#tritha

Q: You are part of Tri-P and Tritha Electric and Space. How do you juggle so many acts? I am a full time musician and I work hard. Even though I have a degree in Mass Communications and Video Production from St.Xaviers Kolkata, I decided to take up music as a career and use all my education to promote my music.

As a musician, I have 20 years of Indian classical training which is a big knowledge. However, being a global citizen, I end up travelling a lot, meeting interesting musicians and liking new genres of music that compels me to experiment with my voice and music composing skills. Making new outfits is important to me as it is the era of specialization today. 

So while Tritha Electric is a new genre we named as Ethno-Punk (with French musicians, Paul Schneiter on drums and Tony Bass), SPACE is a multi-lingual, multi-genre, multi-arts outfit focusing on the point of view of the modern Indian woman (founded with multi-talented woman-Ritika Singh), And Tri-P is an experimental duo music outfit which focuses on music improvisation and use of analog and digital gadgets in music (TRI-tha & P-aul).

Q: You use a variety of vocal stylings on your debut album, Pagli. Can you tell us more about the album, where you’re coming from as an artist and the inspiration behind your songs? "PaGLi" is the story of Indian woman's metamorphosis from traditions to breaking rules to find her freedom.  It is also the story of an Indian classical voice finding solace in craziness and sometimes rather punk moods, experimenting with different vocals styles for the story of the individual songs to come out perfectly.

It all started with the song "PaGLi" where I wanted to delve into the mind of a crazy woman. It was just an experimental recording with my sound recordist friend Tim Alazraki, one evening in Paris. Eventually it laid the seeds of the album in my head, with the same name to keep the crazy spirit alive. While Saajan is a blend of an Indian classical bandish on Raag Jog having an African bounce to it, Fish Market is completely punk and talks about my frustrations of looking out for a good political structure as a government. Pagli is experimental and has only voice and percussions merging with Kolkata traffic noise while Baci has me singing like a little girl who wants to touch back her innocence. My co-producer of the album, Paul Schneiter also drummer of my band, really helped to get out all my hidden versatility as a singer for this album.

It’s a compilation of different songs collaborating with different artists from India and Paris, and this album truly represents Indian world music from the eyes and voice of a strong Indian girl turning into a woman with radical views and feeling socially responsible. Q: Your describe your music as ‘Ethnopunk’ and have been quoted as saying that Punk is about your struggles as a woman in India. Can you elaborate on how tough or easy it has been making a career as a woman performer in India in general and Delhi in particular? My outfit Tritha Electric plays ethno-punk. Ethno as the music feels strong in its ethnicity. Me being Indian and close to my roots whether culture or music, using strong influences from classical rhythms patterns like alaap, bandish, taans, also in the languages used which are bengali, hindi and sanskrit. Punk since my bandmates - Paul and Tony, both French love playing loud and get into an amazing groovy chemistry which propels me to start rapping in Bangla or just scream my frustrations out about the fight I had with the greedy rishshawwala, for instance. Punk is an expression of my struggles and frustrations looking for independence as a woman in India. It’s in the mind more than the dressing. 

It’s not been easy. Till the time, I was singing Bollywood songs dressing pretty in live shows or for studio recordings or even some bands, it was almost easy to earn for me, with my voice. When I decided to write and compose my own songs, I knew it will take time. First to compose, to find the right people to play with and then to go with a bang in public. It’s still not easy to be an Indian woman living the way she wants, singing the way she wants and looking the way she wants, especially with the heavy traditions rather social norms and mores on your shoulders and also on everyone around you. You have to go through a lot before you can set an example. I will have to say here that living between Kolkata and Paris, Delhi was a great transitional city and since the last 3 years, it is definitely more open to new arts and visions of young people. Having more venues to express yourself also is a big boon compared to other cities. I almost feel it’s a bit like Berlin those days, if you keep the rich showing-off junta out of your radar. 

Q: The music video for your song ‘Pagli’ both helped you gain a lot of new fans as well as invited some rather nasty criticism because of its unusual filming methods and inherent shock value. Comment.

Oh yes. Boy was it a shock or not!! Some people absolutely loved it. Some people hated it. I even got comments like how can you show a cat eating a fish head in a fish market. Tell me, if you go to any fish market in India, isn't that normal? I have been a film student and very influenced by European underground cinema and Japanese cinema. I had Berlin underground in mind for one theme in red and black, and, Japanese haiku painting as the other theme- stark white and minimalist. I made the video with absolutely no budget and thanks to my friends from Kolkata living as professionals in Mumbai- Deval Samanta, Hojo and Dev Satpati, all great photographers and cinematographers in their own right. I always wanted to act as I love cinema and wanted to be a director's actress. Here I become my own actress. We made it a pro-active team effort shot in 2 days with no sleep and thick kajal in my eyes. I was looking quite a pagli on the streets. Then I edited it in Paris. There was no budget for color correction and my friends from the band Menwhopause in Delhi, when they saw it insisted that I should release it on YouTube immediately. It had 2000 likes in a day which is not bad considering I was an independent musician.

Q: What do you think of the whole collaborative collective of musicians in Delhi and how are they actively helping each other out and enhancing the local scene with so many of them being a part of more than two acts ? Delhi currently has far more live music spaces than anywhere else in the country. Which are the promoters and venues that are making this happen, and are the number of your musician engagements in Delhi higher than they would be in say, Mumbai?

Yes, I think the scene is Delhi is great right now. Musicians are friends and are supporting each other rather than bickering or criticizing. Of course everyone has their likes and dislikes but there seems to be some honest friendships going on. With many musicians in more than one outfit, there still seems to be a fluid understanding with dates and bookings. I do have to mention a musician and a promoter here Stefan Kaye with who I share my bassist Antoine Guinard (known as Tony Bass) who won the best bassist of the year award recently. He plays in Tritha Electric and also in Stefan's many bands, Ska Vengers and Jazz Bastards. Stefan is also a great promoter of music and is managing Downstairs at Zo, which welcomes new bands and new genres to play. I also want to mention The Living Room, which is a great place of food and music with excellent vibes and smiles. When I moved to Delhi, I extensively played there and thoroughly enjoyed my musical evolution and met some great musicians and friends. Kudos to owner Gautam Arora for that and promoter Suhrid Manchanda. Last but not the least, Blue Frog Delhi and the BF team headed by Mahesh Mathai. Everyone has mixed opinions but I still love the place. It’s cold, it’s blue but it has a great sound. My voice sounds great there. I loved performing couple of times as a singer-songwriter in Blue Frog Mumbai as well for the vibe and hoping to come back with my bands. A new place, Zorba Sultanpur seems to be a great outdoor venue too. I played at the Amarrass Festival. Amarrass Records is a great promoter of roots music too and we share a great vibe with them. Yes my musical engagements presently are more in Delhi than Mumbai and I am hoping Mumbai will also have opportunities for meas I would love to go to that city. I really connect to the beauty of the cityscape and the sea in Mumbai.

Q: Your band Space has a regular slot at the newly opened Downstairs and Zo. Can you talk to us about the venue and how it is shaping the local scene in Haus Khas Village with it’s unconventional programming?

Downstairs at Zo is a cozy cushiony red velvety white-pianoed music space. The stage is intimate, not intimidating and makes both the musicians and the audience feel at ease. Ankit Parsicha, the owner of Zo has done a great job deciding to do this and of course Stefan Kaye who is managing the whole promotion and programming and managing the music scene. SPACE has been involved from the conceptualizing of this place, especially my bandmate Ritika Singh and when it started we decided to do the SPACE jam sessions once a month since we always had many professional and amateur musicians wanting to collaborate or share the stage with us. We thought it would be a great idea to host these jam sessions which would also allow us to meet new souls in performing arts and continue our passive steady fight as women expressing themselves through creativity in India and as a way of life. For these jam sessions, we welcome instrumentalists, singers, actors, painters, dancers, photographers, costume designers, make-up artists, jugglers, gypsies, tramps and thieves to share SPACE with us..

Q. What does it feel like to be a woman and a performer of music in India?