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Online music portals are exploding in the indie scene: Shadow & Light
Updated on: 17 July, 2015 12:07 PM IST |
What initially started out as a sound cloud collaborative project, is now a duo setup, with a brand new debut album. Anindo Bose Music arrangement & Production along with Pavithra Chari Vocals & Lyrics formed Shadow and Light in 2014. There is a lot of experimentation, a cartload of diverse influences and an ongoing theme of genre fusion. Indian Classical will meet Jazz by the roadside, and they will hitchhike a ride with Blues and Trance! We have a casual chat with the duo and talk about their collaboration, their self-titled album and more...
Q. Give us a brief about your recently released album.
This album unfolded itself through the process of simple song writing. The first song Shadow and Light was intended to be a vocal demo for Pavithra, but i was so inspired by it, that i ended up writing a complete arrangement over the scratch vocals that she sent me. Later on after hearing the arrangement, she realized it was more than just a demo and it fueled a collaborative effort in making music. This really was the start of everything.
Over the next few months we worked on several ideas, and were soon able to complete full songs. We would listen to each song a number of times before we would upload it for public listening on soundcloud. Our plan was to put out a single every month which we were able to comfortably achieve over a year. When we realized that we had ten solid songs, we released them formally as an album called "Shadow and Light" on oklisten/itunes.
The execution didn&39;t take too long, since i have my own studio - Plug &39;n&39; Play Studios, New Delhi.
Q. Shadow and Light track-by-track…
The first album has ten tracks starting with Shadow and Light, Blue, Rooh i noor, Khwaish, In your eyes, Unkahi, Dream Gone Wrong, Samay, Tadap, and Whisper. Of these, Rooh i noor and Tadap are fan favourites, and Unkahi was played numerous times on radio. Post the album we released six songs which are: Baras, Saavre, Broken Boundaries, Arzoo, Viraha, and Dheemi.
Personally, we don&39;t pick favorites because each song means the world to us, but for a start we would like to share Saavre and Baras through your wonderful radio portal :
Q. How did this collective of Anindo and Pavitra Chari happen?
We met during an auditioning round of a musical that i Anindo was composing for, and we stayed in touch. She was the first to audition and I was really inspired by her voice. Somehow we stayed in touch post that. Though initially it was just a collaborative studio project, we eventually realized that we had musical content worth compiling into an album, and we got it released on itunes and oklisten. And honestly, the response from our soundcloud fan page both Indian and overseas encouraged us to continue writing more which we still do.
Q. The sound of Advaita is a fusion of various genres, how would you define the sound of SAL?
Advaita is a full-fledged live band that has written songs for over 10 years in a band format, so the inputs come from all the members and there&39;s a distinct role for each member to create the unique Advaita sound.
The English and Western vocals are sung by different people and the Indian instruments form an integral part of the compositions, a lot of the songs are based on traditional classical bandishs which have been adapted to fit in the scheme of a song. The rest of the band has a western rock background/influence hence the fusion of different styles reflecting in the sound.
Shadow and Light is a collaboration between an Arranger/producer who composes the entire music with its elements sequenced through a keyboard, and a vocalist who is proficient in Hindustani classical as well as western vocals and writes all original Hindi and english lyrics, most of which are based on Hindustani raags but none based on traditional bandishs.
The music itself has a very cinematic/soundtrack feel as we&39;ve been told by some of our fans. There are a lot of textural soundscapes through the songs, but most of it has an upfront piano driven sound. We have now moved into a live band format with a bass player Jayant Manchanda and drummer Aveleon Giles Vaz, just for our live gigs to throw in a bit of variety and add some energy to the live sets.
Q. What has been the prime inspiration behind the lyrical themes?
Pavihra - The album was a reflection of everything I had observed and contemplated over the years, a treasured collection of my feelings about the everyday things of life. The songs that have been written after the album are more specific to objects and themes that seek the attention of an artist. Till now all the lyrics have been directed to the listener in first person, which is a testimony to my personal attachment to this project.
Q. If you had to describe Shadow and Light the album in three words...
Intense. Evocative. Soulful.
Q. Indie scene has changed drastically in the past 5 years. What changes have you observed?
It definitely has, more and more people are coming out with originals and even concept driven EPs or Albums or music videos. It shows that the musician community is maturing swiftly and there&39;s a growing audience that is appreciative. It would be nice, though, to have more venues that really support good music and focus more on the musicians and less on the gimmickry though. Online music portals are exploding in the scene, with new internet channels coming up almost every week. We can only hope that this model sustains itself and the gap between the artists and fans reduces. Radio and TV are still the most important mediums to get across to large number of people in one go!
Q. Can you shed some light on your musical roots?
Anindo - A self-taught musician, still discovering. Majorly influenced by Classic/Progressive rock and jazz/rock bands and gospel music. A Capella music really helped in opening up my sense of harmony and applying them to my compositions/arrangements. I am more comfortable writing a full song as opposed to improvising or soloing on the keyboard. I&39;ve learned a lot over the years through Artistes Unlimited, Advaita and through collaborations in the Delhi music circuit.
Pavithra - I had been trained in Hindustani classical music until recently by my long time guru Shri Satya Narayan Maharana. Currently, i am privileged to be training under Smt. Shubha Mudgal. Though i have no formal training in Western music I sing based on what I&39;ve heard and been inspired by. I listen to a variety of artists ranging from genres of Hindustani and Carnatic, Pop, RnB and World music.
Q. What&39;s the agenda for rest of 2015?
We are looking forward to more gigs at venues and music festivals of repute. We are very pleased with the response to our full live band appearances and would like to continue in that regard. We recently got the opportunity to do some corporate gigs as well. In the coming months we plan to shoot a music video and debut on television. We also plan to finish a few more songs and release our second album very soon.