Narrating Music

The band got together through their common need to look for a music project that is off-beat and offers a lot of creative freedom. “Usually,when you compose music for a project,there’s a brief that you have to stick to. Here,after hearing the initial idea,I was given a free hand to come up with my kind of music,” says Rahut,whose melodies have featured in commercials for Godrej,McDonald’s and Cadbury’s Perk. He was introduced to Misra by Rao,an award-winning singer,whose singing credits include Khuda Jaane from Bachna Ae Haseeno and Mudi Mudi from Paa. The band even performed at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival last year.

This is perhaps the first time where the concept of Qissagoi has been merged with music on an album. “The art of storytelling was once very strong among us. But slowly,people stopped paying attention to it,because cinema became a popular medium of entertainment. Then television came and almost killed it. But there still remains a thirst for new stories amongst all of us,and that’s what we tried to do with this album,” says Misra. It was an idea that the journalist-turned-lyricist had been toying with for a while. So when music company SaReGaMa approached him with the idea of backing a non-film music album,the concept clicked immediately. The trio went on to create an album that narrates the story of a man,looking back on his life with nostalgia. “It’s structured like a story,narrated by Neelesh,which is peppered with certain events. These events are then sung by Shilpa.”

The concept has already been tried out by Misra,when he launched a radio programme,Yaadon ka Idiot Box,along

similar lines early this year. “Listeners from across India and even Pakistan,love the show. It is set in what I call ‘Yaad Shahar’ — I narrate stories and then play relevant songs,” says Mishra,“In fact,I’ve already played the songs from our album and they’ve all received a great response from the audience.”