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Journalism of Courage
When Lewis Caroll’s Alice roamed around the Wonderland in the famed 19th-century fable, as a child, one either disliked Underland or was intrigued by what one saw in the book. Wonderland wasn’t an easy place to be in for most children — it was scary and confusing. For Delhi-based 23-year-old Tarana Marwah, it was way too perfect. Marwah grew up loving it all — the fantasy of it, the split of the two worlds created by a rabbit hole, and many characters that followed post her tryst with the world of whimsy, “the coolest being the Japanese cartoons and the world of gaming and virtual reality”.
So when she croons Candyland, a piece in her debut album, titled Soliloquy, she takes the listeners into her dystopian world, where she can leave Tarana behind and acquire the identity of Komerobi — a Japanese word that means sunlight through the leaves. “I have always loved the idea of having two different identities — one for the stage and the other which is my own. I wanted to give myself a moniker so that I could separate Tarana from Komerobi. On stage, I pretend I’m a different person. It’s this idea of a world within a world, the virtual reality, which appeals to me,” says Marwah. As for the album, it is exactly what it means — an internal monologue in a drama. “It’s what goes on inside my head,” she says with a laugh.
The dream world Marwah builds is well-thought out — be it the art, aesthetic or the music videos. “I find it fun to attach concept to the music,” something she also did in her first EP, which was mostly instrumental. For Soliloquy, Marwah has collaborated with Pakhi Sen for the album cover. Sen, an artist and Orijeet Sen’s daughter, has also created 10 different outfits for Marwah to create the character presented in the artwork and get her to be Komerobi on stage. Some Japanese game-like videos, created by Siddhant Aggarwal and Sharad Ravishankar, have also been put on YouTube. Every video continues her story and is an extension of Marwah’s obsession for all things Japanese — the food, pop culture and soundtracks. “I just carried it all to adulthood,” she adds.
As one scours through the deep spaces Marwah brings her music from, it’s quite easy to spot that the split identity does not hinder with the music she puts out. They are two different things, she says, “I don’t write a song to fit into a certain bracket. What I write is a more honest version of me.” Also, perhaps the reason why she’s more than just a blip on the indie circuit as of now with pieces such as Time, Candyland and Hurricane among others. She combines her syrupy voice with slow tempos and dreamy electronica to deliver eight “whimsical and whimsy-like” tracks.
The album, says Marwah, is a result of a lot of patchwork. “I used some melodies and lyrics long ago, and a lot of it was done in one night. Later, I put everything together over one year, collaborating with people who inspire me,” she says. On Soliloquy, she has collaborated with ace bassist Mohini Dey, singer Nicholsan and guitarist Warren Mendonsa. She wrote to Dey as a fangirl, while Nicholsan was in the Cotton Press Studios in Mumbai when Marwah was recording. “Warren was actually on the phone with someone at the studio and heard my music in the background. I was freaked when he said he’d like to play,” she says.
Growing up in Delhi in a home where music was played day and night, Marwah found herself listening to a range of artistes — from Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi to the Beatles and Phil Collins. “Everything I heard as a child, I still love. All of it has added to my identity as an adult,” says Marwah, whose father propelled her into music. He played the harmonium and tabla and a seven-year-old Marwah began learning western classical piano. “I decided then that music is what I’d do,” says Marwah.
She is now busy working on another album, which she’ll release next year, and has her hands full. There’s also a collaborative EP with Keshav Dhar of Sky Harbour, an imagined game soundtrack, where she’ll take games and rescore them, a collaborative project with Gaurav Raina of Midival Punditz and an album in Hindi. Despite much adulation, Marwah doesn’t feel she has arrived. “I think I’d feel that when I stopped learning, says Marwah.
