Taking folk music to places

When the conversation is about music, one often wonders of what inspires it. Along with his band, Rachintan Trivedi has been bringing alive writings of poet Narsinh Mehta, from around 15th century, through music. By presenting these lost words, with a touch of fusion, the 27-year-old and his band Folk Box have been reviving traditional folk music, and contributing to the country’s folk scene.
Rachintan, who has been composing music with AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory in Chennai for over eight years now, recently saw one of his band’s songs being nominated for the Global Indian Music Academy Awards, and won himself a scholarship from the highly reputed Berklee College of Music. Not just that, he also has many internationally acclaimed compositions under his belt.

Even as this pianist talks, his fingers keep tap around unconsciously, making music in his head! Rachintan had some really early beginnings in music, sitting by his father Raju Trivedi, a well-known keyboard player in Gujarat. “I owe all my musical inclination to my father. The way he analyses a song before a performance is something I carry forward with me to date — be it making staff notation or writing musical notes. And working with him made me realise that musicians today aren’t rehearsing enough the way the earlier generation’s musicians did,” Rachintan expresses.

The musician loves to follow the music by Jordan Rudess, Louise Banks, Dave Brubeck and Stephen Devassy, among others and is quite the juggler when it comes to playing instruments. He plays the traditional pianos as well as the new-age Seaboard with ease. “Hailing from a musical family, I have been exposed to a variety of musical forms and cultures from a very young age. I have a qualification in harmonium, have studied Gujarati folk music, have done my Trinity grade 8 before moving to AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory. But folk music is something that always attracted me. So, along with another singer Aditya Gadhvi, I have been trying to bring a fusion to the traditional folk music. It was our second song Hansla, which got nominated for GIMA, and we couldn’t be any happier about its reception,” he exclaims.

And of course, we wanted to know what it is like to work with the musical maestro, Rahman. “Working with Rahman sir is like having a memorable moment each time. I got to see him extremely happy,and even angry, but his dedication is something that’s very inspirational. We were once rehearsing and I remember playing something wrong, and he just smiled and asked us all to play again. His music has had a great influence over my life,” Rachintan recounts.

The young artiste has also produced music for international films like American Gandhi, which received critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival. “It is exciting to see folk music and fusion music go places,” he says signing off.