Unchained melody

Manpriya Singh

Last March, when the seven-member Jaipur-based folk fusion band, Swaraag, was scheduled to perform at Hyderabad University, the organisers not just wondered but even worried if they’d be able to regale an audience comprising restless youngsters.

“They looked at our guitar and tabla and doubted if we could keep the crowd entertained,” the founder and team coach Pratap Singh talks of one of the recent live performance experience. “One of our USPs is we do not do electronic music at all. So, no electronic keyboard to fall back upon,” he gets us started about the band whose flavours are Sufi fusion, Rajasthani folk fusion, instrumental fusion and Bollywood mashup.

As for the instruments that feature a rich blend of traditional, contemporary and also uncommon instruments namely, zuitar, saxophone, khartal (morchant), drums and guitar.

Having recently composed a cover of Kailash Kher’s Teri Deewani and recently performed at Hisar in Haryana, the band recounts an arduous journey of six years. “It was just the two of us and four instruments (zuitar, saxophone, acoustic guitar and tabla) to begin with,” joins in Arif Khan, who met Pratap in 2014 and a few months later they found themselves playing at a corporate event.

“But you know it’s one of those places where instrumental music is not really appreciated,” which is when and how slowly the lead vocalist Asif Khan joined in, followed by Arif Khan on the khartal (morchant), followed by Sajid Khan, the drummer.

All of which is a far cry from music, which he describes as, “In the rat race for subscribers, a lot of the music is dedicated to something you can play while rolling down the car windows, beyond the catchy hook-lines no attention is paid to music in any composition.”

For the sake of TRP

There is no debating the outreach or popularity of music reality shows, especially ever since they bagged the runners-up trophy at Rising Star 3. “It’s a great and democratic platform for the young talent but at the same time, they make you do things that aren’t your forte but for the TRP,” and for instance he cites having to do with the cover of one of Bollywood playback singers, Mika.

A lot many times it’s not just difficult but even challenging to keep a band going. “Commercial viability is one aspect of it, we also have to look at ego problems and creative differences,” he says.

Talent alone is not enough

Anyone with some exposure to music from the desert will know the names Kutle Khan and Mame Khan that are now riding high on social virality, but according to Prataap, talent is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. “There is immense talent because many of the artistes belong to traditional music lineage of Rajasthan, but many of them don’t have the exposure to market themselves, manage their social media etc. whereas if you look at Punjabi singers, they have a team of professionals and get paid ridiculous amounts per event. ”