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Interview: Anand Bhaskar Collective’s track Jaadoogari, is a waft of freshness

Let me just start off by telling you upfront – go listen to this song and you won’t regret it. Jaadoogari is pure fun intermixed with simplicity and uplifting elegance. Listen closely and you’ll find that the classy arrangements seem to be inspired from a classic era with the use of particularly striking percussions, resonator guitar and piano. Lyrics by Anand Bhaskar and Nidhi Sethia are suitable and epic in all forms and comparative to what you would expect from the likes of a Swanand Kirkire or Neelesh Misra. Anand is a genius for putting this together. The song has been produced and mixed by Ajay Jayanthi, mastered by Christian Wright, from the Abbey Road Studios.

Speaking about the genesis of Jaadoogari, the band shared, “We imagine that if anybody was asked to visually describe ‘love’, most people would respond with answers that would range from being downright simple to exasperatingly complex. However, if we could drum up a rationale that explains everything we feel and do when are in love it would be this: Magic Exists. We call it ‘love’ now. This is exactly what we had in mind when we wrote ‘Jaadoogari’, a song that describes the emotion of love the way people feel it, but isn’t restricted to a certain type of relationship. This song is for all the living beings in the world and is applicable to all the relationships they enjoy being in.”

In relevance to the current state of the world, the band added, ”We sincerely hope that this song brings to people’s lives the much deserved distraction everybody desperately needs right now. We just want people to feel better and this is our way of saying love conquers all. We want to express what it feels to be grateful for what we have despite everything that’s going on, and one of the most important things we all have, is love.”

WWM: What’s your songwriting process like? Jaadoogari hints at some sound experimentations, if I’m not wrong, did you dabble with a new approach?

Anand: My songwriting process is purely melody based. I’ve rarely ever written a song where I’ve not written the complete vocal melody first before I wrote the arrangement around it. For me the vocal melody is the soul of any song and it needs to characteristically have a high recall value. Once a melody is formed, the notes of that melody determine the emotion it evokes in me, the emotion then leads to the theme of the song and the theme consequently leads to lyrics. This is usually my process for every song.

 

WWM: Tell us about the experience of making your new song Jaadoogari. Could you please elaborate on why you chose to write about love?

Anand: Jaadoogari was organically a very pop song and it was intentionally so. We wanted to depart from our erstwhile heavy sound because we felt like it was the need of the hour, plus it also challenged us to abandon our usual direction and make something completely new without sacrificing our creative and lyrical integrity to create something that’s a lot more accessible than our past work. It’s also a direction for us as a band to become a more palatable artiste because not everybody is a rock music consumer in this country. Jaadoogari was an attempt to capture the hearts of newer audiences who like pop songs.

The experience of making ‘Jaadoogari’, as mentioned in my previous answer was unique. We almost abandoned our electric guitars this time in order to create something that was more palatable and accessible. Needless to say we ensured that our musicality and that ‘ABC’ sound was maintained throughout even though this was a completely new direction for us. We think that this is something that we managed to do despite making something we’ve never made before. In my opinion, Jaadoogari is the best song we’ve ever written.

WWM: What are your musical plans for say the next 6 months?

Anand: As a band, we have now decided an ‘audio first’ approach. We’re going to release a new single every 45 days on all audio platforms. Some of these will be followed up with their respective videos. That being said, the next 4 singles are ready, two of which are ready for release and one of them is a collaboration with the amazing Mame Khan.

Follow Anand Bhaskar Collective: Facebook | YouTube | Soundcloud | Twitter | iTunes

Song Credits:

  • Directed and Animated by Mukund Sincro
  • Associate Director, Assistant Animator: Dhruv Sincro
  • Reference Rigs: Mathilda by Leon Li-Aun Sooi & Xiong Lin
  • Created at Sincro Studios
  • Produced and Mixed by Ajay Jayanthi
  • Mastered by Christian Wright, Abbey Road Studios, London
  • Mastering Co-ordinator: Andrew T Mackay, Bohemian Junction Ltd.
  • Lyrics by Anand Bhaskar and Nidhi Sethia
  • Piano played by Ayan Banerjee
  • Guitar and Piano recorded by Samarth Chawla at Island City Studios
  • Violin recorded by Ajay Jayanthi
  • Drums written and programmed by Ajay Jayanthi
  • Vocals recorded by Prathamesh Dudhane at Orbis The Studio
svg6 min read