One Potato, Two Potato

Shivani Ahlowalia is known to be a music missionary, who brings social issues to the fore (Source: Express photo by Jamil GS)

Alo Wala is not a parantha in immediate danger of making you fat. It, however, is the moniker for a six-piece outfit led by 33-year-old US-based rapper Shivani Ahlowalia , and of course a play on her last name. A combination of two projects, with Copenhagen-based band Copia Doble Systema being the other, Alo Wala’s unexpected bass drops, happy vibes, double-time raps and hypnotic visuals are doing the rounds across music circles in the world. But it’s the band name that has stuck around and has people taking a second listen. “I was in Kolkata with Brooklyn Shanti helping him with a shoot and he had this song called Moner alo, I asked him what ‘Alo’ meant and he said it meant ‘light’ in Bengali. It was one of those ‘ah ha’ moments. I’m not sure everyone gets it though. People here pronounce it Aloo Wala — and then all of a sudden we sell potatoes and not light — but hey, it’s funny,” says Shivani, who along with her band will be a highlight today — the second and final day of Bacardi NH7 Weekender.

But it wasn’t until 2008 that Shivani felt the need to express herself through rapping. She had co-founded an NGO in West Africa and was running a project called Hip Hop Harmony that worked with unification through hip hop in Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania and Morocco. “I quickly became a West African hip hop magnet and was surrounded by rappers using words to fight their battles. It was powerful and inspiring, and that’s where it started really,” says Shivani. She decided to collaborate with Julius Sylvest of the Copia Doble Systema in India after her art residency in Pondicherry was cut short due to a cyclone. “I was amazed at the resilience of the people of Pondicherry, particularly my host who said that the storm gave him, ‘an opportunity to rebuild better’. I was inspired to destroy the aspects of my life that weren’t working. A consequence of that was committing my life to music,” says Shivani. The result of the collaboration was Bend yuh backbone, a song about creating new realities in the face of destruction.

As for her music, it expands over several genres. “Tropical bass is a vague yet expansive term. Each one of us brings inputs based on our life experiences and our music interests and it comes together in a distinctly galactic, universal sound that doesn’t belong to any one genre,” says Shivani.

A first-generation American, born in Chicago to a Punjabi-Indian family, Shivani grew up dancing to bhangra and listening to Michael Jackson and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. “Everyone would just rage, spinning round and round in the living room with the speakers on full blast. Yet, I was also the MTV generation. So pop culture, lots of hip hop and R&B at the time juxtaposed with all the Indian-ness,” says Shivani, whose cousin introduced her to hip hop. She plans to give a shout to her father this time, who will attend her gig for the first time.

Alo Wala will perform at NH7 Weekender today. Tickets are available on insider.in and at the venue, Buddh International Circuit