With a ray of hope in their checkered career, Swarathma is back once again on the music front. Representing a subtle shift in their compositions, the band’s latest offering ‘Topiwalleh’ highlights social issues.

After being chosen as one of the four Indian acts to participate in India’s 2008-09 Soundpad Sessions, the band has gained popularity for its soulful music at various Indian fests. The group hit the limelight after winning the Radio City Live title in 2008. Their self-titled debut album had released in 2009 on Virgin Records. The Bangalore based band comprises of six members; Vasu Dixit (vocals, rhythm guitar), Pavan Kumar KJ (percussion, backing vocals), Montry Manuel (drums), Varun (lead guitar), Sanjeev Nayak (violin) and Jishnu Dasgupta (bass guitar, backing vocals).

In a candid conversation with Radioandmusic.com’s Chandni Mathur, Swarathma share their views on the current folk-rock scene in India and their experiences while working with Loy Mendonsa for ‘Topiwalleh’.

Excerpts:

Tell us about your latest album ‘Topiwalleh’.

‘Topiwalleh’ will be our second studio album, after our eponymous debut that we released in 2009. We’ve come a long way since then and each album is a step up the ladder for any band. For this album the onus of songwriting can be shared by all the band members as each of us have contributed immensely. When our current line-up came together and began work on the debut album in 2007, most of the songs had already been written. But in this album you will see personal influences of all band members seep into the sound of the nine varied tracks.

We have not tied up with any music label and the album will be released independently through a combination of free and paid downloads. Physical CDs will be available on Flipkart and at our live gigs. Our main aim was to keep the rights of the album with ourselves so that we can use the tracks according to our convenience rather than being answerable to another entity.

What is different about the album?

The outspokenness of the album is one thing that is special about ‘Topiwalleh’. Each track is a slice of personal experience or a snapshot of society as we see it. We have not taken a moral higher ground or claimed things to be right. It gives us a great sigh of relief after speaking out on issues like media sensationalism, child sexual abuse, in-your-face-consumerism and others through our songs.

What took you so long to come up with a second album?

It feels good to answer a question like this, which means that there are expectations from us as a band and we have a lot to live up to. Releasing an album is not an easy task, especially when you are not governed by the next release scheduled and its upto you to decide. When you are the sole judge of these decisions, the person makes sure to deliver the best. Sometimes, the effort takes longer than expected due to production schedules, availability of studio, personnel and budgetary constraints amongst others. It took this long because we wanted the world to listen to us at our best.

The album has been produced by Loy Mendonsa. Narrate the experiences of working with him.

The conversation with Loy was opened up by our management team at Only Much Louder (OML) months after Loy watched us perform at Hard Rock Cafe, Mumbai. He had indicated that he would be interested in working with us. When we were ready with our compositions he came down to Bangalore and spent three days with us in our rehearsal studios where we jammed on the tracks. That was when he gave us a fresh perspective on the art of songwriting. I remember him saying that parts of a song needed to be ‘defined’, as you will not be understood if you mumble your words. You need to articulate them properly for people to understand and remember what you said.

He also helped us a bit by polishing our songs and giving it a final touch. He was present during our studio recording sessions and helped us get the overall feel of the tracks right. The best part about Loy's involvement was that he didn't try and change our songs, but gave them an extra edge. Working with him was a huge learning experience and it was a pleasure to have him on-board for this album.

You will also embark on a promotional tour for the album. What are your plans?

We're seeking to mould the experiences of the tour into a song that we hope will become the Bindass anthem. When we travel to different parts of the country interacting and performing for young people, we exchange energies with them. We want to be inspired by this young energy from our fans and create a song that speaks of these experiences.

We've partnered with Bindass for the promotional tour of the album. Titled the ‘Rest Less tour’, we begin with the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow before moving on to the rest of the country. It's going to be a pretty hectic tour, for sure.

Do you think tours and concerts help increase dwindling physical album sales today?

I think the perception of dwindling album sales needs to be examined in context. Dwindling album sales does not mean dwindling consumption of music. In fact, people are listening to more music than ever before thanks to the internet. The way people listen to music has changed, and it is important for artistes to understand and accept this change. For a musical act that is all about the stage performance like our band, our mainstay is the live act. We're most comfortable when on stage. For a band like us, promotional tours and concerts are definitely the way ahead.

Digital platforms have helped independent artistes to project themselves. Comment

The need for an artiste to project himself has existed before the advent of digital platforms. It is just the way artistes project themselves now-a-days has changed. Previously, there was a wall between artiste and listeners and this wall was guarded by music labels that decided who will pass through and collected a toll from the artistes and the fans. But then the internet broke this wall, and music started flowing freely between artistes and listeners.

Freely available music is the future but instead of moaning about their fate, artistes need to find ways to encourage people to buy music rather than discourage people from downloading. We all need to come out of the belief that releasing and selling music is the only way to do it.

What is your view on the current folk-rock scene in India?  Do you feel the genre is widely accepted among staunch bollywood music lovers?

Folk music and its influences have been a part of bollywood for years. I don't think you can consider folk as a vastly different genre, because no matter how international your music tastes are, the instinctive reaction to folk music has to be positive. Bollywood music lovers are not defined by the films in which music forms a part, they are music lovers in a larger sense.

Who has been your inspiration in the industry? Why?

There have been several inspirational figures which differ for each band member. But as a band we look up to Indian Ocean for their sheer grit and determination to make things work even when the going was hard. We also admire AR Rahman for his pure musical genius.

In 2008, you participated in a unique project Soundpad Sessions. Any such upcoming venture?

Nothing similar is planned at the moment. It takes great vision to come up with something like Soundpad, kudos to the British Council for making it happen. The opportunity of working with a music producer of the stature of John Leckie was enormous and fortunately the end-result was something we were very proud of.  I'm hoping something similar will come up, that takes musical collaborations to another level.

Which are your future projects in the pipeline?

We've already started writing the material for our third album. What we realize is that having new songs to think about, write and play are things that keep us excited and on the edge, in a creative sense. The anthem composition and recording will keep us busy for a while.

We also intend to continue our Action Replay shows that we do in aid of organizations working for real change, for people who have no access to contemporary music. In this tour we plan to play for calcuttakids, an NGO run by our friends.