracay & Venice. I love to go to Cape Town.

I am an adventurous person but my degree of

adventurous experimentation is very low. I’m not comfortable with the idea of bungee jumping though it is on my to-do list. Funnily, I think I will be more comfortable with sky-diving. When it comes to athletics, I used to be a part of my school’s basketball, volleyball & shot put team. I used to also be a part of my school band and would play instruments like the trumpet, sousaphone & bagpipes! If all this wasn’t enough, I was also the head girl!

I am like Monica from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. I

have an OCD for cleanliness. Everything HAS to be spick & span. At times, people look at me like I am crazy but they end up saying, ”Now that she is here, let us make her clean.” And I actually do it! That is the reason why I do not host house parties.

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Childhood • Neeti means a policy. My dad and uncle used to ride a cycle on Neeti Marg and fell in love with the name Neeti. I can proudly say I have a road named after me :P My dad wanted his daughters to have rhyming names so our names turned out to be Neeti, Mukti, Shakti & Kriti. People often end up calling me Nitty Gritty, Nitti, Neeta, Nidhi, Neetu etc. • Three words that describe me the best - Spontaneous, Fantasy & Music. • As a child, my family used to keep going to Mathura & Vrindavan. There I used to spot foreign women dressed up in saris and adorned with garlands who used to play the Mridang or the Manjiras and they looked so, so peaceful. That is when I learned a lot of Krishna bhajans and got very attracted to music. This pushed me to take part in music competitions in school, college etc and I used to almost always stand first. That is when my parents noticed my attraction to music. • My sisters pushed to me to take part in Channel [V] Popstars. During the auditions, they stood in the line for me until I turned up and told me, “You HAVE to go for this. We know you will make it.” Their belief gave me immense confidence to audition. • Despite being the eldest sister, I was never the dominating one. We sisters rarely got into fight and have grown up being the best of friends. • We were in a boarding school (Birla Balika Vidyapeeth, Rajasthan) with limited access to music. During our vacations, we used to hear all the new songs and I used to arrange for entertainment functions for the family where I would choreograph a dance performance with my sisters. Once, I dressed up Mukti as a guy and Shakti as a girl and made them dance to Bombay’s Kuchi Kuchi Rakma.

Queries

• Aasma gave me the much-needed platform to come out and show my talent. It groomed me immediately & made me a household name. We tried to literally take it to the “aasma” but we started getting individual offers. For e.g. As soon as I started touring with Mr. A.R. Rahman, I had to dedicate months to it. A lot of opportunities came to us during that period but we couldn’t take it up.

• The first time I saw a recording studio was during Chandu

Ke Chacha for Aasma. Vasudha & I were in one room while Jimmy & Sangeet were in the other. During the female bits, the boys used to purposely keep making funny faces at us and we would inevitably mess up our recording.

• My most special musical memory was created during the recording of Jab Tak Hai Jaan’s Jiya Re with Yash Chopra ji, Gulzar sahab & Rahman sir. That frame has been ingrained in my head forever. They made me feel so comfortable. Not having uttered a single word to me during the recording, when it finished, they just said, “We loved it.” • Other than my sisters & the Aasma gang, my closest friend in the industry is Harshdeep Kaur (of Katiya Karun & Heer fame). • I have a single coming out soon. I am working on its video right now. There are a few film projects too but I cannot name any of them. • After one of my performances for Aasma in Guwahati, a mother came upto me with her young daughter and told me, “I want my daughter to grow up to be like you.” That is one of my most cherished moments. That is also when I first developed a sense of responsibility towards my fans.

• In boarding school, I used to steal food such as stale chapattis (!!) from the school mess at odd hours. Boarding school children are always hungry. Period. We can eat anything and everything. Once, when I was in class 9, I bunked some important school meeting. My friends & I tried to replicate the Bobby look by folding up our skirts & tying our shirts into a knot. We were caught and made to stand in the freezing Rajasthan winter cold for quite a few hours. • I love Mangoes. As a child, if I ever came across a mango anywhere (and I mean, anywhere!), I would forget everything and attack it. It would be all over my face and my clothes but I really didn’t care a hoot about what others thought of me.

• The soundtrack of my life would include the songs of John Mayer, A.R. Rahman, Michael Jackson, as well as, bhajans. I love listening to bhajans. They make me feel peaceful.

My fridge is always packed with fruits (grapes,

strawberries, oranges), curd & sprouts. I am a health freak.

I am a spender, as well as, a saver. It

all depends on my mood. Recently, I spent a BOMB on a Louis Vuitton bag. I’d rather not quote the amount! On the other hand, I love gifting stuff to people.

One of the wackiest pick-up lines ever been used on me - (with respect to my

Blackberry display picture) “Your picture is so hot that my phone is burning.

shresht poddar

Someone had gifted me a religious Topaz ring that I was told to wear every day. Once while performing on this ramp-like stage, it slipped off my hand and ended up in the lap of a young girl. She thought I had gifted the ring to her and kept shouting,” Thank you, didi. I love you.” The worst part was I could not rectify it immediately since my solo was on! After the song finished, I went up to her and asked her to return it.

I have a pet beagle, Frodo (named after Lord Of The Ring’s Frodo) who means the world to me. He treats me like his mother and I pamper him to bits. I will choose my doggy over any man anyday.

I hate it when men are pretentious.

I am very much single and I haven’t ever been on a date. If I woke up in a man’s body one day, I would first check if my voice still sounds good.

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Indie Reviews

The diversely bizarre new albums out this month include samplings from Nu-Metal to Nagamese Folk Music sampled, for your listening pleasure.

«««««

Suraj Mani - The Tattva Trip After a successful run with Motherjane, singer turned songwriter Suraj Mani has focused on his own experiences and motivations to ring forth an intricately wrought rock album. With essences of melancholic folk, his singing style has somewhat diversified, and with the addition of Alwyn Fernandes (guitars/addl percusions/arrangements & music producer), Aman Mahajan (keyboards/piano), Cajetan Dias (strings), Keith Peters (bass), & Suresh Peters (drums), The Tattva Trip packs a solid groove. With a coffee table book complementing the 9-track record, it almost reflects a concept album like Floyd, narrating a story of life.

Top Picks: Your Epitaph, The

Tribes of Babel

Your Epitaph has to be the highlight songs for me. With some folksy drumming and deep seeded lyric, Mahajan’s keyboard and synth rise above the drone and complete the sound very well. Rise Up is also an inspiring track with a prominent slappy bass and rusticated singing style with Suraj does so well. An Ode to Life-Decay is a much more deeper and surreal track that brings about several emotions that remind me of maybe what Suraj Mani had to go through with his back problem and subsequent leaving of Motherjane. The album, in all, is a killer record. Available online, the hard copy with coffee table book might be a tad pricey, but I’m sure it’s worth it!

www.oklisten.com/surajmani

«««««

Heretic - Words to Epiloques Here is one album that seems to have been thought out for a Long time. The album opener, Echoes from a Canvas is one trippy minute that sets you on the beginning of a journey. Reprise has a very nu-metal feel, with distorted guitars synced over some ambient-vibe singing, and occasionally fitting harmonics in here and there. The growls aren’t too bad either. Mixed and mastered by Keshav Dhar of SkyHarbor, the sound quality of the album is impeccable.

Top Picks: Thought Choice, Echoes

from a Canvas

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What I really liked about this record was their acoustic interludes which were quite rational and straight forward, coming from a metal act. Heretic’s recent gig at IIT Saarang, opening for Liverpool-based Anathema is definitely bound to give them some acclaim and credit for the coming year. The title track is a bit long and monotonous, but I like it as it is reminiscent of a Maiden-style playing that is reflected throughout the album with the two guitars. Overall, a must listen for any metal fan as it shows the diversity and incorporation of Indian sub-consciousness into the genre.

www.oklisten.com/heretic

Siddharth V

«««««

Abiogenesis - Legacy of the Mountains By far the most original and indigenous albums to be put out there of late, Abiogenesis go way back to the 80’s and with their fourth album, have clearly struck native gold. Again. Guitars mixed in with tribal beats, and the usage of the Bamhum, invented by Moa of Abiogenesis, sync in together beautifully, soundscaping open fields and mountain halls inside your head. Arenla’s swervy voice belting out Nagamese folk tunes, along with backing vocals, like in Stroll in the Village are extremely well moulded together considering the range of sounds that dance across back and forth.

Top Picks: Analog Air, Cascade

Their style of fusion adapted from folk is now popularly known as “Howey music”, and the strong social motifs reflected in their lyrics really get you thinking. With 3 instrumental tracks also on the record, which bring out the Bamhum really nicely, this album is not only for the layman. Voices in Kisama, probably the most prominent instrumental piece, is dedicated to the massive annual Hornbill festival that happens in Nagaland. With their last album nominated for the Grammys, this is a great follow up and a must buy for those into folk, or those who want some peaced-out music!

www.oklisten.com/abiogenesis

«««««

Spud in the box - Attention Please This four track EP is a teaser for the kind of music we can expect from these guys over 2013. Recorded under the Asli Music label with renowned sound engineer KJ Singh, the sound clarity is crystal all the way. Termed as Alternative Pop-rock, there seems to be a definite reluctance by the band to this tag, but genres aside, classification of sound is nigh impossible. Bangalore based The News have a sound reminiscent of the Spuds, in the sense that there is a solid acoustic guitar base to most of the rhythms. However, Spud in the Box has a variety of sounds they have incorporated into their EP.

Top Picks: Attention Please

Lens Life, released a few weeks before the EP, already had hundreds of listens on SoundCloud. After having played in Blue Frog several times, their experience and on-stage sound is professionally handled, and the dynamics between the band members has never been better. The slow nature of their music fits a really nice vibe with Train of Thought, which initially seems like it’s pondering on sluggishly, then solidifies into a great track. More Than Once, a more pumping track has a nice slappy bass, and dominating vocals, bringing you back to a point where glam and power rock meet, characterized by the lyric: “I’ve been waiting for a sign, I’ve been waiting all this time.” Finally, the title track is probably my favourite. Jumpy and with a tinge of Indian feel, this may be the direction that Spud in the Box is heading.

www.oklisten.com/spudinthebox

«««««

Ganesh Talkies - Three-Tier, NON AC Winners of Converse: The Original Band 2012, this 5-piece is the underground indie answer to stereotypical Bollywood. With swinging dancy tracks, the band still stays true to original music, and are only slowly dripping into mainstream. However, what really makes them stand out is their narrative nature of discourse. With a name with the word Talkies in it, they are heavily into theatre. With influences on facebook listing from Telefon Tel Aviv to Mutemath, these guys seem to be some serious musicians just having some Bollywood fun!

Top Picks: Pyaar Ka Tohfa

With some very pop-oriented stuff, the beats are completely conducive to an Indian crowd. The EP opener, Roadside Romeo, has some trippy reverb guitar and a sensual singing that pumps you up in a very similar fashion to the song Dhoom! The keyboards in Item Song, and indeed through the album alternate with a harmonium which gives it a cool dreamy feel. However, Item Song’s chorus cannot come closer to Bollywood. Vocalist Suyasha really stands out on Pyaar Ka Tohfa and the last song The Fan. The bass and guitars for the EP are also extremely tight and clear. All in all, this might not be an album of your taste, but it definitely is a strong collaborated effort by some clearly talented musicians!!

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Author’s Notes Akshay, Sumant, Suyash and Rohit were all ready for the interview! We chatted for almost an hour and whilst the questions didn’t take up more than half that time, it was the laughter and the chatter that kept the conversation going. Rarely have I come across a group of guys who have so much fun together. Not only are they driven by their passion for music but they also share a common purpose – to be a name to reckon with in the Indian music scene. Barefaced Liar, you were a delight! And oh yes, you have one new fan!

In today’s day and age, where every other band sounds the same, it is really hard to hold your own and harder to do it for a decade. When it comes to India, living the ‘rock and roll dream’ is usually reduced to a high-school fad. Yes, there are a few closet rock stars, software-byday-hard-rock-by-night types, but finding purists whose biggest worry is a broken guitar string and not a crashed computer is hard. And that is where Barefaced Liar stands out. 26

“

When you’re younger, you have more fun while performing. You shouldn’t take playing too seriously. So as long as you’re having fun on stage, there is no room to feel nervous or scared.

“Music came very naturally to me and the transition from Backstreet Boys to Jimi Hendrix overnight came fairly easy!” says 22-year-old Rohit, BFLs bassist. For 27-year-old Sumant, singer and guitarist of BFL, music came in his genes as both his dad and uncle play the guitar. 28-year-old Akshay (singer and guitarist) agrees that in his case too, music was in his blood. Is it easier to be supportive of a musician if music is in the family? Perhaps yes. After all, not many parents subscribe to ACDC’s notion that Rock and Roll isn’t noise pollution! Luckily for 21-year-old Suyash, drummer and the youngest member of the band, his parents are wholeheartedly behind him even though they are not musically inclined. And that really is a big deal given that he’s still in college! What about stage fright then? Picture this: a bunch of youngsters, playing in front of a massive crowd. Ten years ago, this would have been daunting. But no longer, Akshay points out, because there are a lot more opportunities for youngsters today. Strangely, they may be too young to shave but old enough to shred a guitar! Many of them perform their first gigs when they’re still in their teens. And as Suman says, “When you’re younger, you have more fun while performing. You shouldn’t take playing too seriously. So as long as you’re having fun on stage, there is no room to feel nervous or scared.” Akshay believes, the more a band performs together, the better their music is. And the key, he insists, is to work hard and to stay together as a unit, through good times and bad. Suyash adds, “You should watch other musicians and be inspired!” Whether it’s in music or in any other walk of life, perfection only comes with practice. Your fans will love you as long as you sound good. Which means you have to practice every day. “The aim is to keep getting better every day. When there’s a show, we practice about 4 times a week”, says Akshay. “We’ve got a jam space in Lajpat Nagar and we’ve been going there regularly now. It’s got a really good vibe and it’s been kind of lucky for us!” A lot of practice and a little bit of luck is perhaps the best recipe for a successful band, especially in India. Barefaced Liar has been a fixture in the Indian music scene since 2002. In the studio and on stage, the band is always looking to experiment, innovate and improvise. “We’re very aware of each other’s capabilities. As a band, we have long improvised sessions during our jams. Our music gives us a lot of flexibility to be creative on stage”, reckons Akshay. “It’s obviously easier to improvise on stage now

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Medhini Mangala

“

We absolutely love playing live. We’re all from Delhi so we’d like to say Delhi is the best audience we’ve ever had, but that’s just our bias! We’ve always had a good time in Hyderabad. Our shows in Bangalore have been on a weekdays and they were still sold-out. Kolkata has been awesome. Yes the vibe varies from place to place. People in different cities come with different expectations, but we’ve had a fun time in every city

that we’ve been playing together for so long!” adds Sumant. Variety seems to be the flavour of every musical season. No band wants to be pigeon-holed into one genre. And with a large fan base to delight, Barefaced Liar hopes to display their prowess with their second studio album due in May this year. So how is this one different from the other? “In a nutshell, the new songs are catchier and more straightforward. This wasn’t really done intentionally. Of late, we’ve been playing a lot of tribute shows and it made us realize that we could have simple songs with intricate and complicated arrangements”, says Sumant. Barefaced Liar simply loves the stage and the audience love them back. “We absolutely love playing live. We’re all from Delhi so we’d like to say Delhi is the best audience we’ve ever had, but that’s just our bias! We’ve always had a good time in Hyderabad. Our shows in Bangalore have been on a weekdays and they were still sold-out. Kolkata has been awesome. Yes the vibe varies from place to place. People in different cities come with different expectations, but we’ve had a fun time in every city.” Bottom line, Barefaced Liar has always delivered as a band. And somehow, they’ve still managed to find time to record two studio albums! Very few Indian bands have survived this long. What starts out as a college project fizzles out by graduation or soon after. Priorities change, responsibilities increase, and at some point, you realize that you need to take up a regular job. Interestingly that’s not the case with Barefaced Liar. Akshay, Sumant and Rohit have chosen to stay focussed on music as a career. And Suyash is currently balancing between college and music. When I asked him if it is hard, Suyash smiled and said, “Yes it is but this is what I want to do professionally so it doesn’t matter”. In the last 5 years, India has seen a number of international bands come and play to packed houses. With this exposure, the Indian audience has evolved in its appreciation of different genres of music. This has encouraged bands like Barefaced Liar to up the ante and constantly experiment with their sound. After all, nobody wants to be just a musician anymore. Everyone wants to be a sonic architect, with the ability to constantly create and enthral the listener. And that is the truth, even for our Band of the Month, Barefaced Liar.

All-time favorite Band/Artist Akshay: Stevie Ray Vaughan, PinkFloyd Sumant: The Beatles Suyash: Tool Rohit : Cream

One Band you’d like to see live. The tool (Akshay,Sumant and Suyash laugh while Rohit keeps quiet!)

One Band you’d love to open for Muse

One city/country you’d love to play in Amsterdam/Shillong (I can hear a smile in their voice as they say Amsterdam!)

One Song you wish you’d written played November Rain (in unison!)

What comes first, lyric or tune First the music, then the words, then we add in the intricacies.

Premier Digital Mastering Studios, located in the heart of Bollywood at Andheri, Mumbai is dedicated to delivering very high quality services to the Music fraternity. Mixing, Mastering & Overdubs being its mainstay, PDMS is also into music production from scratch, Scoring & Sound designing for films with it’s talented team of Musicians & Engineers. Equipment, Acoustics & Ambience are a state apart from the rest! The Score Magazine www.highonscore.com

One of the many great traits of MS Gopalakrishnan was the way he explored Carnatic Music to an extent where he was able to make more widely accepted by audiences all over the India as well as all over the world. MSG who trained under his father, Sri Parur Sundaram Iyer (a musician well-versed in North Indian (Hindustani) and South Indian (Carnatic) systems of Indian classical music) learned both systems from his father. His background assisted in building a bridge of understanding between Carnatic and Hindustani styles of music. When Gopalakrishnan began performing, he naturally blew musicians of both styles music. Without hesitation, great maestros such as Pandit Omkarnath Thakur and Pt Paluskar accepted the young virtuoso as an accompanist. A crystal-clear tonal purity of his Carnatic lineage and the emotional impact of the perfect tonal quality of the Hindustani gayaki mode, he has evolved a unique style of his own which imparts a deep depth and dimension to ragas.

TimeLines & Achievements

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1960

Violin Vadhya Samrat - Bombay Sivananda Ashram, India.

1975

Padmashri Government of India

1976

Violin Vadhya Chakravarthy NewYork, U.S.A.

1978

Kalaimamani Govt. of Tamil Nadu, India.

1979

Kerala Sangeetha Nataka academy award, India.

1980

T.Chowdiah award - Karnataka, India.

1982

Central Sangeetha Nataka Academy award, India.

1997

Sapathagiri Sangeetha Vidwanmani - Thirupathi Devasthanam, India

Ananya Ashok

Remembering

MS Gopalakrishnan

A soloist and accompanist for over fifty years, MSG had done vast research on violin playing techniques. Having developed the unique style called the “Parur style” as well as inspiring several violin techniques such as one-finger playing and thematic development on single-string octaves to make his violin a more expressive medium. A versatile violinist, he has won numerous awards including the Padma Sri, Kalaimamani, Sangeetha Kalanidhi and the Sangeet Natak Akademi award.

Sid Sriram Last season I was blessed to be able to perform in front of MSG mama during a concert for Kartik Fine Arts. When thinking of MSG mama, there are the obvious thoughts of his immense dedication to his art form and Carnatic music at large. Something that always has inspired me so much was his ability to trail blaze his own style of violin playing, weaving it into the Carnatic musical fabric so beautifully. I think he has really set one of the best examples of how to really personalize and innovate within the framework of such a traditional art form. His mark is so deep and everlasting

Aditya Prakash MSG Mama will remain an immortal figure in the world of music. He was an incredibly progressive musician who weaved both Hindustani and Carnatic music into a beautiful, harmonious balance. I constantly listen to a recording of his accompaniment for a Keeravani RTP along with Semmangudi, where even Semmangudi is totally mesmerized by MSG’s playing. And another amazing recording that I frequently listen to, is his Natabhairavi swarams for a DK Jayaraman concert along with Umayalapuram Sivaraman. For me, listening to MSG mama was a moving, awing and brilliant experience. He was able to take the softness and gorgeous aesthetics of the Hindustani tradition and bring it alive within the Carnatic tradition without sacrificing on weight or the raga swaroopam. I was fortunate to get the opportunity to sing for MSG mama in his very own home and get his advice and feedback on my singing. I consider it a great blessing for myself!

Bharat Sundar Practice, Passion, Perseverance. Any student of music should learn all these three things from MSG mama. He has been the greatest source of inspiration for achieving perfection. I’ve been told that there wasn’t a day that went by when he didn’t practice even when he was unwell. The way to justice to any art form is to never stop learning

VVS Murari

Sandeep Narayan To say that Sri M.S. Gopalakrishnan has been an inspiration to musicians around the world would be a great understatement. Carnatic music has been fortunate to have some of the most inspiring musical minds in history, Sri M.S. Gopalakrishnan is definitely one of the most influential of those, especially for me personally. I was fortunate to receive his blessings on a couple occasions, one stands out however. That occasion was a few years ago when I was singing in Music Academy during the December season. The curtain opened and I found Sri MSG Sir sitting in the front row, center! I was surprised, and nervous (to say the least), to be singing in front of such a great legend. He was encouraging throughout with his appreciation from the front row, and afterward I received good feedback from him. It was an unforgettable moment for me.

I had tweeted that Indian music lost a huge pillar in the form of MSG mama on the day of his demise. MSG as he was fondly referred to by many, was a phenomenon. He was a legend & man of words. The discipline with which he led his life amazed many. Not only that this discipline showed in his personal life but also in his playing. The perfection with which he handled the instrument awed many. The control with which he played each note in the most difficult fretless stringed instrument of all, is a sight by itself. Once when I visited him, he asked me how many hours i practiced and how i practiced. I told him I practiced 4-6 hours a day. He asked me how I practiced and i explained the way i did. He told me that there should be a purpose in each practice and without purpose the practice goes waste! It was a great line and need to be followed by all of us. He was an epitome of success throughout his career and one must learn simplicity from this man. A very down to earth person that he was, he could be a strong influence on many & served as a true musician till he breathed last! His music will live forever!

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vishal shah

If the numbers blew you off, it was nothing to the names that came with it. We managed to catch some artists, both Indian and international to catch on their experience playing at Sunburn.

The 3-day fest , organized by Percept in partnership with Nikhil Chinapa, the father of Indian EDM, witnessed over 1,50,000 party-goers flocking over to the sunny, sandy beaches of Candolim Beach, Goa in the twilight days of 2012 to participate in what turned out to be the biggest new year party any ‘party-head’ could hope for. More than 120 Indian and international artists “spun their discs” across 7 grand stages over 3 days to churn out scintillating dance music, encompassing everything from house to techno and trance. 30

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Paul Van Dyk

Richard Durand

India’s become sort of home to you now. What’s the one thing about India that brings you back with such gusto each time? I come here often because I enjoy my gigs here and people really enjoy coming to them. India has a rich history and culture and is, according to me, the most inspiring place on the planet. It is a viable creative destination where artists could make music and perform.

Third stint at Sunburn. How was the experience?

An Indian artist who you’d like to collaborate with and why

An Indian artist you’d like to collaborate with and why

I would just need to meet an interested artist, figure out how we match creatively, and would want to know what they want to do and decide how to go about doing it.

Well, I have heard a lot of them! I have immense respect for A R Rahman. I love what he does to his music. I have also heard some classical Indian music and I found it extremely soothing

Sum up your Sunburn 2012 Goa experience in 3 words It’s my second time and I have to say, I love it. The crowd is great. It is over whelming to see India opening up to EDM genre. it’s phenomenal and I can’t wait to be here for the 3rd time.

I love the fact that EDM has grown roots in India. There are so many people who understand and appreciate Trance. I look forward to having many more gigs here in future. I don’t have any personal ties to India but I’m beginning to develop a really nice connection with my fans here due to Sunburn.

Any thoughts about next year? India simply loves you. I love India too. If all goes well, I shall be here next year too

Fedde Legrand First time in India. How do you like it? I am loving every bit of it. Indians are very warm and welcoming. Its great to be here.

Sunburn. How was the experience?

I think it’s a fantastic setting, and I think that with it being held in Goa there is a really international feel to the audience, it’s not just an Indian crowd but travellers from all over the world who are a part of it all. I think it’s a great advertisement for Indian clubs and promoters and of course Indian electronic music artists to introduce the wealth of talent to a much bigger audience as much as it is for European and American artists coming to India.

W&W

do First time in India. How it? you like

India This is our first time in to be and we are very excited e that hop We n. bur Sun here at . set our es the audience lik

w First time at Sunburn. Ho e? enc eri was the exp

l set We played a very specia nted we had planned and wa ne to make sure that everyo at is dancing. It was a gre bigger experience. We aim for and better.

rn Any thoughts on Sunbu have to e lov ’d We r? next yea k bac you ia too.

Certainly! We love Ind

Any thoughts on Sunburn next year? I love India too. Would love to come back

FEST

focus That the 6th edition of Sunburn Festival, Goa was a huge success, in every sense of the word ‘huge’ would be an understatement. You’ve just got to look at the numbers to believe it. The

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Suraj Mani “Disillusioned”, was what he was as he penned down his first song way back in 2001 as part of a lesser known cover band from Bangalore. Since then, singer and ex-Motherjane vocalist Suraj Mani’s life has taken a full circle. More than a decade has passed and Motherjane has propelled itself to one of the biggest acts in India.

Everyone has been hooked on to every update from your blog and your interviews and Facebook pages ever since you announced the date. Now, two weeks into the release, how do you like the response? I must say that I’m very happy with the worldwide feedback I’m getting on The Tattva Trip and its collectors set for being so different. Coinciding with this first release of mine, my site www. surajmani.in is also up where fans can buy, gift and catch a glimpse of how I plan to earn my independence by directly reaching out to my core audience.

In spite of that, one of the biggest questions on everyone’s minds remains about your health. How is your back treating you now? Well, make no mistakes, I am a live artist and I love that side of music as much as I love writing and making music. Following a 45 day treatment at an ayurvedic centre in kerala last year I am in pretty good shape and I have symptomatic relief from my pain, even if my MRI still shows a ruptured disc. So as long as I don’t have to climb scaffoldings and stage dive into crowds I should be back in the scene. So yes, I am putting together a group of musicians to take The Tattva Trip on tour.

A year without traveling, touring and living the Motherjane life. Tell us about the thrills and chills of suddenly being by yourself. “The thrills and the chills” (laughs). I like that expression and yes, I momentarily did think about that when I started off. You see I was suddenly all alone and virtually picked up playing the guitar

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last year just to back myself. Being self-taught, I went by instinct, ear and heart and decided that I was going to not bother about conventional chord progressions, scales and genres. The songs kind of decided for themselves what they wanted to be and I recorded an acoustic version of the album and based on some serious recommendations from musicians I trusted, I took it to Alwyn Fernandes. Immediately realizing just how talented he was, I asked him to be my music producer and arranger because he brings years of experience, musical knowledge and basically so many things that made this album something that I absolutely loved doing. He also brought in the team of Aman Mahajan (keyboards/piano), Keith Peters (bass), Cajetan

Dias (Strings), Suresh Peters (Drums) while handling the guitar himself. These guys are brilliant and the ‘trip’ is what it is because of the chemistry we experienced together.

Tell us about ‘The Tattva Trip’ team and how it was working with them. We had a fun time, with Alwyn, Suresh and Keith coming down to the Aum-I Artiste studio in Kottayam and nailing the album down in a week’s time, took a break and then mixed it down in another week. Aman and Cajetan basically gave

vishal shah us their tracks and so they missed our sessions in ‘God’s own country’. These guys stunned me with how they would just walk into the studio, hear a song, instinctively understand what they wanted to do and just give us a single take. I still remember my jaw dropping because they were just so good. The album sounds very live because that’s exactly how it happened and the fact that the Kottayam Club is right behind the studio made things extra pleasant.

You were the one who put your foot down when back in 2001, your band was doing only covers of popular bands, whereas you wanted an ‘irreplaceable sound’. And even now, you’re not just giving us an album, but sharing a book of stories along with it. Why did you feel necessary to do this? Oh my god! I didn’t know that you felt so strongly about that (laughs). I joined Motherjane in 2001 and realizing the talent in the band, suggested we get into originals. The credit for the different sound that came about in ‘Maktub’ is something I would largely attribute to Baiju’s guitaring. While I contributed the lyrical content, vocal melodies & the half painted faces associated with Motherjane, it often reflected what I felt that we as a band were going through and that was different from what was the norm. With TTT (the tattva trip), I guess I’ve gone on the road less travelled and maybe you’re right, maybe I have a different way of looking at things. Not necessarily right or wrong, but definitely ‘different’. As I have observed in the ‘trip’: There are no secrets, only unpracticed truths.

You’ve said in your blog that you “never really got to make this album with Motherjane”. So was the idea of going solo already there during Motherjane? Motherjane was my obsession for 10 years and I think I surprised myself even more than the people around me when I left all that I had worked for and just let it go. The band was started by John and Clyde and somehow morally it felt right that they along with Deepu and Santosh should take the name and the legacy forward in a manner of their choice. No, I had not really wanted a future in music apart from Motherjane because it really was my dream band and allowed me to do pretty much whatever I wanted, and

yet I was practical enough to see and accept that fate itself was redirecting my onward journey.

While going solo, did you feel at any point, that you should change your lingua franca from english, since the framework had changed drastically? Nah! I still write in English, which as far as I’m concerned is also a ‘regional’ language in India. I express myself well in English and so I stick with it in spite of other ‘opportunities’. As an independent artist, I sing for myself, people like me and for people who like me. It’s what I am and it doesn’t bother me too much whether that makes me popular within the broad majority or niche minority. My job is to do my best and let whatever happens, happen. I know for a fact that I write good lyrics in English, sing them with an Indian accent and as a rocker it pleases me that I really don’t have to apologize for any of this! (laughs)

Tell us about the current Indian independent music scene. The onus is with the musicians and the crowds because, ironically speaking, today’s challenge is that there are too many options and excess choice has psychologically proven to depress people. NOT JOKING! Hence, the mistake is to want to reach everybody or please everybody. Success in the Indian music scene will always happen when a passionate ‘tribe’ is offered the kind of music/artist/genre of music it likes and that’s reflected in the number of festivals, live events, and venues that are mushrooming all over the place. My BIG answer is don’t try to cater to everyone and don’t sit on the fence. You will only attract people who are fence sitters with that kind of approach. Good/ bad or ugly, just do your thing and commit to it. Your audience will find you and it will be a happy union.

Music is about expressing yourself. What about the trade-off between what the musician likes and what the crowd likes? Bang on! Trade-offs are the easiest things to see all around and that’s probably why most people hate their jobs, even established artists lucky enough to work for traditional sponsors. The only way to stay true to your art is to find your patron fans. That beautiful group of people who make it possible for you to earn a living by buying / funding what you love to do. Not the easiest task, but definitely the most important one. After all as they say, the problem with winning the rat race is that you’re still a rat. The first step is to respect your own work and ask the same of your fans. Education is a slow process, but it always triumphs over freebies. Being temporarily famous and permanently broke is the worst thing you can do to sustain a productive career in any creative field.

Making music is an act of self-discovery. For you, what could be the biggest takeaway? My biggest takeaway, over the last year was discovering the guitar as a composing tool. While I won’t fool myself that I’m a pro, I can put together some ‘original’ sounding songs and I will love playing them fort ‘Trippers’ wherever we meet. I quite like the idea of “Suraj & the tattva trippers’ hitting the road. I’ll be seeing you.

Photo credits : Sumukh Bharadwaj

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ways to screw up your gig

Gigs are complicated things. The numbers of variables are overwhelming and by Murphyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Law, the things that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Iluustration : Nilankur Dutta

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Here are some helpful tips so you get to prevent a catastrophe at your music gig, and the inevitable lawsuit from your underage groupies, presented with real life examples from real life musicians.

Port-a-Potties Quickly, what is the most important thing you need at any place where thousands of piss drunk people are going to spend time gyrating? If you said good urination facilities, congratulations, your mind works in uncommonly perceptive and creepy ways. Folk rock giants Jethro Tull had to learn this the hard way at New York in 1976. As the band walked onto the field they received, from their adulating fans standing high above in the players access ramp, a spray of warm, golden, beer. Keeping in mind the heading of this section, it shall probably suffice to say that the ‘beer’, wasn’t actually beer.

In the words of flautist Ian Anderson, “The unmistakable pong wafting from my then-ample head of damp hair and freshly laundered stage-clothing would remain for the duration of the show. An unholy baptism from above.”

In 1982, The Police were king. Four albums into their career of making women swoon with Sting’s voice; they’d already had hits like “Message in a Bottle” and “Walking on Moon.” This is when they came to Sting’s homecoming concert at Newcastle. This was supposed to be Stings triumphant return, except for one tiny hitch. This little band called U2 were also playing.

So when you’re playing a gig, remember one thing, the Irish will always win against you.

Seriously do it at summer Weather and telephone corporations are the two things you can’t win against. So I suggest you compare two consulting meteorologists and one astrologer before you decide on a music gig. Otherwise it may well become a clusterfuck, like at Woodstock 1994, where it rained so hard that the aforementioned belligerent fans, started a mudfight. In a story that I will never get tired of telling, Green Day bassist Mark Dirnt got his teeth knocked out (righteous). Trent Reznor, on the other hand, refused to be outclassed so NIN came to stage already caked in mud. Stories like this are a dime a dozen the annals of music from Def Leppard stuck in Arizona rain to alternative rockers Garbage found playing alternately al 20 below at New York so suffering a heatstroke at summer Japan. So beware the tale of mudstock, and have your gig somewhere nice and dry.

Musicians do a lot of crazy shit. In fact, they perhaps only exclusively do crazy shit, which is why we love them. But it does to keep your band in some semblance of coherence. My favourite example is what happened to the Mystery Jets at Tokyo. This event is best narrated by lead singer Blaine Harrison, so I’m going to leave him to it. “It was a great gig, but before the encore someone from the record company brought over a bottle of mezcal – which usually comes with a worm at the bottom, and which a lot of people confuse with tequila, but is actually a lot stronger – with a scorpion in it. Then someone decided to take it on stage. In our encore we passed it between us. And basically I had a fit – an alcohol-induced fit – during our last song. I looked around me and I was seeing everything in weird multiple dimensions, and the band seemed to be playing a completely different song to me. Everyone looked at me in horror, including the audience, and I mimed along for the rest of the song, hoping no one would notice. I had to be carried off stage to the dressing room, where apparently I was talking nonsensically, and got dumped in the bathroom. It was all quite horrifying, really. It’s obviously lethal stuff, because another time our drummer downed half a bottle of it, got really violent, started hallucinating, and attacked our sound man.” Perhaps, next time, leave the drink with the scorpion alone.

Be sure to hire a adequtely bad opening act

In the torrential rain, the already ineffably crazy Bono climbed up scaffoldings and played a three song encore, to almost universal acclaim. And in that, he upstaged a girl (literally) and The Police (figuratively).

Keep the band nice and dry, uh, as far as possible.

Do not grapple with the ineffable. Sometimes, you do everything correctly, and yet, things go into strange shapes. This is not your fault, and you probably cannot do at anything to prevent this at your gig. But gosh darn it, does it make an interesting read. Like the time when a band called Mini-KISS opened for Tom-Tom Club (which is basically just half of The Talking Heads). The hilarity of the situation is the fact that Mini KISS is a group of dwarves, dressed in full make-up, lipsynching to KISS songs. Or at the Status Quo concert at Dundee, where a full on, no holds barred, classic Scottish fistfight broke out between a thousand people. The band wisely vanished from the venue, and when they returned in the morning, “these 20 old washer-women were there in a line, on their knees, scrubbing the blood out of this lovely new parquet floor.”

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siddarth v

AAAAnd, a bad experience while gigging. There have been times where about half the people at the gig are talking loudly, and their collective voice has actually drowned entire songs. So yeah I guess those times have been pretty bad, because there isn’t anyone else to blame but yourself.

Shantanu Pandit is a Delhi based singer/songwriter. His major influences are Bob Dylan and Chadwick Stokes, which is reflected in the instruments that he plays and his original compositions. He finds it hard to categorise his style of playing, but finds it least misleading to call it Acoustic Folk-Rock. Shantanu believes in strong lyrical content, and finds it safe to say that his songs reflect this belief.

Give me a funny experience while gigging. One time a large part of my hair got stuck between the screws in my harmonica stand, and I tried to take it out for 5 whole minutes while standing on stage, but it just wouldn’t come out. So I ended up yanking out a huge chunk of hair while on stage.

What do you listen to on a regular basis? Do you find any connection between that and your music style? I listen to a lot of blues/ragtime from way back in the 1930’s – 1960’s (Robert Johnson and Blind Blake to Muddy Waters and Little Walter), psychedelic rock, roots reggae. I also like listening to the indie music coming out now days as well, like Bombay Bicycle Club, Mumford and Sons, Blind Pilot, Ben Howard, etc. there’s not a connection between my stuff with a lot of the stuff I listen to, but like I said, some of it cuts deeper through the surface.

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Who would you like to collaborate with (Indian artist) if given a chance? Dischordian

THOMPSUN MUSIC HOUSE

shantanu pandit 1. To start off, it’s been a good year for you. Regular gigging all around the country. What’s the experience been like?

Yes it has. 2012 was pretty kind as far as music is concerned. It brought me a lot of songs. And getting to travel to a bunch of places in succession was something I didn’t really expect. I had been traveling to places to attend festivals as an observer but getting to be one of the artists performing in the festivals was a new and completely different experience for me. More than anything, it has showed me a lot and made things a little clearer.

2. Playing solo is very different from jamming with a band. Which one do you prefer?

It’s a lot of fun jamming with a band, and working with a couple of friends, because you could end up exploring places in yourself that you didn’t even know of, by entering into someone else’s creative space. But when you’re alone, it’s a space that you’re more familiar with, with more scope for reflection. So when you’re alone its more personal than anything else. I like doing them both, but playing alone has an intensity that attracts a larger part of me.

5. After playing Octoberfest, how do you feel about the south Indian music vibe?

6. Ragasthan, Windsong These music fests were huge this year and important for you too. What do you feel about this recent trend of large music festivals?

3. Your style, honestly, is a lot like Dylan’s. Naturally, he isn’t your only influence though. Who else do you listen to?

The music I like listening to is pretty diverse but not everything I listen to influences the music I write. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of The Doors, Blind Pilot, Arctic Monkeys, The Velvet Underground, Andrew Bird etc. but the artists that leave a profound effect on me are obviously Dylan, and The Tallest Man On Earth, Dispatch and a couple more.

I think the South Indian music scene is killer. I think that way primarily because the vibe I get is more indie. The people seem to be more genuine. Sure the Delhi scene is pretty big and a lot of the big names come from here, and the culture is pretty strong, but I think it’s been built with a lot more plastic, if you know what I mean.

Music festivals are a lot of fun. I think festivals are an integral part of a countries music scene because of the positive impact it has on both upcoming artists and music lovers. For the music lovers, because platforms that will feature live music from around the country, all day, for 2-3 days, are far more attractive than a usual gig. And for upcoming artists because we get to play in front of an audience that may have never even heard of us, and if it’s a successful festival, the number of people that would probably turn up would be considerably larger than anywhere else. Festivals like Ragasthan and Windsong happened for the first time, and from next year onwards they’ll only get bigger, so there’s a lot of promise.

7. Cliché: piracy in music and freedom of ideas.. what are your views?

Well piracy in music is a product of the digitization of music for it to be available on the internet. Now there are a lot of advantages in being able showcase your music on the internet. Piracy is one of the disadvantages. Personally, I feel it’s one of those “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” situations. I haven’t really thought about it all that much.

4. To what do you attribute that natural flow you have that is reminiscent of harmonica-playing guitaristfolk singers?

8. What future plans for? Plans of an album release?

I think it’s the way I write that sort of sends me into the folk category. I used to write poems but It didn’t completely cut it for me, and writing a typical song with a bridge and a pre-chorus didn’t do it either. So I decided to try writing poems that could be sung as songs. I had been listening to American folk music of old around the time and found a lot of myself in the songs, considering the poetic verses fused with composition. The effect it had on me was so strong that it was almost automatic for me to make music that way, I don’t think I was even aware of it till I was in.

I have a bunch of songs I want to release. I just have to get down to recording them. Maybe I’ll start off by releasing an EP. Maybe in a couple of months. But I’ve been working on some fresh material so I’m beginning to see an album somewhere in the bigger picture. But that may take a while though.

9. Any upcoming collaborations?

I’m already playing with a couple of friends, we’re looking to start a band. But that’s a different project altogether. As far as my soloproject is concerned: no. The

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EVENTS Galore

For more gig reviews & pictures, hawk www.highonscore.com!

Lots of gigs happenin g around town, with a spanking new venu e for Score Nights in Bangalore, with Agam . In Chennai, we had the insanely energetic, Fr anks Got The Funk.

In other news, Junk yard Grove rocked H ard Rock Cafe (though we did wait for an hour for them to start.) Barrack Obam a’s favourite acapella group Penn Masala were al so there this month, playing Meanwhile, F16’s an d Clown with a Frow n were taking Saarang by th e storm.

Saarang

Anathema

Heretic

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F 16’S

Shankar Ehsaan Loy

ScoreNights, Frankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;sGotTheFunk

Chennai

Hard Rock Cafe

Penn Masala

JYG -JunkYardGroove

Julian Marley

Live from the Console PeterCat & Co

ScoreNights, Agam

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AUDIOPHILIC From the Desk

“I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about”

Rajakrishnan

- Aurthur C. Clarke

With the above sentiments at heart, we caught up with Rajakrishnan, the chief Sound Engineer for Four Frames. He won the Kerala State Award in 2011 for the sound mixing done in the Malayalam film “Urumi & Chappa Kurishu”. His major projects include Thandavam, Pizza, Paradeshi, Velayudham, Mayakkam Enna, Madirasippattanam, Deyvathirumagal, Kireedam, Billu Barbar, Thattathin Marayathu and the list just goes on and on. Having worked in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi and Malayalam films, he speaks to us about all the delights, dilly and dallies of Sound Engineering in the film industry. Mr. Ranjith Menon General Manager, Muzik Lounge

Medayil Radhakrishnan Rajakrishnan is an audiographer for Indian films. At the early age of 23, Rajakrishnan worked with Deepan Chatterji as an assistant sound engineer. He has assisted him in around 70 films, which includes Balothekko (Bengali), which secured National Award in the year 2004. He later joined Four Frames Sound Company, Chennai as an assistant sound engineer and now works as the chief sound engineer for the same. He has worked with leading directors in Indian film industry and has done sound designing, mixing for over 200 films in various languages. Rajakrishnan has been the choice of many Indian Film Directors like Priyadarshan, Santosh Sivan, Lal Jose, Bala, Major Ravi, V.K Prakash, A.L Vijay, Selvaraghavan and Anjali Menon to name a few.

What is the current state of the Sound Engineering: Is it difficult to break into?

“silence” on the set, everyone becomes silent. The actors study their lines and each one is doing their best out of the scene.

When it comes to the cinemas, everyone has it equally difficult. According to the movie, musicand light are chosen. This is what the movies are all about; sound and light. When directors are getting to this phase of work, they want someone who has proved themselves. Newcomers do find it difficult to break in. I came at a time when there was a transfer from Mono Sound to Digital Sound. Thus, it was different in my case. But there’s a new pattern “Sync Sound” which is a relatively new field which the said newcomers can break into. Sync Sound is something that is done with all the movies in Hollywood. Here in India, we depend on dubbing. This is for two primary reasons:

In Indian movies, the actors are working back to back on different films at the same time. So, it’s very hard for us to try Sync Sound. It makes a huge difference; we can “feel” the movie and that’s most important. Ask any director, he or she would always vouch for Sync Sound. But it’s not always possible. I got a chance to do it with Anjali Menon’s movie.

Languages: You have a Tamil actress working for a Malayalam movie. In these cases, dubbing is the best way out. Discipline: When the directors in Hollywood movies call for

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I’m sure each movie was a learning experience. Share one such thing you learnt. There are many things that I can say but on the top of the head, I’d say how I learnt the trick of mixing. It took me 3 movies to get “mixing”. During my initial days what I had noticed is that the dialogue is kept high and the other sounds are underplayed. Once when working with .Priyadarshan, he came up with a comment that he can’t hear the background sounds. It was this

comment that I started to do more research and change my approach to every movie. My pattern of mixing is now totally different.

What is your favourite technique when it comes to working with sound?

Testimonial

(After a brief moment of intense contemplation, if I may add) We’re working for the movie. Only after seeing the move can we decide what to do, it’s not about “us” as much as what is required.

You’ve practised Mridangam. Does the knowledge of classical music help in your line of work? Of course. Definitely. (Add a vehement nod of approval) Music sense should be very high. Sound Engineering is not only about dialogues. With this rhythmic sense that I got from Mridangam, it helped in editing music and beat. You have to be able to choose from the thousand sounds that the director captures, play one up and ensure that the director approves of it.

You have been giving guest lectures at Muzik Lounge for the past two years. Tell us something about the institution? Muzik lounge is one such institution where emphasis is more on practical exposure. It gives the students more confidence to take up the task at a much faster rate and to execute things professionally. I was very impressed with the way they had set up their labs, with no compromise on the quality of equipments provided to its students. ML has always successfully taken out the teacher in me and I’m happy to see their students working for some prestigious studios in India & abroad.

Tell us a little about your experience with Four Frames. The aim was to become a cinematographer. It was around that time I got to come here (Four Frames) for 6 months as an apprentice. I started with assisting Deepan Chatterji and now 13 years, I’m still here! Four Frames is equipped with the latest state of art technology and with a man like Priyadarshan heading the organization, quality will never be compromised.

Student : Manikandan

Course : Diploma in Audio Engineering

Currently working at : RADIOME 100.3 F.M, U.A.E Though I have worked for 3 years as an RJ, it was just one year since I have discovered a real passion for Sound. I was in a hunt for getting an admission into the best institution where I can nurture the professional in me to the core. One of the biggest advantages of being a Muzik Lounge student is that you get teachers and instructors who are pioneers in the industry and exploring things practically. It was fun and a big learning experience too. The role that Stephen Devassy and Sam Devassy play in nurturing the taste of Sound and Music in the society is greatly appreciable. I am deeply indebted to Muzik Lounge for giving me a rich and vibrant exposure in the world of Sound Engineering. I would strongly recommend Muzik Lounge as the right place to shape your career!

Epilogue He’s now working as a music director for an upcoming Malayalam movie Mr. Bean; incidentally his mother happens to be the lyricists for the same movie. In fact, it seems music is in the genes. His (late) father, the legendary Malayalam music director M.G Radhakrishnan, a renowned Music Director and a prominent authority of Carnatic Music made a big impact on him. Not from a musical family? No problem! Practice, be authentic & dedicated as Rajakrishnan says!

Admissions OPEN

Batch for Diploma in Music Technology(18 months) & Diploma in Audio Engineering (18 months). You can download the application form from www.muzikloungeindia.com.

/MLSAT /muziklounge /muzikloungeindia The

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kollywood Scorers

In India it is a tradition to felicitate people for everything. For serving 10 years, for being a good man, for being a lorry driver, for playing cricket for India and for a lot of other things. This post will jump aboard that ship and take a look at the best of Kollywood. Every year Indian cinema produces some real gold. Indian cinema also produces tonnes of dog poop every year (it’s one of the reasons why we folks here love the Indian movie and music scene). So here I present to you 2012’s best and worst *Drum roll please?*

BEST SINGER - MALE (May I call upon , ‘Thenisai thendral’ Deva to announce the nominees please? )

Nominees: • Karthik for ‘Katrai Konjam’ and ‘Pudikala mamu’ ‘Neethane en Ponvasantham’

• Harini - Azhaipaya from ‘Kadhalil sodapvadhu epdi?’

• Velmurugan/Naresh Iyer - Venaam Machan -‘Oru Kal Oru kannadi’

• Sunidhi chauhan - Mudhal Murai – ‘Neethane en ponvasantham’

• Pradeep - Aasai oru pulveli - ‘Attakatthi’

• Shweta pandit - Idhayam –‘ Billa 2’

• Gaana’ balu - Aadi pona avani - ‘Attaktahi’

• Sruthi Hassan - Kannazgha - - ‘3’

• Haricharan - Rathri – ‘Pizza’

• Sakthishree Gopalan - Makayala – - ‘Naan’

• Ajeesh/Anirudh Ravichandran – Idazhin oram ‘3’

• Renu - Papap – ‘Vettai’

• Mohit chauhan - Poo nee po - - ‘3’

• Priya Himesh - Athadi Manasudhan- ‘Kazhugu’

• Haricharan - Ayyayo Aanandhame -Kumki

And the award goes to: This has to be a tie between Renu for the ultra trippy ‘Papap’ from Vettai and Priya Himesh for her first attempt at melody for ‘Aathadi’ From ‘Kazhugu’

• Alaap Raju - Vaya moodi - Mugamoodi • Velmurugan for Ambalaikum Pombalaikum Kazhugu And the winner is - *awkward silence, camera pans on all the nominees* - Haricharan for ‘Rathri’ from Pizza and ‘Ayayo Anandhame’ from ‘Kumki’ . Haricharan does magnificent work every year ‘Rathri’ was released toward the end of 2012 and took the radio waves by storm.

The

Nominees:

• Hemachandran - Oh baby and Kadhal oru butterfly ‘Oru Kal Oru kannadi’

• Dr. Vijay - Google, google – ‘Thuppaki’

BEST SINGER - FEMALE

(Can we call upon ‘Chinna Kuyil’ Chitra to announce the winner please? )

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• Magizhini Manimaaran - Soi Soi - ‘Kumki’

[Disclaimer: When it comes to this section of Score I’m the jury and the sponsor and the presenter and the light boy etc.This means there is no rigging, no unwanted sponsor message, no sick SRK+Saif comedies and no better luck next time award . The only thing I would have taken from those awards is that voice which says “….and the nominees aaaare” in the same tone all the time.]

sai adithya

BEST ‘QUARTER’ SONG Nominees:

(Drunk men singing songs in happy or sad situations)

BEST NON-FILM SONG

• Mugamoodi - Bar Anthem from ‘K’ • Yuvan Shankar Raja - Amabalaikum Pombalaikum ‘Kazhugu’ • Vijay Ebenezer - Kutthunga Ejaman – ‘Masala Cafe’ Winner: ‘Ambalaikum Pombalaikum’ from Kazhugu. This song was the ultimate drunk man’s philosophical trip. We applaud the way Velmurugan, Krishnaraj and Sathyan have rendered this song to some rather simple music by Yuvan.

BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR

TRIPPIEST SONG

‘Papapa’ from Vettai and ‘Ambalaikum pombalaikum’ from Kazhugu. There is enough coverage for this song in our post. So let’s just award these fellows and move to the next category please.

BEST SENSATION Is there any doubt who wins this award? ‘Why this Kolaveri’ from ‘3’ . Anirudh Ravichandran and Dhanush made this a winner and even made people who don’t talk (ex: honorary prime minster Dr. Manmohan Singh, sing this song. *Bad pun alert*)

Paloma Polama - Jack, Johnnie and the Ol’ Monk. This youtube sensation needs no introduction. The trippy lyrics which every Tamil Nadu lad can relate to, the quirky music and the very nice vocals made this song very viral. Great going folks!

(May I call up on the ‘Legendary’ Srikanth Deva to do the honours please?)

EAR ACHE A tie between Anirudh’s ‘Kolaveri’ from ‘3’ and and N.R Ragunathans ‘Kondadum manasu’ from ‘Sundarapandian’ . Kolaveri is here because of sheer over usage. It became some sort of an ear worm initially and slowly became a ear ache. Sorry Anirudh!

Nominees:

The other song is here for the sheer tackiness and loudness of the song. Anand Aravindakshan just did what his music director told him but no one told the music director what to do. The video was even more tacky. Sasikumar is the darling of the masses. Women young and old swoon and swing with Sasi while he walks up and down and shows some real Rajini-esque poses. Proper downer.

• Ilayraja – Neethane en Ponvasantham.

BLAH ALBUM Tamil music produces some really hyped albums which end up being poop every year. This year 3 of the biggest let downs were Billa 2, Mattran and Thandavam. Billa 2: Yuvan is no doubt a brilliant music director. Sometimes you have the feeling he is overworked and needs a paid holiday to the Bahamas or something. Billa 2 is proof for that. In a year where he produced a brilliant album in ‘Kazhugu’ he also produced a dud with ‘Billa 2’. Songs like ‘Gangster’ and ‘Madhurai Ponnu’ are not songs one will have in their computers or I-pods. We would rather prefer stuff like ‘Ambalaikum Pombalaikum’ and ‘Athadi Manasula’ Mattran: Harris Jayaraj has this quality. For every hit he produces, he produces one and half duds. Starting the year with Nanban and Oru kal our Kannadi meant that he had to keep the tempo up and garner more hits. Guess what he did? He gave us Mattran. I wouldn’t touch that album even if they gave it for free. Harris then came back stronger with ‘Thuppaki’ a proper mass flick with Vijay and A.R Murugadoss. Thandavam: The A.L Vijay and G.V Prakash combination is much celebrated in kollywood after 2 successful musical ventures earlier‘Madrasapattinam’ and ‘Deiva Thirumagal’ (I wouldn’t recommend ‘Deiva Thriumagal though). This year they came together along with ‘Chiyan’ Vikram and UTV to make Thandavam. The movie and the audio sank like the ‘Titanic’ what a disappointment.

• Yuvan Shankar Raja- Billa 2, Kazhugu • Harris Jayaraj – Oru kal oru kannadi , Thuppaki , Nanban • Santosh Narayan - Pizza/ Attakathi • D .Imman - Kumki • Anirudh Ravichandran - 3 • Thaman S.S – Kadhalil Sodhapovadhu eppadi • Vijay Anthony – Naan The award goes to: Santosh Narayan- Pizza and Attakathi. For a giving Tamil cinemas some much needed fresh air with minimal or no auto tune.

BREAKTHROUGHS Anirudh Ravichandran who took the whole of India by storm with his debut album ‘3’. He is in demand across India now having scored for Bejoy Nambiar’s ‘David’ and Danush’s ‘Ethir neechal’ (It has Yo Yo Honey Singh doing some gibberish in the middle). We are sure the man will become even bigger in the future. Our only request for Anirudh is some reduction in the auto tune section. Santosh Naryan – The man who has composed some really good music for ‘Pizza’ and ‘Attakathi’ is my favourite new comer of the year. Let’s hope he makes more such brilliant albums for years to come. Hemachandran who had a great 2012 with Tamil cinema having crooned ‘Kadhal oru butterfly’ in Oru Kal oru kannadi, ‘Oh Baby girl’ in ‘Maalai Pozhudin mayakathile’ and ‘Heartiley Battery’ in ‘Nanban’ . He technically came to the fore with ‘Thanjavur Jilla kaari’ from ‘Sura’ but this year he has been a proper revelation. Ved Shankar Sugavanam – The talented music director had ‘Naduvula Konjam pakkatha kaanum’ last year. It was a very nice album. Ved is one music director we all must keep our eyes on.

That my friends is the conclusion of this year ‘ Score- Kollywood virudhugal- 2012’ . We have excluded movies which haven’t been released yet like Kadal. Viswaroopam and Moondru paer . Moondru kadhal’ etc. Here is wishing Kollywood and all its music directors young and old a happy 2013. The

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For Margazhi.org, the season of Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 has been truly special. While soaking in the typical joys of the Season - which is a veritable feast of music, dance & related conferences, they also had the first edition of the Moods of Margazhi photo contest being launched. Seen through the lens of enthusiastic participants, who have been able to capture some of the great moments of Chennaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Margazhi magic.

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The winners have been announced at margazhi.org/ moodsofmargazhi. In addition, here is a special pick from our team that captures a lot of what we love about Margazhi. 1. Vedavalli amma 2. Trissur Ramachandran 3. Umayalpuram Sivaraman 4. Shobana

Photo credits : Sujani Dwarak Performance by Shobana

3 2 Photo credits : Simhanjana GS Sogasuga Mridhanga Thaalamu

1 Photo credits : Ramanatham Iyer Devotion

Photo credits : Ramanatham Iyer Vidwath

sai adithya

Photo credits : Deepa Dual Dance

Photo credits : Ashok Kumar Music Ageless

Photo credits : Sanghavi Zoey Aged ages Margazhi is a wonderful time to soak in the concerts featuring our senior musicians. Years of practising their art and craft add a wonderful dimension to their concerts which is a treasure for all of us. 5. Rasika picture of boy 6. One more girl

7. Kid with mridangam 8.Couple of young dancers

Talent abounds. We would love to see growing audiences for upcoming concerts - the midday slots are a talent hunterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s delight. Likewise group and solo performances of emerging talent in dance. True lovers of music must take the effort to encourage upcoming talent even before they are recognised as stars

11 Photo credits : Santhosh Mala Music is Meditation

9. T M K 10. Sanjay

10 9

11. Bombay Jayashri 12.Priyadarsini Govind The reigning stars who have their dedicated fan following. They have won over rasikas with years of presenting their music & dance in their own inimitable styles. Every performance is different and catches each performer in a different mood or showcases a different facet of their music. 13. Kolam 14. Food

Music is ever enduring. Having said that, every time we see youngsters and children soaking in the joys of the season, it renews our hope that our classical traditions will live in, adapting to the times but safe in the hands of every new generation.

Photo credits : Shri Dyanam

Photo credits : Hariharan Sankaran Distance & Proportion

Photo credits : Hariharan Sankaran Immersed in Music

14 Photo credits : Suresh Kumar Photo credits : Venkata Krishna Drooling Causes Marghazhi Kolam

Photo credits : Supraja Srinivasan A school kid showing his prowess at the Mridangam

Amidst all the music & dance, there is more! Activities and events that celebrate various aspects of our culture - from kolams to kritis, sapaadu to sangeetam. We love the food during the season and the opportunities to come together in various groups to celebrate our culture & traditions The

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Liverpool-based rock band Anathema wowed crowds at IIT Chennai’s annual fest Saarang 2013, playing in the massive Open Air Theatre and pulling off an amazing set!

a i d n i in

e v i l

Word Association with Vincent • Swallowed: Tikka (Because that’s what I ate for lunch. I loved the food here!)

• Smokescreen: CIA

• Cleft: Palate

• Kingpin: (Huge long pause) “I’m not sure, it brings images of a movie but....(and another long pause)

The Band Line-Up

Vincent Cavanagh

The

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Jamie Cavanagh

Lee Helen Douglas

John Douglas

Daniel Cardoso

Photo credits : George Vedamanickam

“

If I could tour with any one band, it would be Godspeed You Black Emperor” - Vincent Cavanagh

siddarth v | Supriya Talupuru Frontman Vincent Cavanagh seems to have a strong appeal for his more recent albums, but the crowd at IIT Saarang was ready for anything dating back to Alternative 4. Earlier at the Press Conference, Cavanagh spoke about how, when touring with Opeth, Akerfeldt commented on the tremendous energy he felt at Saarang 3 years earlier.

bulk of the setlist was from the 2 new albums: Weather Systems and We’re Here Because We’re Here. I would have personally loved to hear the track Hindsight, and more numbers from the Alternative 4 record. Vincent Cavanagh constantly entertained the crowd with his usage of Vannakkam and Nandri to thank the crowd between songs.

He also spoke about his progressive influences and the tendency to never repeat themselves. He also commended Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson for dramatically helping to shape and hone the sound of their previous record, We’re Here Because We’re Here.

The massive Open Air Theatre at IIT Chennai was reasonably packed with barriers for the different sections of the crowd. After going through A Simple Mistake, Storm Before the Calm, and Lightning Song, the crowd were riled. Even those who had never heard of the band before were yelling for more. A Natural Disaster probably came out the best of the lot, with Douglas’ crooning vocals and Cavanagh’s soft bass voice intermingling beautifully. Empty saw the hardcore fans jump for joy as Danny, the guitarist, starting off the vocals for the song. His guitar tones too, were incredible, with extremely high levels of feedback on his distortion, but an amazing level of control and groove. Earlier on, he even egged the crowd on to jump the three levels of barricades in front of the stage. Only a few people (myself included!) were able to actually get through before the stage security starting obstructing the people who wanted to jump.

For those of you unfamiliar with their newer albums, Anathema have drifted radically from their Doom Metal roots and have ventured into a more Post-Rock, progressive, experimental and lighter sound. Alternative 4 saw some brilliant tracks which are more commonly known in the Indian metal circles, but post 2000, the band has seen a more mellow sound and, with a female vocalist to complement Vincent, the other band members have further tried to diversify and hone their individual skills. The organic transition was most evident in A Natural Disaster. Since then, the distorted guitars have succumbed to the soft but powerful chords of the keyboards, which, at the gig, were completely psychedelic. The

The band closed with Fragile Dreams, probably their most famous song. With improvised and slightly altered drumming, the beat caught the ears of everyone in the theatre.

► Lyrically, it seems that you’re moving to areas of alternate consciousness. Did you draw on personal experiences for this?

“Yes! There are songs that we all can relate to no matter what the content: like love, lust, anger and so on. Personally, I relate with Dark side of the moon by Pink Floyd.”

► What are the most common mistakes prog-rock bands make and how can they avoid it? “Not always are they true to themselves; they end up writing about things that they think other people want to listen. It just becomes shallow and musically, you don’t really get anywhere. So, they should give their originality a chance and try new things out.”

► Musically, what / who influences you?

“Like I said, we all can relate to certain events and emotions. So while we go with it, we’ve been looking at various other things too. Like Sound Sculpting (The process of taking an individual sound or layered sounds to reconstruct and manipulating them using a variety of analog and/ or digital effects into an entirely new one.)

Personal touch Anathema #1 Album in Prog Critic’s Choice 2012! “Yes, we have actually won quite a few awards over the last year. It’s been fantastic! ”

How is India? “I’m from Liverpool and people are very friendly there. You can just go up to someone and strike up a conversation with them. Now, I’ve moved to France and people are ... well, different there (insert sly smile). You can’t do that there: you can got up to someone in the subway and just talk to them because they’ll think you’re crazy. Maybe because the people who do so there are crazy. Here in India, I’ll just be walking around and people come up to me and ask me who I am, where I’m from, talk about Liverpool and about music. So, yes, the people are very friendly. Which makes it strangely familiar.” The

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