Kshitij Tarey Collaborates With Grammy Winners Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt And Ruslan Sirota For A Fusion Project
Kshitij Tarey has been the voice of numerous iconic songs like Tose Naina Lage from Anwar, Madno from Lamhaa and Saaware from Shor In The City. With a solid footing in Bollywood, Kshitij Tarey has made his segue into Independent music with a fusion venture that brings two Grammy Awards winners on board. Titled as Classical Crossover, the project serves as an eclectic amalgamation of genres like Classical, Jazz, Funk, Thumri and EDM weaved into songs that are bound to strike a chord with the listeners.
In an exclusive interview with News18 Showsha, Kshitij Tarey talked about his dream project, deconstructed the tracks that are yet to be released, and quipped about the state of Bollywood music in present times and more. When asked about the origin of this project, the singer answered, “Whenever we talk about fusion from last few years, there is an idea that to enjoy fusion, you need to understand Indian Classical, Jazz, Blues or whatever form the artist is using. So I wanted to create an album which is in the fusion zone and can be enjoyed by everyone regardless of whether soembody understands the technicalities of the musical genre. They should enjoy. So the idea came from there and the way I’ve composed, structured everything, it is in a song format. So you will see the tracks are three and a half minute long or four and a half minute long. It’s not like a ten minute fusion track. So it has a very commercial treatment to it. You will not see too many technicalities. It is presented in a way that normal people can groove to it and connect to it emotionally.”
The first song ‘More Ghar Aye- Classical Funk’ released on 24th March on Kshitij Tarey’s official Youtube channel while the audio was out on Strumm Music and other leading platforms. It features Camille Frillex from Paris. The track is a fusion between Indian Classical singing along with Funk and it captures the true essence of the album. Breaking down the song, Kshitij Tarey explained, “I am a huge fan of Bruno Mars. I follow a lot of his work. So I was thinking of creating something that has Indian classical touch and additionally it has a funk feel to it. Funk musically has very high power and has a very prominent bassline. And which gels with the drum. So we are very high on drumming and very high on jazz. So if you notice the track, it starts from a very powerful bassline. It’s a signature bassline. It is something that people will remember that they can recognise..I wanted to use a very heavy bassline with drums and Indian Classical. Since you asked about Raag, I composed the song on Bheempalasi when I started but I wanted to have the feel of very good chord structure also. So just in that Bhimpalasi, I added a shudh nishaad into it to give that funk feel and incorporated the chord structure also. So I used Bhimpalasi as the base but didn’t use pure pure Bhimpalasi. The mukhra and antra is in the bandish format and why I used that shudh nishad is to have the beauty of the chord structure because I wanted to fuse it and didn’t wanted a pure Indian classical track. And for fusion, you have to change a few things according to the other genres. So the point is, if you are doing the fusion, it should not be a forced thing. It should be like the same track has everything. It should be fusion and not confusion. I have created it in a way that it has a song structure, it is enjoyable. It has the essence of Indian classical and the essence of funk.”
Meanwhile, the next song in line has extracts of thumri that have been arranged in a way to let the jazz elements blend like the perfect ingredients, “The next track that will be released this month is a jazz thumri. I’ve used a very famous thumri Ka Karu Sajni Aaye Na Balam. And I have created in a way like if you listen to More Ghar Aaye, it’s based on funk. I’ve not used the jazzy or bluesy chords. So if you listen to the thumri. Thumri Jazz. It will have a pure jazz chord formations. And Ruslan Sir is a jazz pianist who has worked on many projects. When I created the track, whenever you are talking to a legend who has done it for years and years, greatest of the musicians. When I sent him the rough track in the jazz format,
I asked him if he wants to change any chord structure according to him. I had been following his work and I DMed him on Insta that I am working on a project , there is a track and I want you to collaborate as a featuring artist. He said send me the track I will listen and then I will get back. He loved it and he said he will play solo and chords and everything.
So I asked him if he wants to change any chord structure, he can go ahead. He said no this is sounding very nice. We’ll keep it. Send me the track without the piano, he will play on it. So I sent him the track and what an outstanding piano solo you’ll listen from him,” he shared.
Kshitij Tarey also has another track, a lullaby composed in Raag Khamaj, that has been embellished by the legendary Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and his Mohan Veena. He shared, “The third track is with the evergreen, legendary Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt Ji. One of the pillars of Indian music. I wanted to do a track with him so I had sent him a track of lullaby. Then he messaged me you are brilliant. It’s like he would record it and send it to. So when legends compliment you, it means a lot. So then he played outstanding. I am very small to say anything. that’s the track that will be coming after the jazz and it’s a lullaby which is very smooth. Even the singing and composition changes. It will not have too many harkats or taans. That is a very nice fusion. And after that, there is one more track which is a very dark track in the EDM zone. So EDM and classical have never been used. We have made an outstanding EDM track which is classical based. There are two raags. It is something completely different. It will be two raags fused with EDM.”
Kshitij Tarey’s playback debut with 2007 romantic thriller Anwar starring Siddharth Koirala, Manisha Koirala, Rajpal Yadav and Nauheed Cyrusi. While the film was revered by critics for it’s layered story, it was Mithoon’s music that attained cult status. One of the songs ‘Tose Naina Lage’ was voiced by Tarey. Recalling that opportunity, Kshitij said,
“It was Mithoon second release and first compose. It was outstanding. So Mithoon and I started career together and he was composing and I use to go for scratch dubbing. So that time we recorded Tose Naina Lage. And I still remember when the final dubbing happened, it was late night at 11:00-11:30. We started dubbing and after two hours, the producer and the director Manish Jha and Rajesh came. They heard the track and they loved it. I didn’t know whether the song will be sung in my voice or not. There was this uncertainty. They said it was perfect so that was a pleasant surprise at 1:30 AM. I am thankful to everyone from Anwar movie who gave me this opportunity. I connected with the song because he briefed me about it’s picturization, what is the feel of it. And during dubbing, he created the track. Hasan Kamal ji wrote brilliant lyrics. He is a legend of Bollywood. So I was very lucky to sing that song.”
He also answered if a song like that can ever be conceived again by any music composers. He explained, “Whether it will be created again I don’t know. Once you create something, then nobody can create it again. But this sort of song it won’t and I am very happy to be associated with it. So everyone is doing their part. Whether these kinds of songs will be created, I don’t know.”
Although Kshitij Tarey has been a golden voice for several films, the singer took a sabbatical from Bollywood. He finally revealed why, “So there are two reasons for that. The foremost reason is that eventually after fews years of delivering hit numbers, I decided that I want to compose also. I got into music composition so I worked on a lot of movies as a composer. One movie that is releasing soon is Radhika Apte’s Undercover. I’ve done the background score. So I got into composing plus I wanted to create my own stock also. So due to that, playback took a backseat. Because when someone becomes composer, there is a conflict of interest. Plus I was going through some bad times in my personal life. So that’s why I was out for 3-4 years and now I am back and I am very happy. Things are looking good for me,” he said.
Commenting on the current musical landscape, Kshitij explained, “I’ve always seen that every few years, the trend changes. Jo 80s mein music tha woh 90s mein nahi tha. So every ten years , something new comes and everything changes. So I would suggest this is a new transition period we might see and because of social media, one minute reels and half a minute reels, the landscape of music has changed drastically as to how music is made. If you see previously, interludes used to be a minute long but now one minute mein mukhra khatam ho jata hai. Punchline aajati hai. I personally don’t like to comment whether it is good or bad. It is what it is and if you don’t like a trend, it will change eventually. It will not stay the same. Music always evolves and adapts to the society. At the end of the day, good music is good music. Irrespective of trend, timeline and genre.”
The singer concluded by sharing his thoughts on how the independent music scene has become a parallel industry. He stated, “See in the 90s, there was a parallel independent music industry. KK Lucky Ali, Silk Route, Mohit Chauhan were there. There were so many parallel artists and I think right now if you see, there are many individual artists, independent artists who release singles and become a huge hit. And then many times , then they get picked up in Bollywood. So I would suggest that already the time is here that there is a parallel industry. Only thing is that, because of so much content, it happens that many songs don’t get the listeners and are left out. But the parallel industry of independent artists is already here and it is a good thing because if it gets picked by Bollywood then why not. So parallel industry is already there I believe. There is nothing wrong and there is no competition. Music is music. Art is art. Just like theatre and cinema, music is equally important.”
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