Tell us
How did the
about the Train Song.
idea come about?
Tapan Raj:
Train Song came about in
our studio
a few years back when
Karsh was
traveling through Delhi.
We (Midival
Punditz and Karsh)
decided to
write a couple of tracks
that had
strong folk influences
from India
juxtaposed with English
lyrics. We think
we were channeling
our long time
influences and World
music legends
Paul Simon and Peter
Gabriel. Once we
had laid down the
composition and
English parts which
were beautifully
sung by Karsh,
we decided to
send it to Raghu
to come up with
Kannada parts
along with the
already laid down
English vocals. He
wrote a beautiful
melody, lyrics and recorded his parts and sent
it across. We instantly loved what he had done
and that he had got the brief of the song in the
first go. After a few minor edits, the song was
ready. We performed it at a bunch of festivals
including NH7 and a few other shows and saw
how well the crowd responded with singing the
chorus parts and we knew we had a memorable
song, but it was never released officially.
What’s your take on the electronic
music scene in India?
Gaurav Raina: The scene is growing and
its awesome to see that its inspiring a lot
of new artists to produce original music.
Earlier the scene was looked upon as a big
risk for an aspiring artist to get into. But
now, a lot of artists look at it a genuine
career and to see that change is amazing.
If you had to describe your music
to someone who has never heard
you guys, what would you say?
Tapan Raj: We make Indian electronic music.
36
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
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Tell us about your upcoming projects
Gaurav Raina: Right now we are focused to
put together our 5th studio album. We are
looking at bringing together folks music
from a few parts of India and treating
it in an interesting fresh manner.
Tell us about your collaboration
with Karsh Kale
Tapan Raj: We have collaborated with Karsh
on many occasions over the past 2 decades.
He has been our friend and co-conspirer on
many musical adventures and is our record
label mate from Six Degrees Records, San
Francisco. Its great that we all have similar
musical inspirations and spend many many
evenings listening to artists that we love - Paul
Simon and Peter Gabriel are two such artists.
We subconsciously were paying a tribute to
them when we were writing Train Song.
We always knew that Karsh is a genius
multi instrumentalist but what a lot of fans
may not know that he is a great singer as
well. Train Song is a great example where
one gets to hear his singing prowess.
Best moments from making the song.
Gaurav Raina: The part where we got Raghu
Dixit to collaborate and he got it immediately
over a quick brief on the phone. He send back
a beautiful melody and it fit immediately.
We of course didn’t understand the Kannada
Lyrics and had to ask him to translate it.