Silk Route making waves

By Chitleen K. Sethi

EVER heard the sound of cackling fire, the voice of soothing water and the touch of invisible air come together to make music? Music which celebrates nature and its elements, music which breathes life and weaves magic. That is what Silk Route is all about. Mohit, Atul and Kem, the trio who float around comfortably under water in their video Dooba Dooba from their debut album Boondein are an amazing combination of extraordinary talent, powerful emotions and deep love for music.

Their music is vivid, beautiful, original and has the freshness of sounds much lacking in other contemporary tracks. Their lyrics are simple, meaningful and relevant. No skimpily dressed women dancing in the background, no hi-tech choreographed steps, no fancy frills, their videos are simple yet eye-catching, different yet belonging somewhere close to the heart.

Talking of the first underwater video Dooba Dooba, they say, "The shooting took place at the Pauna lake near Mumbai and then in a swimming pool. The yellow car was rafted to the top of a submerged rock and it is from these that the song starts. It was a different kind of a concept and though it was really difficult to shoot under cold water in winter (painful for Atul who has a back problem), we enjoyed doing it. Ravi Udyawar directed us, and did a brilliant job of it."

It was a calculated experiment with a new idea and somehow the music and the lyrics of the song matched perfectly with the under water sequences and now it is almost impossible to imagine the song without the video in mind.

Mohit Chauhan, 33, is the lead vocalist of the band and has a fabulous voice which tantalises, excites, and soothes at the same time. He uses this rare quality effectively in his singing. "He has an amazing control over his voice", says Atul. Born at Nahan and brought up in Kulu and Solan, Mohit has been singing since he was in school. After his postgraduation in geology, he shifted to Delhi to work. This was five years back and he worked on assignments with some of agencies, doing jingles which he wrote and sang himself. Then he met Atul and Kem "and we started jamming together. After we created a few numbers, we recorded them, and then one thing led to another and Silk Route happened."

Thirtyfive-year-old Atul is also a Himachali and works with his father at Mandi. Educated from Sanawar, he learnt music there for eight years. He wanted to study music further but "somehow I could not fix myself to a single instrument." Atul can now play almost any instrument he can lay his hands on. "But I just love the sound of the saxophone and the guitar he says". For him "playing an instrument with all your heart is like meditation, you are lost and the world is one with you... It is a great feeling." Atul experiments a lot with a wide variety of sounds and once the perfect note is discovered his fingers weave magic and breathe life in the instrument. Atul married Jyoti 13 years back and they have an eight-year-old son who is simply crazy about his father’s music.

Kem, 26, the youngest of the three, is a Gujarati born and brought up in Delhi. "Music has always been in the family. My grandfather was a teacher and composed Marathi and Gujarati folk songs. My father is a civil servant who also writes poetry".

Kem as a child sang in the school choir. At the age of 13, he got a scholarship and went to Edinborough in Scotland to study music. After XII, he went to London to learn more about music and since then he has been teaching, singing and creating music. He too did some freelance assignments and that is how he met Mohit and the trio was complete.

Silk Route is a cumulative effort. "We all sit together and create our songs. We write our own lyrics and a lot of emotions and personal experiences go into them. We experiment with lots of different sounds and are using some instruments which are not traditionally used in Indian Music. This also makes our kind of music very fresh and original.

"Why the name Silk Route? The silk route has a historical significance and is associated with nature, adventure, far-off places, generally the exotic. That is also what our music is all about." Silk Route is planning to go international soon and perform abroad. They have composed songs in English (Mermaid from Boondien.) and find the language as expressive as Hindi.

These days, they are performing at various places in India. Their plans include holding shows in Himachal where they will focus on Himachali folk songs (Thanda Paani in Boondien) and in Chandigarh.

The trio are looking forward to a musical future ahead. Kem says, "We still have to grow a lot and this is just the take-off stage. Our music has got a very good response from the people and this shows that there is a market for something new and creative.

We don’t make music with a target audience in mind, we enjoy making our kind of music, it’s our life and we present before the people what we have enjoyed doing the most. If people too like it, it’s a most satisfying experience."

Silk Route as a band is the only one of its kind in India. It is a brave effort in the world of one-hit wonders, fancy videos and an audience which seems to endlessly want dhichak dhichak music and dance numbers. As Mohit puts it, "our music is not out and out entertainment, it might not make you break into a dance but hearts feel our music and minds sway to our tunes."

How true, for this is music by the soul, and strictly for the soul. Anyone who has heard Mohit’s voice, Atul’s guitar and Kem’s recorder knows that Silk Route is here to stay.