MUSIC ROY-ALTY

Anupam Roy has managed to conquer the Bengali music world within six years! Jannatul Maoa discovers the secrets to success from the music star himself.

Here begins an incredible story of a shy boy and a brilliant student who used to sing song of Rabindranath Tagore at different cultural functions as well as in school. After completing his education in engineering he joined the corporate world and moved his base from Kolkata to Bangalore for 6 long years. Before his first break in 2010 he worked a very normal and probably dull 9 to 6 in an office! Though singing song was his hobby and biggest passion he never thought to pursue a career in signing. He has since become the new icon of Bengali Music for his lyrics, composition and his stunning voice!

Of course, I am talking about the famous Bengali singer Anupam Roy, who recently debuted in Bollywood music. Though he is a music director and singer-songwriter, his first and main love is his singing.

It is amazing how suddenly a full time engineer and part time singer became a famous musician!. I asked him, exactly when he felt that he needed to start a career in singing and he responded, “I always thought of spending my life as a musician. It took me some time before my efforts in songwriting got recognized. Once my songs went out and people started loving them, I started getting further offers. I told myself, now or never!”

His big break came with the song ‘amake amar moto thakte dao’ (let me live as I am). Roy explained how this amazing career moment came to be, “That’s a long story,” he said, “I was busy recording songs for my debut album when my friend Srijit Mukherji told me that he was making a film in Bengali and would use 2 of my songs. I was happy but did not take the thing too seriously since I was never into Bengali contemporary film music. I never felt my songs would ever fit in that genre. I had recorded a scratch version at my friend Priyam’s home set up in Bangalore, using a basic level microphone. We never thought the directorial team would be so much in love with that recording and keep it for the film.”

After that Anupam never looked back! He already published three solo albums, worked as a playback singer, music director and lyricist in almost 30 films including a Bollywood film. He has already received 5 prominent awards in India and has accomplished so many great landmarks as a new singer.

In 2011, he formed his own band. After 4-5 solo acoustic gigs he felt the need for a set of live musicians who would enrich his songwriting and make his songs sound musically complete. Since 2013, the band has been recording their debut album “Dwitiyo Purush” as a music producing unit and five of the songs on the album were produced by the band. Roy’s third album “Bakyobageesh (2014)” was entirely produced by the band that has recently started contributing to Roy’s film scores too.

The specialty of his lyric is that he loves to use mysterious sentences and words, and every sentence has many meanings. For example, in one song he writes about a train which passes the clouds and station of stars, a powerful and multi-layered metaphor. One would assume that he was writing about childhood memories. But he told me a completely different story. Anupam explained that, as a movie freak he was inspired by Miyazaki’s films. “These lines are inspired from a visual I had seen in one of his film Spirited Away,”he said.

Victim blaming is a common trend in Indian subcontinent in cases of rapes or sexual harassments. Roy never denies his responsibilities to break the stereotypes of society. He has already produced a music video against sexual harassment. “As a songwriter I often get the urge to write about certain issues which really make us think about the society where we are living. We often get that feeling that everything is not right. There are mindsets we need to change. My 3rd studio album (Bakyobageesh) released last year was totally about our social system & the problems we face. Songs are not solutions but maybe they help us think in a different light.”

Roy has 4 Bengali films lined up and just released a family album. He is also working on Kathmundu, Jomer Raja Dilo Bor, Black Coffee & Saheb BiBi Golam.

In a closing message to his fans this aesthetic singer said, “keep loving me always, I will never disappoint you.”

THE REAL RAHUL

Rahul Ananda has always successfully created his own stylised pathway. Jannatul Maoa discovers the secret of his unique and aesthetic creativity.

It was an evening of spring; golden and mesmerizing. While talking with Rahul Ananda, the leading lyricist, composer and vocals of the famous band Joler Gaan, I felt a spiritual happiness inside me. Why? Because Rahul is not only a singer, but a creative artist who synthesizes various elements of his talents into one. Along with singing, Rahul is a visual and theater artist. Studying Fine Arts has added unique characteristics into this multi-talented capabilities.

A striking hallmark of Joler Gaan’s music are their one of a kind musical instruments. Almost all of them are made and named by Rahul himself. In fact, he presented me and my assistant with a newly made, unnamed instrument on the day. He said, “I have to think to give a name, we usually do not give our children any kind of name, right?” At the same time he has no prejudice about these instruments. Rahul says, “Anyone can use our instruments if they like. We will be happy if they do it.”

Rahul loves to play with sounds, words and color. Growing up in a family full of artistically expressive musicians, he found himself constantly singing and writing during his childhood. Since 1991, he has worked in the theater industry and has since studied in the Fine Arts. Come his teenage years, he began designing his own dresses. But it hasn’t all been plain sailing for Rahul, as he found out when he had to choose between his endless passions. His relatives, friends, and teachers asked him to focus on one specific goal, one specific profession. But Rahul couldn’t be stifled to one career path, as sounds, words, and color were all of his passions, and how could he leave any one of those passions! As a result, he fell into a lull of depression, which subsequently left him in a reclusive state of mind for 8-10 days. It was this dilemma which instilled within him the idea to create his own signature style. He started merging everything; sound, words, color, drama, fashion- he amalgamated everything into his performances. He believes the activities he is doing all are interconnected, whether they’re visibly apparent or not. He said, “I decided to mix all forms of arts I love. At the time of doing theater I do not deduct my musician self. When I am doing music I am doing it including some kind of theatrical performances.”

Another important element of Rahul’s world is fashion. Rahul Anada is a founder member of famous fashion house Deshal. When asked how he related fashion with his music, he revealed how fashion doesn’t fit into one singular category. It does not mean only good make-up or only wearing good clothes. Fashion covers the entirety of life – the way we are living, speaking, walking or just the way we are sitting on a couch. Everything is effected by it. He believes we cannot go on the stage for a performance with the same attire in which we used to go to the office, the same way Joler Gaan deliver their performance on the stage in fashion of their own. Nowadays people tend to call Joler Gaan as a folk fusion band, some call them experimental folk fusion band. But Rahul does not want to define his band like this. He says, “I am definitely influenced by the folk singers of the country, but I also worked with the Brazilian, Thai, Korean and Australian musician. I worked in Korean Orchestra, I learnt flute from my uncle and from my Guru Bari Siddiki. I learn from everyone and from everywhere. So, all of these elements influenced me a lot.” He continues to state how “people who define us as a folk fusion are actually in confusion.” According to him, blending various kind of music is not new in art Tagore himself synthesized various music, taking ideas from Scottish music, Bengali folks, North Indian Ragas and so on! Nazrul also used many tunes within his music. Joler Gaan does not use any heavy instruments in their music, in fact almost all of the instruments are handmade, and they still have a huge fan base among the youngsters of the country. What is the reason behind it? Rahul thinks it’s a result of their friendly communication with listeners when performing on stage. Rahul said, “Developing relation with people is very important in art, it’s a matter of practice.”

Rahul’s dream is for him and his band to roam from street to street in the villages of the country. They will nottake any money, instead they will collect food from people bartering their musicalperformances. He welcomes all the people in their troop as he believes no one is outside of his musical journey. So Rahul Ananda fans, get ready for the call of a spiritual journey with team Joler Gaan! “People who define us as a folk fusion, are actually in confusion.”

Joler Gaan has already completed the numbers of their next album. Find out more at jolergaan.com