Tajdar Junaid talks about his intense love for the many moods of music
Tajdar Junaid (Photo Credit: Ramanuj Das)
Mumbai: Tajdar Junaid confirms that it was love at first chord, when his cousin got Led Zeppelin tapes from the US. “I remember that I was only in class seven and it had become my infatuation to be like John Bonham to learn the drums and own a drum kit.
But I could never get one as we didn’t have much tolerant neighbours!” reminisces the musician, adding that he spent most of his free time back then, scouring Kolkata’s alleys for music. “My elder brother used to play the guitar.
So whenever he wasn’t around, I would indulge in self-teaching using a guitar chord book kept in the house. I would often frequent to Free School Street with my hard-saved pocket money to buy the tapes of my favourite musicians, listen to their stuff and also read a slew of Guitar player magazines.
Also at about the sane time, I started taking guitar lessons from the virtuoso Amyt Datta. He is a huge inspiration,” acknowledges Tajdar. Talking about his latest feat, the musician says that he did send the song ‘Dastaan’ to Mohsen Makhmalbaf because he loved “the Iranian director’s work”.
“I love Iranian cinema for its art of simple yet beautiful storytelling and I’m amazed by their strength to carry on making world class classics despite the government bans and militancy. I straightaway connected with Mr. Makhmalbaf and emailed him the track called ‘Dastaan’ from my album What Colour Is Your Raindrop, released only last year. He wrote back saying that he loved it, which was a compliment in itself! Then we lost touch until this March, when I again heard from him and his producers. They wanted to license ‘Dastaan’ for his new film The President. The producer told me that the legendary filmmaker became fond of the number and had been listening to it while developing his script,” says Tajdar, who was thrilled with the response the song could garner at the recent premier in Venice Film Festival.
Also an avid photographer, the creative talent points out that the launch of his indie album What Colour Is Your Raindrop was a milestone in his music career. “I like the serenity of Indian classical strains as well as the textural chaos of Sigur Ros, the Icelandic post-rock band. I like the gaps in between Chopin’s notes and I also get thoroughly influenced by Albert King’s wails. The way I love the innocence of Iranian cinema, in the same vein, novelist Haruki Murakami’s wicked imagination impacts me to a great degree. So the adventurous idea was to put all these emotions and colours together on record and have a bucketful of fun too,” he muses.
Tajdar is happy that pieces from his debut album have been featured in international films. Two songs from this album have also been placed in a Hollywood film titled Sold, directed by Academy Award-winners Jeffrey Brown and British actress, Emma Thomson.
( Source : dc )
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