Churning the sands of time
11 Jun 2012 2:49 AM GMT
Following what seems to be a tradition of sorts with the Indian music scene and its Bollywood counterpart, another band from across the border is all set to make its debut with an upcoming 70mm flick. Raeth joins the likes of Jal, Junoon, Strings and Fuzon with their Bollywood debut in a movie called Marksheet starring Delhi boy Imran Zahid.
Millennium Post caught up with the band on the evening of one of their performances in Cafe Boulevard and asked them all about the journey and what lies ahead.
Comprising three young talents — Sunny Ghansham (rhythm guitar), Wajhi Farouqui (vocals) and Hasan Farabi (lead guitar) — Raeth is all about passion and hope when it comes to their melodies. September 2006 witnessed the launch of Raeth across India by Universal Music.
As the story goes, they were selected on the basis of three songs they had recorded till then — Bhula Do, Tumharay Liye (Bheegay Say Gaisu) and Dur Jag Ka Tara. Raeth recorded the rest of the debut album with DreamStation by July and arrived in Mumbai for the launch in September. The song Bhula Do was the first to be released and most music lovers know Raeth for this very song.
They are basically a Sufi rock band, as the trio likes to put it. ‘Our songs are all about the intense youthful pursuit of romance and dreams. Through our music, we want to spread the message of unity, peace and brotherhood,’ explained the boys.
Come 2012, the band already has their second album Hum Yaadon Kai Sung under their belt and the upcoming movie Marksheet, from director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar starring Imran Zahid, will have Raeth making their foray in to mainstream Bollywood music. ‘We as a band are really excited about entering Bollywood and giving voice to Imran Zahid,’ they said. The film also marks the debut of Tejinder Bhatia of Yellow Stone Infrastructure as producer.
Very often only playback is given importance when a band is taken on for a movie, but the scene is different with Marksheet, assures Raeth. ‘The makers of the film are not limiting our capability and have given us a chance to perform together with our original sound which is a welcome step for musicians,’ say the members.
When asked what inspires these young musicians, they instantly talked about the integral connect to life. ‘Whatever music we make is inspired from real life experience. The musician narrates his own story and produces songs by himself,’ they said.
India has the machinery to do everything and lot of people get involved in the making of an album unlike the scene in Pakistan, where music is more reality based and targeted at the youth since the film industry is not as big as Bollywood and rock bands are more popular explained the performers.
While they love what India has to offer, they insisted that each country has its own charm and touch when it comes to music and it would simply be unfair to compare the two countries in case of the music scenario. So what attracts them about the Indian music scene? ‘The groove and the lyrics attract us the most towards Indian music. Right now we are working on our third album and will be collaborating with various artists including Shibani Kashyap. She will join us for a Sufi song and it is the first time we are using a female voice in our songs,’ say the band.
Raeth performed to an enthusiastic audience in Cafe Boulevard in Saket on Saturday night and it seems the band is all set to make quite a mark for themselves soon enough. We asked Raeth about what were the trends they had witnessed in the industry so far and what all was set to change. Music will become more and more digitalised and there would be less of live music as EDM (electronic dance music) is taking over, feel the band. But when passion and performance go hand in hand, it is simply not possible than the live performances will ever shut shop.
With soulful songs that make the deepest connect always being a hit, there is no ruling out artists like Sunny, Wajhi and Hasan.
Millennium Post caught up with the band on the evening of one of their performances in Cafe Boulevard and asked them all about the journey and what lies ahead.
Comprising three young talents — Sunny Ghansham (rhythm guitar), Wajhi Farouqui (vocals) and Hasan Farabi (lead guitar) — Raeth is all about passion and hope when it comes to their melodies. September 2006 witnessed the launch of Raeth across India by Universal Music.
As the story goes, they were selected on the basis of three songs they had recorded till then — Bhula Do, Tumharay Liye (Bheegay Say Gaisu) and Dur Jag Ka Tara. Raeth recorded the rest of the debut album with DreamStation by July and arrived in Mumbai for the launch in September. The song Bhula Do was the first to be released and most music lovers know Raeth for this very song.
They are basically a Sufi rock band, as the trio likes to put it. ‘Our songs are all about the intense youthful pursuit of romance and dreams. Through our music, we want to spread the message of unity, peace and brotherhood,’ explained the boys.
Come 2012, the band already has their second album Hum Yaadon Kai Sung under their belt and the upcoming movie Marksheet, from director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar starring Imran Zahid, will have Raeth making their foray in to mainstream Bollywood music. ‘We as a band are really excited about entering Bollywood and giving voice to Imran Zahid,’ they said. The film also marks the debut of Tejinder Bhatia of Yellow Stone Infrastructure as producer.
Very often only playback is given importance when a band is taken on for a movie, but the scene is different with Marksheet, assures Raeth. ‘The makers of the film are not limiting our capability and have given us a chance to perform together with our original sound which is a welcome step for musicians,’ say the members.
When asked what inspires these young musicians, they instantly talked about the integral connect to life. ‘Whatever music we make is inspired from real life experience. The musician narrates his own story and produces songs by himself,’ they said.
India has the machinery to do everything and lot of people get involved in the making of an album unlike the scene in Pakistan, where music is more reality based and targeted at the youth since the film industry is not as big as Bollywood and rock bands are more popular explained the performers.
While they love what India has to offer, they insisted that each country has its own charm and touch when it comes to music and it would simply be unfair to compare the two countries in case of the music scenario. So what attracts them about the Indian music scene? ‘The groove and the lyrics attract us the most towards Indian music. Right now we are working on our third album and will be collaborating with various artists including Shibani Kashyap. She will join us for a Sufi song and it is the first time we are using a female voice in our songs,’ say the band.
Raeth performed to an enthusiastic audience in Cafe Boulevard in Saket on Saturday night and it seems the band is all set to make quite a mark for themselves soon enough. We asked Raeth about what were the trends they had witnessed in the industry so far and what all was set to change. Music will become more and more digitalised and there would be less of live music as EDM (electronic dance music) is taking over, feel the band. But when passion and performance go hand in hand, it is simply not possible than the live performances will ever shut shop.
With soulful songs that make the deepest connect always being a hit, there is no ruling out artists like Sunny, Wajhi and Hasan.
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