We had a chat with Ananthaal about how they started their band, their concept, story behind their name and much more.
SNEHA RAMESH
We had a chat with Ananthaal about how they started their band, their concept, story behind their name and much more.
What brought you to the idea of starting a band, Clinton?
I always have loved the idea of music with surprises. Bringing strong but otherwise disparate elements together in a song is something I’ ve always loved doing. When I worked with Vijay Prakash and Bianca in Coke Studio at MTV, they both received so much acclaim for their respective renditions I got an idea from there and found myself thinking of combining these two distinctive vocal styles with my own. And if I could write music that was distinctly India yet global at the same time, then this was a good way to start. That’ s how Ananthaal was born.
What is the concept of your band?
Clinton: The concept of Ananthaal, for me, has been to make music that reflects accurately where the three of us are as artists at this point in our lives. And the telling of each of our stories unfolds in what each of us brings to the table as you listen to each song on the album. The album has many different shades, just like people do, so I think conceptually it’ s a mirror to our souls as artists.
Why the name Ananthaal?
Bianca: Well, Clinton actually liked the idea of Infinity and so we decided to build on that concept. We used that thought while designing everything, from our logo, our album cover, our CD inlay and even our first video, ' Inayat ' which was shot in Ladakh and because of the beautiful vastness of its landscape, it reinforced the idea.
Lyricist, Manoj Yadav mentioned the word," ANANTH " which means“ Infinity” and Clinton ' s wife, Dominique fused it with the word,“ Taal " which is“ Rhythm” and this subsequently led to the coining of the word,“ ANANTHAAL "
Tell us a little more about the music you make?
Vijay: It’ s been in the making for many years actually! I remember randomly jamming with Clinton during our advertising days. I guess all that gradually manifested into Ananthaal. While Clinton initially composes the song and makes a basic track for Bianca, and me, we add our creative ideas to the track during our vocal performance. We have recorded the songs together so there has been a cohesive approach on all songs. I guess that’ s how a band is supposed to be.
You recently launched your new debut album in September. Could you brief us about the album and tell us how it was received by your fans?
Bianca: The album is essentially ' Pop Fusion ' in nature due to its strong melodic hooks and merging of styles, mainly Vijayprakash’ s Indian Classical background with our Western influences. We have been blessed to have the best musicians and lyricists in the industry collaborate with us on this album. Manoj Yadav, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Shellee, Siddhant Kaushal and Mohanrajan are the lyricists that have made these songs so meaningful and Gino Banks( drums) Sheldon D’ Silva( bass) Pozy Dhar( guitar) and Beven Fonseca( keys) are our super talented musicians along with guest artists Dhruv Ghanekar, Embar Kannan and the legendary Louis Banks.
The album has been very well received so far with a lot of radio airplay and appreciation from the entire fraternity.
Could you tell us the contribution of each of the members to the band from a musical angle?
Clinton: From a songwriting perspective, I wanted this album to be very collaborative in nature. My studio is usually my haven and it’ s not unusual for me to lock myself in there for days when I’ m writing all by myself for a film project. However I wanted to take a different approach purely because I really wanted all the three of us to feel like this album has a part of us in there. And so I would sketch out a very simple melodic idea sometimes, it would be as little as four lines or just a simple hook or a small opening verse, and I would whatsapp it to Bianca and Vijay and get their reactions. Sometimes they would add to it and send it back to me. Or if they liked the direction then we would meet a few days later in the studio and flesh it out. So by the time we approached the band we had very structured arrangement ideas in place, which we were all very comfortable with. The musicians then would add their bit of magic to the songs at rehearsal, and when we were all rehearsed and ready to record, we got into the studio and played together. We were all being recorded at the same time. That cohesive energy that you get when recording a song together just like as if you’ re rehearsing in a jam room, is something else. The record has immediacy to it, which is largely due to the spontaneity of all the musicians feeding off each other’ s ideas.
What inspires you all the most in making such good music?
Bianca: We have shared a musical history with each other over the years so I feel like during the course of the creative process, you could say we inspired each other’ s songwriting in a way. When you collaborate with someone that has different musical influences from you, its always challenging in the best way possible.
Even though we come from different musical backgrounds, we pretty much had the same goal collectively when it came to writing the material, which was to not limit our sound as far as possible and to keep it largely relatable to most people without forcing the fusion angle too heavily.
Which has been your best performance so far and why?
Clinton: I think as a band we’ ve only just begun. The Ananthaal tour is underway and I think we can confidently say –“ The best is yet to come”.
Tell us about your upcoming projects.
Vijay: As Individual artists we all have a lot coming up … Clinton is busy composing for a couple of interesting movie projects and also regularly scores TV ads and his own live performances.
Bianca is busy with song recordings for a couple of films and she regularly gigs too. I am mostly occupied with my playback singing and shows and I am also currently judging few reality musical shows on the south Indian TV channels. But when talking about Ananthaal we as a band are currently busy on our promotional tour to various cities in India and also working on the videos for other songs in the album.
Clinton- you are going to be performing at the NH7 weekender this year. Are you excited about it? What plans do you have?
Yes, absolutely! I’ m very excited and I’ m presenting“ Ananthaal” and the music from the album. It’ s definitely gonna be a treat for the fans in Bangalore when they see us perform with Gino, Sheldon Beven and Pozy. Would love to see all of you there.
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