One of the best things about watching musicians perform is when their eyes close as they lose themselves in the music. Eventually, you feel the humming energy inside you, as goosebumps break out over your skin. What are they thinking about? Are they aware of the audience? How do their fingers find the right notes? No one knows. Even the artistes themselves still explore where music takes them.
For Vandana Srinivasan, singing is a chance to take a trip down memory lane and revisit her childhood. The successful playback singer and her husband Anand Pattatil recently began The Revival Series, a collaborative effort that aims at changing perceptions about classical music.
“I enjoy working with music composers. I also love independent music. That said, traditional art forms should be more popular among the younger generation but they aren’t. That’s when we realised that the secret lies in the packaging. If you change how classical music is presented and give that to the youth, they just lap it up. The predominant attitude is that traditional music is boring,” says Vandana.
Under the banner of Musicalorie, she has worked with many artistes before for collaborations. But this one is different, she tells us. Just this month, they released three music videos that focus on ghazals, with the most recent one being an interpretation of Ranjish Hi Sahi by Urdu poet Ahmed Faraz Saab.
“We planned more segments and next will be on original music. It’s a work in progress,” she says. “All the songs are part of my earliest memories, listening to my parents listening to ghazals. There’s a strong sense of sentimental value.”
Now, they are planning on inviting new artistes and a lot of people from abroad too have written to them, thus widening the possibility of a foreign collaboration.
“It’s become a part of individual portfolios as well and gives the artists and technicians we work with credibility. It’s a form of music they really enjoy experimenting with,” Vandana says. The exercise offers an opportunity to understand and closely work with various artists.
“You don’t have to agree on everything. You just need that one connect,” Vandana says adding that Girinandh Vidhyashankar and Bob Phukan have been absolutely invaluable in the series.
With one more video left for this month, what are their long-term plans? “We want to perform at shows. We have already received many requests and it will showcase our chemistry and how well we work with each other,” she says on a concluding note.
