The Music Mint

When down, sing!

2009-10-21T18:59:00.005+05:30

As Tejas says, " I need to go through the ups and downs to experience life!" so willy-nilly, at the studio we've been on a roller coaster ride set off by the recession. The new financial year has been somewhat bleak, but then where in the world hasn't it been.

Our motto when down, sing! So we are at it. We have compiled many many songs, in Kannada, Ram's "Avva", "Kaalam Badil Sollum" in Tamil with Suresh penning the lyrics, his ongoing Vachana project where he's recorded about 6 tracks, some songs just out of the blue... Like my English tracks...Suresh liked "Take away" so much that he's writing Tamil lyrics for it!

Harish has been trying to cope with my increasing demands to drop in and sing almost everyday, hope they don't chuck him out of his job!

RKP has been recording and we were featured in Time out as a Karnatik musician's home(studio) away from home! Check it out here!

Suryakanthi

2009-05-08T13:26:00.003+05:30

Chaitanya kept all his friends on Facebook posted as to when the recording of songs for "Suryakanthi" were on. With none less than Ilaiyaraja sir. And we read that he was soon leaving for the shoot.

His editor Hari called a couple of days ago and wanted 3 songs edited for the shoot.
I asked if he was sure, imagine taking the scissors to the great maestro's songs! What if he came looking for us?
Hari soothed me with "Permission ellam vangiaachu". So we carefully went over the 3 songs, and tried to keep all the progressions, the layering and the stacking of music intact and still managed to edit the songs down to about 4 minutes each from around 5.30 minutes. Someday we might get an anonymous note, "I know what you did that Friday!"

Backblog

2009-05-05T21:46:00.003+05:30

Too much time away from blogging! But well...!
We are through with the recording of all 8 songs for e Preeti. We've got so many great new voices to work with and we really enjoyed the whole process. Now just to wait for the shooting schedules to be complete.
Z kannada had a couple of shows for which we made the titles, Komedy Khiladigalu on Komedy Express and Z Healthline.
Mirchi show promos came along too.
The nicest thing was 2 albums from Ram, "Avva" and "Kaalam badil sollum". I too have 4 and a half songs ready in a compilation. Heard that S P Charan really liked those tracks! Even the half track!

Rajeswari Padmanabhan

2008-09-15T15:26:00.002+05:30

I was shaken to hear that maami was no more. There was no mention in any paper here, or I missed them totally. A friend's friend told me.

My first meeting with Maami was in 1988. I had heard the Karaikudi bani on tapes. It made the veena come alive to me. No other bani, however sweet, however technically more superior or closer to the vocal style had impressed me as much. The clear, affirmative style of plucking and fingering remain unique to the Karaikudi bani.

When we shifted to Madras, I did a little bit of research and came up with Maami's address. Walking distance from our own Warren Road flat. Amma and I set out one evening and walked up the stairs to the first floor flat. Maami was taking classes. She asked me to play a piece. I don't even remember what I played or how I got through it. She said, ok, she would teach me. My first lesson was the Hamsadhwani piece "Vinayaka". The initial classes were all about the fingering. I remember my finger would simply get cut when I tried out the famous Kariakudi "sprutam".

After a couple of years, she gently told me that I had to go on and move forward, get some kutcheris. I was all set in life, just learning. But I did get into a Tamil Iyal Isai Manram competition and won the first place. That awarded me 4 music concerts.
After that, I had to move out of town to Bangalore. My learning was sadly disrupted.

I still cherish the veena I went to purchase with Rajeswari Maami. We made a trip to Saptaswara Musicals in Luz street, Mylapore. She sat down on the floor of the shop and tried out some veenas. She picked the one I still use. Her handwriting is in my music book. She used to pen some of the kritis I was to learn.

I never had an opportunity to return and look her up though I caught her programmes on TV. I kept promising myself a trip soon.

Thanks maami. For all the great music and for being kind enough to share it with me. You might not have known it, and it might not have mattered to you, but I remain deeply grateful and affectionate. Your thoughts and music will stay with me.

E Preethi producer visits us

2008-09-15T13:10:00.005+05:30

Z Kannada introduces a new T-20 cricket type format to their comedy show "Komedy Khiladi" at 10 pm. We were busy composing an anthem for it. Harish of the band F6 and winner of the :Oh la la" show in Chennai, came in to sing.
Mr Narayanaswamy, one of the producers of "E preethi" came in too on Saturday. He heard all the 5 tunes for the film and went away happy. The other producers in the US had heard them and liked them too.
Need to get in all the singers and finish the songs for the shoot.
Chitra Iyer came to sing the salsa number. The track sounds cool. But more work to put into it yet.

TV time

2008-08-28T11:00:00.003+05:30

Z Kannada has been airing Komedy Khiladigalu for sometime now. On the 100th day, they went all out to revamp the show and celebrate. Bharat asked us to work on the title track. It was fun syncing to the title montage video. We finished that in about 2 days and it sounds great. The show's at 10 pm weekdays. After that comes the news at 11 pm. The signature tune for regional and national newscast also comes from us!

So too the Kasturi newscasts. Work's fun!

Nylon's good!

2008-08-25T14:33:00.003+05:30

Joe, (yes, our drummer) introduced us to Praveen David, guitarist. I called up and asked if he'd play on our track. I'd heard he'd learnt flamenco style playing and was also Konarak Reddy's student. On the 17th August, we set up the nylon stringed guitar of his. We caught up with Priyabharati (the director of the film) via ichat and spent the day happily listening to the magic of nylon!
Next thing we need is a trumpet section and bass and we can start looking at the singers. We need four of them on this track. Chitra Iyer is on an Australian tour and returns somewhere around the beginning of September. We can start with her vocals.

Big Big Big

2008-08-25T13:54:00.003+05:30

That's the way our station promo for Big FM begins. With their new catch phrase "Chamkaisi, chindi udaisi" taking off, Big asked us to do station promos with these words included in the lyrics. Lots of good feedback on the 2 promos we did for them.
Check out the snap with our official "stompers"! For the "E Preethi" stepping song, we got Gokul, Balu's cousin, Ram and Balu to stomp for us. Nothing like authentic sounds! So they went, 1, 2, 3... stomp, 1, 2, 3...stomp! The lyrics still need to come in. Priya meanwhile sent in some lyrics for the rap portion of "Onde nimisha". Will record that tomorrow.

Onde nimisha

2008-08-25T12:53:00.005+05:30

The head of the Chitrapur Saraswat Muth came in to record some shlokas. Mr Yeshwant Mulki, a very well known arranger, who has worked with Lata Mangeshkar, Salil Chowdhary, Jaidev, Lakshmikant-Pyarelal, came in to arrange the music. We worked over 2 days and a night with the group.

We finally got the lyrics of the next couple of songs for "E Preethi". The very day after Jayanth Kaikini dropped off the lyrics, we got Asit to sing "Onde nimisha". Everybody who's heard it simply loves it and has been asking when the film will be out. Priyabharathi is counting down to her shooting schedule in the States. And soon we will be gearing up for the re recording. Praveen David came in to lay down the flamenco guitar tracks for the other song " Say ole".

Meanwhile, we've been working on a couple of jingles for some builders and a cancer care global institution. We got Deepu to record flute and violin out in Chennai.

Ram's been busy too with his Tamil album. Suresh, the lyricist has been busy coming up with songs every week. Ram wrote Kannada lyrics for one of the tunes. And also got to do a music video with it. Will put it up in a bit, after the final edits are through.

Joe, our drummer, has been coming in to rehearse and work on our live act! Well it's been fun.
Indira, my friend, called and told me about visiting Dastkars, travelling folk painters and musicians from West Bengal. I immediately fixed up a recording. They came in and also showed us their beautiful paintings.

Radio Mirchi's new sound

2008-05-19T18:18:00.000+05:30

We started work March 10. Since then, we've turned out 5 show promos-("Pori Tapori", "Balcony Badshah", "Bombat Bhama", "Mirchi Talkies" and "Dr Love") and 3 station promos for Mirchi. This, in addition to 2 more show promos already on air, "Blockbuster Budhwara" and "Munjane Raaga".

It's been a song working with Jimmy. He's articulate and imaginative. He wanted a new hip sound and that really excited us. It gave us a broad platform on which we could enthusiastically do the stuff we always wanted to. Thanks Jimmy!

Bhaskar sir, the G S Bhaskar of "Nagamandala" and recently "Accident" fame, whose encouragement and kind words have always been with us was with us yesterday. He heard our first song for "E Preethi". He patted me on the shoulder and said, "I haven't heard such a rich song in a decade!" We will soon start work on the rest of the songs for the film.

We finished making music for 2 corporate films last week and finished 3 spots today.

Da Drummer!

2008-04-30T16:15:00.000+05:30

Joe on the E Preethi theme song!

The making of the Deepavali song

2008-04-30T15:48:00.001+05:30

Priya Bharati has finished shooting the Deepavali song. 3 days of sheer hard work, some interviews in the midst of it and some fun. It's a great experience watching the visualisation of one's song.
Today she is shooting the theme.
Sangeeta Katti comes in tomorrow or day after to sing the second female lead part of the song. Priya and her assistant Rajshri had taken some video clips and snaps of the string section. Will post them in a bit!

Here are some snaps while we worked on the song.

There's one of Nagendrappa, playing the clarinet for the song, Ram showing him the tune on the harmonium.

Another of Chaitra figuring out the tune, while Ram tries a chord and I try to capture the moment.

The male and female chorus lending substance to the festive song.

E Preethi muhurat

2008-04-23T16:41:00.000+05:30

"E Preethi" started it's shooting schedule today. The muhurat was today morning. Ram, Gokul and I went over. We met the lead actors- Diganth, Tejaswini, Nina and Bharat. Priyabharathi Joshi is the director, storywriter and editor of the film. We'd met up with her 3 years ago in connection with another project. And the connection here is - The Music Mint is making music for the film!
Before the muhurat was the press conference. Gokul and Ram coolly looked the other way when we were called up to address the press.
The first song to be shot is the Deepavali song- Deepa deepa ve maathadu. Our dear friend (we used to meet in literary contexts before, book releases and stuff) Jayant Kaikani is doing the screenplay and the songs. Most of the actors have already heard the song and love it.
The arrangement is lavish with a vast string section, thanks Nelson, Amarnath, Jeff, Manoj, Praveen and the rest of the violinists. We also used clarinet, and a huge, huge section of assorted festive drums. Caleb has given us beautiful chords on the guitar. Ram arranged the string section most expressively and gave some old wordly phrases to Nagendrappa on the clarinet.
We had given Priya many tunes to pick from. I worked on 2 tunes on my veena. Ram too did two tunes. It's fun to access our common talent pool! Finally my tune with Karaharapriya strains went through. When Ram did the arrangement, he sprinkled flowery Kafi phrases on the string section and the chorus parts. It sound exotic and lilting.
The second song is in Natakuranji and a bit of other ragas doing guest acts! For this one, we needed special work. Sunil Chandy's choir was stunning and wow! Jayant is yet to give us lyrics for this one. We've got some sketches for the other three songs, but haven't done enough work on them yet. The "E Preethi" theme is to be dumped on to the Nagara( the spool recorder which goes to sync sound to the shoot) on Saturday. That's a fusion of Karnatik violin and rock band! Priya has even talked to a rock band to do the acting for the shoot!
More in a bit!

24th April!!! Here it comes!

2008-04-19T11:53:00.000+05:30

I'm putting down this post, mainly because, in a few days the sequence of events and our jam packed days will be superimposed by other such busy days and we will not be able to recall the fun we had with so much happening.
The film has its muhurat on the 23rd April. We started work on the film mid March. Things went along at a nicely busy pace. We did scratches of 3 other songs as well.
Then, about a week ago, 6 promos too had to be delivered. With the film, all we do is music. That is we think up chords, tunes, fills, bass lines, guitar parts, vocal parts and so on. Jayant Kaikini writes the lyrics. With the promos we shift modes. We think up scripts. With some humour, with some zing and of course the catch phrases. All the time, we also think of the genre of music which might work best for each promo. We told ourselves that we really can't do it.
As if to deny this feeling of breathlessness, we also had to oblige an old acquaintance, who wanted to us to compose a signature tune for a biggie politician, contesting the polls! So, now it was just too overwhelming.
We quietly sat down and started doing everything! We did 7 scratch tunes for the polls. Got huge stadium like crowds cheering for him on the recording. And finally, the client walked away pleased as punch. I just heard that both final signature tunes have had good response! We also worked on the promo scripts, got approval and are busy trying to produce the first cut for all of them.
Sunil, the choir director is leaving in 5 days time. So we needed him to finish our second song for the film. So, we put the lead singer's schedule for the Deepavali song on hold. We refused to worry about the 3 more promos we need to work on. Right now we are busy recording the choir. Thank god, when you listen to the lovely sounds of the choir coming together, you stop worrying for a while about all that you have to finish by the 24th of April!

Revathy at The Music Mint

2007-10-23T12:29:00.000+05:30

Revathy the film actress, was in Bangalore for a special show at Ranga Shankara, as part of the Theatre Festival. Aru called and asked if Revathy could record some stuff which would be part of the play. So we went to meet Revathy at Ranga Shankara to find out how we could help.

Some people are full of grace. They are relaxed and only demand a lot of themselves. That's what spells having truly arrived and happening. Revathy was that with us. She just popped into my car with the director of the show Mariam and we went to the studio. She stayed about an hour and a half recording her voice.

The day after, she came by again for some corrections and I chatted up about "Magalir Mattam" and "Avataram". She said she was so happy she got a chance to work on such films. I'm totally crazy about Ilaiyaraja's "Avataram" song "Thenral vandu theendum pozhdu" and felt really wonderful when she also agreed. Come to think of it, so many wonderful memorable songs have been filmed on Revathy. "Oru kaadal devathai" from Mouna Ragam, "Rajathi unnai" from Vaidehi Kaathirindaal, "Aagaya vennilaa" from Agni Nakshathiram etc. And what a lot of varied interesting roles.

Our native village

2007-09-02T08:39:00.000+05:30

Ceebee runs a lovely resort near Hesaraghatta. With wide open spaces where you can ride a bullock cart, fly kites or play gilli danda, Our Native Village runs purely on solar, wind and biogas power. So when Ceebee said let's have a music festival we said ok and put together a beautiful line up of folk and classical music stressing more on the acoustic side of music. Like it used to be time before megawattage was a word and before urban India grew too big to have any respect for its own roots.

The Music Mint is designing the feel of the show, getting the artistes who have roots so Our Native Village works as the perfect organic backdrop for them. We are all excited. The show's slated for Dec 1st. All the artistes have confirmed. They come from Rajasthan, from Pondicherry, from Kolkatta via Chennai, Sufi and Vachana meet out here in Bangalore. The air will smell sweet far from the wheeze and grind of the city. The music will sound as sweet so you can start listening with your ears and mind again not just headbang like puppets.

We finished preliminary work on Nagabharana's serial. More to go soon. Pinty is working on the Pied Piper of Hamelin with an Indian interpretation. We will soon have to start work on that. Neha sang two numbers for us. We need to fine tune the mix and then you can hear it. See you soon!

Charmed by the Nagas

2007-08-11T22:29:00.000+05:30

I'm fresh out of a session with Nagabharana. Towards the end of the session his wife, Nagini dropped in too. Warm and charming both. Nagabharana is extremely patient and gives everybody a lot of space to work. Amazing to work with someone like him.
Ganesh came in to help with the rhythm section which comprised one member- Shekhar who plays all sorts of Indian percussion instruments! We have three different options for a title track. Tomorrow we start again at 9 am. The charanas, the interludes, instruments and Nandakumar's voice will have to be done over the next two days. Ram is still at the studio getting Supriya to sing some of the lines. He got back from his trip to Thailand at 3 am today. Long day!
Neha is visiting from Fremont. She has the loveliest voice I've heard in a long time. We have some tracks ready for her to sing on. I worked on the English lyrics and sent the tracks to Bageshree who has to send me Kannada lyrics. Excited about that.
Meera should be getting in touch soon about the background score on her film on Ashraya, a shelter for children.
Pinty too is expected to let us know about working on her theatre production of the Pied Piper. Varied stuff. Folk, musical, short film, songs to fit into an album...
Tata Consulting Services wanted to record a couple of songs. The promos Gokul worked on won Radio Mirchi 3 awards!
We finally registered Amplitube, Izotope etc that came with the Music Production Toolkit.

Daroji Eeramma

2007-07-18T20:31:00.000+05:30

We delivered the theme song for "Kasturi" and felt really good. It has so many sections to it, Karnatik, Hindustani, folk, and a childrens' choir with Deepak (remember our "Kanna Thumba Banna) conducting again.

The best part of this project was meeting a 76 year old lady, Daroji Eeramma. She is what the world calls "illiterate". Somebody please explain how she can be that and yet translate 1500 pages worth of folklore from Telugu into Kannada without the aid of a single written syllable! Her voice is strong, her eyes full of humour and she sang for almost 5 hours. As she unveiled the story line of the folk myths, I found myself agreeing on whoever said it first, that peoples of the world, have common imagery, common myths and tales. She sang of a curse. The previous night I had been reading up something about a Celtic curse...
After the recording she chatted, her lively wit and humour taking gentle digs at our overweight, city bred, refined ways. At the end of that brilliant day, I felt she was really blessed. She has left absolutely minimal ecological footprint on the world. She has lived in a tent so many years, till the government of Karnataki recognized her art and bestowed upon her the Nadoji award and built a small house for her in her hometown. She sings, she is not worried about her next meal, ill health, fitness schedules, petrol prices, housing, or false teeth! She refuses to get new teeth "cemented" into her betel leaf stained mouth!

Some news

2007-07-01T16:30:00.000+05:30

The monsoon rains are upon us and we sit with laptops and worry about flooding! Unbalanced state of "progress". The studio's upgradation is done, we' ve been busy with work for various radio stations, foremost among them being Mirchi, followed by City and Indigo. Our promos play all day long on Mirchi and it's great fun to ideate and come up with "Mirchi" promos.
The theme song for Kasturi is also on our minds. Ram has worked out the contacts and starting tomorrow, we shall be busy recording the various segments of the song.
I met Sivanand Hegde yesterday at Vivek Shanbhag's book reading. He is the famous Yakshagana artist Shambhu Hegde's son and he is bringing in his troupe for the Yakshagana recording tomorrow. More of the book reading- it's been very many years since I met Vivek or Dr U R Ananthamoorthy, the whole family actually. Also bumped into Jayant Kaikini, Vivek Dhareshwar, Sarvamangala, Mukund Rao, Girish Kasaravalli and Vaishali. After being mainly into the music world for sometime now, it was a snatch of another world at the book release and reading. Some critics and fans read out from Vivek's book "Ondu badi kadalu".
On Wednesday we have Darojee Eeramma, acclaimed folk artist coming in from Raichur with her troupe.
R K Padmanabh and Nandakumar too will be working on this project with us. That's the week ahead.

Hot equipment and hot schedules

2007-05-18T08:54:00.000+05:30

Now, let' s see, it's a hot muggy day though some wispy clouds still keep the humidity meter at 70% which is some relief. It's hot out there, we're also to get some hot new equipment by tomorrow. Meanwhile "Some Poorna Art Factory" the Kannada band is set to come back to record a couple more songs for their album. Last time they were busy trying to recreate sounds of water with a bucket and mug and experimenting quite in the tradition of B V Karanth!
The Mangalore band "Club Expressions" has been having a riot of a time while they recorded their Konkani album (some of it sounds quite like Spanish, nice feel all the tunes), catch them also trying to imitate Himesh and Bappi da! They have a big project going on, with big names involved. They even got one of our Genelac speakers to pose!
Manohar sir is back on Monday for a week's stint. We were hoping Deepu would come in and help us out with our extremely heavy schedule with jingles popping into our hands every other hour! Ok, I exaggerated! He says he might make it for a couple of days since he just left on vacation. Sunil is recording lovely jazzy originals for Christ College, very laid back cool tracks. Sunil Christopher came in to take up another gospel album.
Dr Krishnamurthy's songs have taken on a very contemporary feel, we've been working on it every minute we find! I think the Doc and Shridhar and Srikant are very happy! And we've had so much fun too! Look out for more news on the release in a while. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Dr Krishnamurthy was the musician behind all the lovely tunes in the Vempatii Chinna Satyanarayana dance drama "Srinivasa Kalyanam". I've watched it so many times as a kid in Secunderabad!

Happy Ugadi!

2007-03-31T07:55:00.000+05:30

How do you feel when a tune you've composed 35 years ago gets recorded with one of the best young voices? You just need to look at Dr Krishnamurthi's face to understand the deep joy and exhiliration he experienced while we recorded Supriya Acharya's voice on his melodious composition. This elderly but fit doctor travelled from Palamneru (3 hours away) and came directly to the studio. Nagabhushan, who was helping us with his small team of flautist and sitar player and rhythm section, finished the interludes for about 5 songs. We need to get him to finish his part before taking on guitars and string section recording and then of course editing the whole and seeing how we are going to shape the arrangement on the whole. It was hard work but rewarding just to see Dr Krishnamurthi's enthusiasm.

Our musical promo for Ugadi on Radio Mirchi sounded good. It was a mix of pop, traditional tune, funk guitars and hip hop chorus! Mobius Strip has been doing well at Calypso, the music store at Jayanagar 3rd block. Vikas, the man who runs Calypso tells me, that everytime he plays it, he sells!

Our board meeting went off well. Our equipment upgrade has been okayed. So hope to post as soon as we get the upgrade in the next few days.

A star shines!

2007-03-05T08:37:00.000+05:30

I've been a great fan of Chitra Sivaraman-Iyer since I heard her sing wonderfully in 'Manadhai Thirudivittai'. Then came the 'Boys' song "Ale ale" where she sang with a totally different throw in her voice. And it was a lovely surprise to have her come in to The Music Mint to record a track for a Malayalam album. Gokul was pleasantly surprised not to have any attitude display from some one who has sung for A R Rahman and Yuvan Shankar Raja. While most artistes walk into studios expecting the producer to pamper them, here was Chitra ordering samosas and coffee for everyone!
May her tribe increase! And may we have the pleasure of working more often with her!

Taxing times and hair styles

2007-02-27T15:46:00.000+05:30

I've started what I call the really nightmare time of the financial year. I don't have a problem paying taxes, but can someone, please make sure there's a logic and ease to it all.
Take tax deducted at source, I have now to start deducting that for all consultants working with us. Ok, after you keep track of all of that including your income, you find that the payment for a telephone bill owned by a company is going to be levied a fringe benefit tax. Since when is a telephone, a landline from BSNL a fringe benefit for any company, it's a basic necessity. So the other minister at the Centre brings down rates of BSNL lines gloriously, then you find you have to pay as much as ever thanks to fringe benefit tax! It might have been better if it were straightforward termed as costs of a call with tax built in. At least we'd all be careful and thoughtful instead of acting like the greedy consumers we are turning out to be.
I've decided to take a break and grow a fringe instead!
And if anybody has any suggestions about how we can sell music downloads online in India, please do write in.

The year of the Fire Pig

2007-02-19T14:01:00.000+05:30

Ok, we've upgraded to the new blogger. We're also hopeful of upgrading our studio equipment. Soon!
It should help, as it is, Sandhya madam is working in the bigger section of the studio and Gokul is cramped in with 4 boys of a band who want help with their mix, in the smaller studio.
I'm sitting in the middle of Hindi rock and Kannada old time flavoured music!
Mobius strip, the album will soon be available as a hard copy in stores. We should now be able to offer it on the website. We wanted to get out Ninna Nenapu too, but that's ready except for the inlay card. Raghav shot some lovely cafe photos and we need to work on the design with those. In the pipeline is another album, with Kannada and English on it. And all our radio releases too will soon be ready.
More soon!
May the Tibetan new year of the Fire Pig bring good luck, prosperity and peace all round!

Blog clog

2007-01-23T20:50:00.000+05:30

Sorry, some problem with the blogger server, I seem to have published a post twice.

Political pitch

2007-01-23T20:01:00.001+05:30

Very few music directors know how to use a deep timbred female voice. There seems to be some rule which states all female playback voices have to sing in C or thereabouts to match the male vocal comfort zone. What about good voices which have other ranges. Simple, they are made to feel that since they can't reach the dizzying heights in which the tune was composed, they are no good as singers. Unless they can sing cheap raunchy numbers. Then it's alright to have "other" than dulcet tones!
L R Eswari was a voice like that, today, since the heroine also doubles up as vamp, you have Anoushka, Anuradha Sriram (when she sings in a low pleasant pitch), Chinmayi in her Guru song (Rahman always experimented and elbowed himself some room to try out new musical ideas) and Sunidhi Chauhan. You get to hear a pleasant range of voices. But Kannada films still have to get to that understanding. More than that, everyone needs to understand that a Diana Krall is not a "bad girl" voice. Then we might get more hits like "Vaseegara" by Bombay Jayshri!
Talking of pitch, the great Indian spinner B S Chandrashekhar dropped in at the studio. His wife, Sandhya is recording some bhave geethes at The Music Mint, but he wasn't able to make it up the stairs. Since his accident, he's had many operations, I was told. Sandhya Chandrashekhar said she was enjoying her first experience at recording!
We did two Sankranti musicals for radio as well as loads of jingles. We chatted up with two Indian musicians, Srikant and Gautham, now in the States. They want to work on their first album with us.
Well, more in a while!

Bisi bele bhath

2007-01-07T08:28:00.000+05:30

Here's wishing all of you a wonderful, meaningful New Year! We actually had a couple of relaxed days since most people were getting over partying! But the newspapers were full of horrendous reports of revelry turning into an excuse to unleash all the savage, inhuman elements in one. I wonder since when regressive behaviour was extolled. But then that would lead us into a whole new discussion of globalisation, consumerism etc. Hope we learn something from each incident and grow up.

Well, The Music Mint is still working hard. The UPS batteries were all replaced, so that turned into a nice hole in the account! Considering all the load shedding that's bein forecast even before summer sets in, we needed to sort the UPS out anyway.

Starting today we have another tight scedule again.
Narasimhalu Wadawati is doing a recording of some old, forgotten songs for Lahari. Manohar sir is working tomorrow onwards. I'm sure in the middle of this all we will need to use the second studio set up to work on some spots.
Sankranti's coming up, we made a couple of very cool sounding jingles for radio. Joe came in with his guitar and surprise, surprise, sang Kannada. It sounds very good. Ram recorded another Bagesri song with him and that's really lovely. I suggested we turn the song into a special for Valentine's. So that's another project, but which looks almost ready already!

That's the hot mix for this month. Will try to post soon. See you!

I tuning!

2006-12-26T08:23:00.000+05:30

The Music Mint's first international album release is out on I Tunes! Check it out at the I Tunes store, simply type Mobius Strip into the search box. And do let us know how you like it!
Meanwhile we did manage to finish our work on Scott's track. Today he has to submit the track, best of luck to him from all of us out here!
Lot's of work again, hope this trend continues on to the new year!
Wonderful Christmas to you all and a happy new year!

Deadly December

2006-12-11T22:03:00.000+05:30

That's what the month looks like! We are booked heavily and we might end up having to book another studio to complete our own projects! Ram's got his station ids, theatre and a film script for which he's composing tunes, at the same time, we are all working on some radio jingles, turned out 4 today, while Keshav worked with Manohar sir. Deepu is down with fever but we've been talking to him about the live concert booking we have for the 22nd night. Shujaat Khan on the sitar.
We turned out a very neat jingle for a jeweller who was pleased. And also met up with a silk sari designer who gave us the low down on the whole business.
While Chennai will be afloat with Karnatak music this month for the season, I tuned in to FM 100.1. Think it is called Amritavarshini, the channel. They were featuring the Hyderabad brothers and their Bhairavi was very very good. Enjoyed it immensely.
The MG song was released on Saturday, the 9th. I decided to make it for the inaugural at the last minute and had a long and nightmarish ride on Hosur Road. The authorities are building the second level, so, the road is full of blocks, slow moving tractors, earth diggers and the like! Frayed my nerves. Meanwhile, the song's now the MG caller back tune!
So, if the blog is slow moving, it's because we have been on the fast track with projects!
But, hope to catch you soon, with more updates for the New Year special and all that jazz!

Crash band!

2006-11-27T10:31:00.000+05:30

A few years ago while I was in the middle of my first novel " Telling Tales", I was travelling to a literary meet at Town Hall. Harish Trivedi, a big name in literary criticism was to be there. We spoke a lot and I got back home to find I had left behind my handwritten manuscript in the auto!
This was before I got a PC of course. After trying to trace the auto, a visit to the DGP's office with Ramesh with whom I had a wonderful conversation regarding Mallikarjun Mansoor and his son Rajshekar Mansoor, I sadly realised I had lost the manuscript.
I bought a P2 I think, and rewrote the entire book, soft copy.
Now it's replay time.
My Powerbook has crashed. Nothing I can do about it. Apple will get back to me in an hour. This time round I might have to recreate soft copies of music in hard copy. So, we've gone ahead and formed the band. No name yet, but Joe's happy. He's been at us for long enough. Little did he know, all it would take is a crashing laptop with at least 20 workable music tracks and plenty more in various formative stages!
The band has Nitin singing, Ram on harmonium and keyboards, Joe on drums, Caleb on the guitar, Deepu on the violin, Gokul the DJ factor and me on vocals and veena. Thought we'd call ourselves Esperilla, kind of no hope sorts in a mix of Latin and Kannada! Just kidding!
Meanwhile Mobius Strip my album got released on Rhapsody. Deepu had to publish the details on the site. Thanks Deepu!

Tie sings too!

2006-11-16T22:05:00.000+05:30

Oh, I forgot, Vivek came in to do a voice over and left his tie neatly tied to the mike stand. Gokul took a snap of it. Looks great! Will put it up soon!

Did you know Time sings?

2006-11-16T21:53:00.000+05:30

While I was rushing to finish the 3 creatives and their common signature tune, Ram needed to complete his station IDs. Sunday Philippe and Avril came visiting with Joe. They wanted an Indian arrangement and a nice tune for the lyrics Philippe had co- written. It was nice talking in French after a bit of a gap, my translation stints have not been frequent of late! Philippe sings in English too and this song is in English. We will be co-producing it and need to get a very different sound ready by Wednesday since he's setting out to Paris by then. They came in at 5 in the evening to work on the tune with me and went away happy with the scratch. Philippe will familiarize himself and get back Monday for the recording.
Meanwhile, trying to get the login issues around The Music Magazine has been a bit of a headache. Finally sending a fax to Network Solutions to sort it out. Hope things get untangled by next week.
Tomorrow, after we finish the ads and the signature tune and Sasha winds up Radio Cafe, Priya from Madura Garments comes in to finalise the song for her Chisel programme. Saunak again from Madura day after for another signature tune. Faiyaz Khan at 11 Saturday to sing another song for Ram's new album, now that Ninna Nenapu is out of our heads!
Time must be singing along as it flies!

Musical ripples

2006-11-14T19:40:00.000+05:30

Today we rushed off in the morning to Big FM. I was more nervous than the star, Tejas! Some wiz kids were leaving after stirring up admiration and awe. Tejas impressed with his age and size. The smallest and youngest kid out there. He went on air with great dignity and composure and sang a couple of lines too after promising the RJ only ONE line! Sihi Kahi Chandru too looked impressed and said so!

"Jothege nadi" has been playing since yesterday night. "Stand by me" has been on Radio Indigo since Saturday.
Back to the grind, with more voice overs, editing, naming, wondering how we're to execute a particularly awkward radio script for a client. Sumati is here trying to finish her project for Mumbai.

And thanks to all you guys with your feedback. Harish and Swamy of Project F6, Sunil Chris, Suresh at Mid-day and so many more who called in. V Manohar just did and said it was a remarkable song.

Thanks all for your support. Hope we all continue with our music and enjoy every note of the way!

Stand by me

2006-11-08T22:13:00.000+05:30

We've been working feverishly since 2nd November on a special song for Children's Day. Sequencing and the English lyrcis were ready surprisingly quickly. But when we got in touch with Deepak to get that special child who could sing, we were disappointed. All the sweet voices he was recommending were busy with exams. For a while it looked bleak. And we knew this time around, we wanted to talk to radio stations well in advance.
We were looking for a child in his or her early teens. So the idea of getting our son, 7 year old Tejas never crossed our mind. But he was the only child around. Tejas was game, he was only worried he wasn't 14 or 15 as I kept asking Deepak for a child of that age.
He sounds utterly right for the song. We took English and Bageshree kept sending in the Kannada version in 3 segments even as we started recording. But Tejas was very tired. So we packed up and came back the next day for the Kannada version.
Radio Indigo was wonderful and is all set to play the English version which we always meant for them to play. Look out, more on this and other things in a while
Anurag recorded a rock feel song today. He will continue for another 2 days. Meanwhile we need to wrap up Ninna Nenapu. Ram will need to spend a good bit of time on that.
Shridhar Murthy came by, cracked his usual quota of wisecracks, had us in splits and left after lunch yesterday. Also happened to be our UPS maintenance day!

Big time!

2006-11-07T09:03:00.000+05:30

From being ditched last minute and being played on pretty high rotates on Big FM took about a day! Harish and Preeti thanks so much! We've always believed that local radio can make a difference to local musicians. You've supported and backed our song Kanna tumba banna like it were your own! Thanks for being so involved!
So, if you missed the song, you can request it by messaging 5454.
Next song soon coming up! Surprise aplenty in every aspect of it. So keep a ear out for it.
Meanwhile we have a voice over and a corporate signature tune today apart from other things
So, catch up with you after some more musicking!

"Unknown" we are!

2006-11-01T13:25:00.000+05:30

Our song Kanna Tumba Banna for Suvarna Karnataka is on Radio One and Hutch. The Hutch people were the sweetest imaginable, loved the song and outdid themselves trying to get things in place. All of yesterday we were busy with a corporate video song, voice prompts and calls.

All was smooth sailing till about 7 pm. When the radio station which had promised to play our song, backed out, we being "unknown"! We only wished they had realised that a bit earlier at least in the day.

But that found us more friends in other channels. And Radio One pulled it off for us! Thanks out there, Anjaan! Ram, Gokul and I worked till 4 am.
The Kuwait Kannada Koota has written to say they love the song. Waiting to hear from others!

Puneet came in to sing for the corporate video song which turned out great.
Ram's recording some strings with Nelson for ETV right now. F6 is on at 6 pm.

More in a while. Watch out for our next special!

It sounds good!

2006-10-24T19:13:00.000+05:30

We sat down to another session with the special number. It's ready now. Added some last minute garnishing as it were, with fx and a tweak here, a chime there sort of thing, switched around some vocals and even edited a bit.
A leading radio channel is keen to play it, they say it's a fresh sound for Kannada and like the production. Downloads too on a mobile service provider is on the cards. The Music Mint will also feature downloads.
Here's to our own festival of lights!
Manohar sir was working since yesterday with Keshav on a project. More of it to happen tomorrow too.
Sasha needs a Radio Cafe sort of signature tune. The track is ready, need to add the voices. Ram too needs to work on the ETV stuff. And check out the mystery series.
Will be back soon

Diwali

2006-10-21T09:56:00.000+05:30

Happy Diwali to everyone out there! We are also full of habba feeling thanks to the habba habbavo sounding better and better as the mix progresses!
Ram and I will get to the studio and hope to finish the song. No idea when Gokul plans to come in. It's festivities in the air and Tejas is watching a Karnatak programme on TV, giving up his usual cartoon channels.
Tomorrow Ram needs to finish the title track with the violinists.
More later

Prof U R Ananthamurthy

2006-10-19T22:48:00.000+05:30

Today we were trying to get the sound bytes ready. We'd been speaking to Prof Ananthamurthy who's just back from Frankfurt. He was busy and we were wondering how to get the recording done. But we managed today. He was in great form and the minute I sketched out what we were attempting he asked me most disarmingly if he could talk about what was uppermost on his mind. It was profound and brilliant. And fits in so wonderfully with the song's lyrics and mood. He was so forthcoming, welcoming and warm while he waved his magic wand of incisive thought over the song.
While we were trying to edit that Chidu walked in. He says the track is vibrant and sat discussing options for video.
Bhaskar sir, I wonder when we will get to work with you on the video?
Aru has not been reachable since she came in day before yesterday. She listened to the rough version of the track and was helping with her concise critique of it. I loved the way she said she's forgetting so many things. Things which are unpleasant and also things which are too important!
Gokul has got a mix ready. We are running out of time.
By Monday, it's out! That's what we've promised ourselves.
Another radio spot to be scripted by tomorrow and a team song in a couple. Sujit and Siddarth record tomorrow.

An idea every take

2006-10-16T22:11:00.000+05:30

Today we took a break from our track. Gives you perspective too. And R K Padmanabh was in to record some of his many compositions. The novel thing was that he had Ravindra Katoti on the harmonium and Vishwanath Nakod on the tabla instead of his usual Karnatak accompanists. His ragas and their interpretations also inclined a bit towards Hindustani.
Hadn't met Nakod in ages and we caught up for about a minute in the break.
While the recording went on smoothly, I sat listening and doing my homework as it were. Concepts for a radio spot. Like old times when one studied with the radio on! Gokul has an idea a second when it comes to concepts and can tire you if you are trying to work it out into a readable form. Fortunately he was busy and could only come up with an idea in between takes!
We are kind of fixed up with the guests for tomorrow. Aru in the morning sometime and the folk artist with the percussion ensemble. Will probably wait till day after for the rest and get the mix happening.
Catch up with you tomorrow then!

Flash news!

2006-10-15T19:13:00.000+05:30

I'm sitting here now with Deepu, who's just managed to upload a cool and subtle look for The Music Mint! Ram's been thrilled with him for other things as well. His bowing on the special song was exactly what we wanted to add to the track. All our Macs are now sitting around, and the Mint is looking a bit like the Apple store!

He's still giving us gyan on webs, internet, ethernet, another planet!

The folk artist listened to the track and wanted to go the full length and get his percussionists too on 17th. This is just a quick flash blog. More from us later!

The Deepak Lazarus choir

2006-10-14T22:54:00.000+05:30

A day with the Deepak Lazarus choir, and fun and laughter

2006-10-14T22:20:00.000+05:30

There were a little more than a dozen. Deepak was simply wonderful with them. When we heard the refrain with the first part of the Deepak Lazarus choir we had goose flesh. The whole song is coming alive and so did the studio with all the laughter, merriment and fun filled voices which only children seem to know anything about!

Ram dashed off to fetch Dr Jumpa and his family. It was a full studio, full day and a full feeling at the end of it all. Only Bagesri couldn't make it. Her simple lyrics and the tune really work since we had the choir jiving to it!

Bruce (Lee Mani) had come in on the 10th. He played some amazing guitar, sang on the track and had us in smiles.
(We are still smiling, Bruce!) He wrote down the lyrcis in Kannada, and sang them!

After the choir was through, we tried out the folk bit. Deepu is coming in from Chennai tomorrow. All that we wanted to put in the song to make it special will be through tomorrow, except for the sound bytes.

Okay, about the song now. It's something special that we are doing for a big occasion coming up in the next fortnight. So why aren't we telling you all about it? Well, we want to keep it all under wraps until it's done, that's why. So watch out for the details.

We've already got some famous young talent on the song: Chaitra, who has won the best singer state award this year for her song in the movie Amritadhare, Bruce, the Thermal and a Quarter guy, and Deepak Lazarus's talented choir.

More details coming up just in a while, but tomorrow is the day for Deepu, who is a violinist and singer.

Bye for now and we hope to post more tomorrow.

Fretting over the absence of fretmaster Caleb

2006-10-07T11:03:00.000+05:30

We must have made dozens of calls to Caleb, but he must be touring with SPB in some exotic country! We are looking at a very rushed time ahead this coming week. We need to turn out something really nice for a big occasion and all our contacts who can ever make this happen are either vacationing (The long weekend for Vijaydasami and the Karnataka bandh helping out) or touring or something. Gokul is on the verge of giving up on this track happening. But Ram and I are pretty confident things will happen right. We got the tune happening with Tejas helping us with the composing. Right now he's ill, so Bagesri will be there now at 11 am to work on the lyrics. The chorus is ready, so we need to get her to write with that feel in mind.
Deepak comes in the evening to check out for the choir. Once Bagesri's ready with the words, we can wrap it up quickly. The video of course is being ambitious, but well, if you don't expect too much and dream, it's really alright.
Meanwhile our signature tune was a big hit with the client. And even while they were thrilled with tune, and lyrics, they were delighted about the speed at which the whole thing was completed for them. Chaitanya's to shoot a video for them. Meeting again on Monday.
The Tamil singing band is back and wants to work at the studio. So too the shloka recording, so the studio's busy too. The hotel ad would have started playing since yesterday.

Rockage, auto driver tricks and songs-Blogday 3

2006-09-27T21:57:00.000+05:30

The college rock band impressed us with it's Pearl drum kit. Setting up mics to get the best sound is a challenge we seem to enjoy. When you get the tight sound of the kick and the snare breathes you feel good. The guitars and bass were set. The cheerful singer took the mic last and could he belt it out! Some snaps, tracks and hours later, they were done. This must be at least the tenth rock band we're recording. Wonder how many of them will stay on with music, how their music will evolve, will they ever think Hindustani or Karnatak music rocks?

Meanwhile Ram and I went to meet a client for a jingle. Turns out he's into social causes. So heart warming when you meet people who care. I remember such people with such gratitude. Especially when I had to take an auto home and 5 of them turned me down! Looks like owning a vehicle, ecological concerns apart, is the smallest thing you can do to survive the indifferent public transport. Anyway we need to start out on the jingle.

My sister's in town from Hyderabad, so I roped her into writing lyrics for some tunes I have ready. She's been happily at it. Hope we can record something soon and put up a sample to share with our readers!

Of Axioms and musical idioms- Blogday 2

2006-09-26T19:15:00.000+05:30

We’ve been working on the station id of a channel coming to town.
Each one of us comes across a situation when we’re recounting an anecdote or joke. The punch line’s come and gone without marking any change on the listener’s face. Of course they could be good poker players. But at that moment you wonder why you chose to tell that tale to that person.
This happens with musical phrases and events too. So while we knew how well it worked, we couldn’t get through. So we just let ourselves be at peace, waiting for them to take it further. Or maybe not!
The new addition to equipment was the Axiom, Gokul picked it up from Deepu, who’s in town sound engineering for Kalakshetra’s famous dance drama troupe at Iskon. Ram edited a proposal for a radio station and we mailed it.
Keshav has been mixing stuff recorded yesterday and a much older project. All set to release soon.
Gokul and Keshav have checked out cables and mics for tomorrow's rock band recording.
Look out for details tomorrow!
Ciao for now!

Pantula Rama at The Music Mint- Blogday 1

2006-09-25T19:49:00.000+05:30

With a poetic name like that, we were all eager to meet this singer from Vizag, the lovely seaside town on the Coromandel coast. The studio was all set, mics in place, earphones connected. Then came a series of calls from the taxi driver who'd managed to get lost with the Andhra party of musicians. After many calls giving detailed directions, we spotted the taxi cruising towards the studio!
Musicians are usually sensitive and get irked easily. But Rama got out of the car and smiled brightly at us from across the street. Her husband MSN Murthy accompanies her on the violin and Ramana was to be the mrudangist.
Within half an hour they were settled in and were taking. Brisk and energetic she managed to wrap up the 2 hour play time recording in 6 hours flat with a luxurious hour of lunch thrown in!
Maha, coordinating this recording for his radio station was hoping he could get to snooze a while. But Rama was too efficient for him to find time! He looked happy though, since the recording time had been so well managed.

While Keshav recorded, Ram, Dev, Gokul and I met in another room in the studio. For ages we'd been discussing keeping a diary of the studio. Over the last 4 and half years it's been so interesting to watch the way the studio was growing, our varied interactions with clients of all sorts. The fun, the pain and the music filled path.
The diary didn't happen, meanwhile blogging did. We were all eager to put together the vibrant energy of a day at the studio and the instant access of blogging, so, here we are!
Look out for more from us.