And Macca Gently Weeps

When the tabloids blitzed London with the bitter split of the former Beatle, Paul McCartney, and his former wife Heather Mills, the musician Nitin Sawhney couldn8217;t help calling up Macca, his friend of 12 years, and ask if he wanted to write down his feelings in a song.

Musician Nitin Sawhney8217;s latest album London Undersound has a series of high-profile collaborations and Paul McCartney singing about his breakup with Heather Mills

When the tabloids blitzed London with the bitter split of the former Beatle, Paul McCartney, and his former wife Heather Mills, the musician Nitin Sawhney couldn8217;t help calling up Macca, his friend of 12 years, and ask if he wanted to write down his feelings in a song. That8217;s what The Beatles always did. The call eventually resulted in a maudlin, acoustic, love ballad called My soul and features in Sawhney8217;s latest album, London Undersound.

8220;Paul came down to my house for a couple of days and we started putting together the track which delves into the paparazzi infiltrating his life during the breakup. More than just about the split, it8217;s also about his soul being stolen,8221; says Sawhney, who also penned the lyrics of the song with McCartney. The alimony is not part of the song that goes, 8220;I long to know all your secrets/ I want to walk through your fire/ Light up my eyes with your smile8221;, which is also believed to be McCartney8217;s dedication to Mills and has a tinge of Indian classical vocals in the background.

But it is not just one collaboration that Sawhney has lined up. 8220;The entire album is a series of collaborations and represents the changing dynamics of London as a city, and hence the name,8221; says the 44-year-old, who is concerned about the fear trickling in the city after 9/11 and 7/7. 8220;There8217;s a lot of unease about issues like race and civil liberties in London and across the world,8221; he says. Sawhney who, along with Sanjeev Bhaskar, created the music for the hit series Goodness Gracious Me, says the British-Asian community is perceived differently now than when the funny series was conceptualised. The shadow of terror is there in the album as well, with the reggae artist Natty interpreting his first-hand account of the 7/7 bombings in Days of fire.

Sawhney has also collaborated with Tina Grace and Anoushka Shankar in Transmission and Charukeshi respectively. 8220;I8217;ve always known them through their music, but this album is special as it reflects the vision of various artists,8221; he says.

Sawhney, who is of Indian origin, now plays many roles in London 8212; a club DJ, a songwriter, composer, classical pianist and flamenco guitarist. After composing the score for Mira Nair8217;s The Namesake, he8217;s also working on four more films, including Deepa Mehta8217;s next, Exclusion. Meanwhile, his first performance in India is yet to be. In the diary, he has marked the 2010 Jaipur Festival, but he is hoping it happens sooner.