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In May 2005, exactly a day before he were to be confirmed by Deutsche Bank, India for a contract bound period, K Mohan decided to quit his job as an assistant Vice President to pursue a career in music. Exactly two years later to the date, he, along with Koco, officially launched their first album as Agnee.
Whether it is the mystical, philosophical songs such as Saadho re and Kabira to the light, soulful ballads such as Shaam tanha and Kehlene do, Agnee’s unique sound, an organic blend of rock, Indian classical and folk, caught the fancy of an audience seeking the best of both worlds. Also a major hit was the wonderful MTV Splitsvilla Theme song, and the official theme song Hello andheron for the Hindi version of Avengers (2012).
Seven years later, ahead of the release of their film album, Yeh Hai Bakrapur, lead vocalist Mohan and lead guitarist Koco reflect upon their journey. “We compose differently for a film,” says Koco, adding, “We go for bigger sounds, more layered rather than an acoustic, unplugged onstage feel. Its more cinematic, depending upon the narrative and the fact that it will play through a 5.1 surround system.” A fan of “grandness of movie scores”, this is their second Hindi film album — the first being a minor 2012 release Aalap and the award-winning Marathi film Shala — one of the examples of how the lines are blurring between independent and Hindi film music. Up next is Abbas Tyrewala’s Mango, the closest they have come to “Hindi film composition.”
Says Mohan, “Things are looking brighter for us because Bollywood is changing too. It’s not the fixed pattern of 3-4 composers and voices, string ensemble, Indian percussions anymore. Bands like Indian Ocean, Parikrama and Pentagram are also scoring for films.”
Mohan is currently mixing it up — he has lent his voice to some of the finest Hindi film song in recent times such as Naav (Udaan, 2011), Shikayatein (Lootera, 2013) and Kinare (Queen, 2014) for Amit Trivedi, Yaariyan (Cocktail, 2012) for Pritam or the recent earworm Chaandaniya (2 States) for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. His vocal artistry in delivering aalaps with ease may lead you to assume that he is a trained classical singer, but the only riyaaz Mohan has ever done are the rigorous Mridangam lessons for about 14 years. And for all the Indian-ness his vocals reflect, Mohan is as deeply into rock and jazz as ghazals or Indian classical. “While growing up, I used to think Western vocals are the least talented. I liked instrumentals and jazz more,” says the 39-year-old Tamilian, who grew up in Kolkata, his formative years heavily influenced by both his Carnatic musician parents, and the creatively charged atmosphere of Kolkata.
With regards Agnee, Mohan and Koco compose the songs; Among Jamir is on bass; Hrishikesh Datar on drums and Aditya Pushkarna is on keyboards (he also does the background score). Koco and Mohan met while jamming for common musician friends. In popular sphere, Mohan’s voice has found a huge following but Koco is only too happy to see his bandmate’s vocals get its due. Every member of Agnee swears by the message — No individual member is bigger than the band’s music.
This is a lesson they learnt when they were nearly shown the door by a major music label for their first album, several years ago. After months of hard work the reaction of the music label’s CEO made them pause and reflect. “He said it does sound like Shakti, but where is the song?” “We were clueless, pissed off and upset. We had to ruthlessly chop off painstakingly recorded parts and brought down the album from 48 to 32 minutes, making it more listener-friendly. It was a big lesson in terms of taking suggestions from others and how things work in the business,” says 43 year old Pune-born Koco, whose inspirations are composer-guitarists such as the likes of David Gilmour and Mark Knopfler.
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