Guitarist and producer Zohran Miranda takes us on a journey of fluid sonics and imaginative visuals as he wraps up his sonic quadrilogy with the release of his fourth single ‘Heavy On Time’. The first three tracks, ‘Ready for love’, ‘Wonder’ and ‘8-Bit Rules’ have all been connected to the distinct Pop-tronic vibe cutting across the premise of questioning one’s innermost beliefs in today’s contemporary world.
Combining pulsing bass and celestial synth, with Zohran’s whispered vocals, ‘Heavy On Time’ is a saccharine electro-pop jam brimming with infectious, feelgood energy.
‘Heavy On Time’ portrays the dark side of a so-called advanced age we live in. It captures the filth and grime of our era coated with poison laced truths. This comes at a time of extreme political correctness and confusion of right and wrong. This track cuts across current day beliefs and theories involving issues like gender wars, LGBT rights, care about animals and climate change. It also speaks of how we are greedily driven to compete and how our social media presence tends to define us.
Zohran adds, “I wrote this song well before the pandemic but it seems quite apt for any other dark time in human history. There is a sense of escapism from this present moment that I had to encapsulate only by means of an animated video. It seemed like a necessary cerebral time travel to make sense of what was happening around me. This four-track journey, I consider as my most complex piece of work that took an entire year to complete while challenging to work remotely with several artists to bring out this visual auricular apogee. I’m currently working on an EP due later this year with more contemporary sensibilities”.
Animated and Directed by Vineel Patil (The Broken Tusk)
Co-editor by Trisha Batliboi
The music video released alongside the track gives a visual dimension to this deep single. This animated video depicts a world build by two factions or clans whose sole aim is to oppose and to destroy each other. They represent the duality of life and have exploited every resource by fighting amongst themselves. In the center of the clan’s city is a battle arena, a coliseum which hosts weekly fights. However, on one particular fight day a major turn of events occurs that will change the course of history of the clans forever. This story is about that particular day.
WWM: Thanks for taking the time out! How’s the quarantine been treating you?
Zohran: It’s been a very eye opening and introspective time to what matters the most in my life. Which I’m sure we all have had many an epiphany on. More than anything it’s been great for songwriting personally and also releasing music. To dedicate uninterrupted time to my own music was something I’ve always had to juggle with other projects. It has been calming to write with no deadlines and to perfect every little bar to my heart’s content. I love working in isolation and being in my room all day writing. The silence, the minimal calls and messages was breathing space I’ve not witnessed in forever. I think there are many little things from this pandemic we can hold on to because it made us discover a truth stronger than ever before.
WWM: You’ve been playing and performing on massive platforms for a very long time, but what has it been like to produce your own series of singles? Do you remember how you felt when you heard the first track of ‘Quadrilogy’? Were there any surprises in making your own music?
Zohran: Yes certainly, it’s taken a lot of time to get to creating, understanding and liking my own music over the years. To bring it to the point where i want to finally unveil it to the world. I’ve gone through past years of stringent self-judgment and left with a graveyard of unwritten songs to come to this point. But you cannot skip this crucial step. You have to write your first 10 songs to get to writing that 100th amazing song. So I’m just getting my feet wet, haha. When I heard “Ready for Love” at its completion, I knew it had special spark in it. For me it’s in the outro section where the synth arpeggio keeps looping. I get this instant nostalgic feeling that takes me to a childhood dream that hasn’t finished yet. If after a million listens you feel that then it must be something cosmic.
The biggest surprise I found in writing was thinking I needed to do everything on my own. But you need perspective equally, you need space from the material. It could be trusted friend or your co-producer who will be your mirror for you to see what is working and what isn’t. You have to become the audience to your music eventually. Now, I feel it’s so much fun to write bouncing off ideas with another likeminded musician. And then you watch it transform into a different animal once it leaves your hands. Music is about community at the end. We need to connect with each other more. Technology has made us rely on a screen to do everything and that’s great but I’ve learnt people add accidentals and inexplicable randomness to make it sound organically rich. Either it’s the pulling or pushing a song’s tempo or just plain making mistakes. All are welcome. Those infact are crucial for a song. Computers are perfect and that doesn’t make music sound all that great. You’ve to tap into the infinite reservoir of human unpredictability to get something special.
WWM: What’s your creative process for Quadrilogy been like?
Zohran: I would first write a full produced demo with everything that I wanted in the song. Present this demo to my co-producers/engineers Kuber Sharma and Jovian Soans and we would discuss different ideas and permutation of an arrangement , chord structure, sound design etc. Then reference a sound we wanted to go for. We would sometimes redo an entire song from scratch leaving “no stone unturned”. Everything was mostly done at our homes. We would track drums remotely at the drummer’s home as we were in lockdown. It is very frustrating to jam on a zoom call. But you had no choice. We made it work no matter what. We had to plan from maybe 8 to 10 songs to narrow it to a ‘Quadrilogy. The hardest part is cutting your songs but you have to exercise letting go and being objective in the end. There will be better songs to come, always! Nothing is ever lost.
WWM: What is your go-to gear/equipment when creating?
Zohran: Melodies or hooks just hit me unexpectedly, I don’t have any scheduled “song writing time”. They would mostly come to me away from any instruments. Maybe in the kitchen while making coffee or watching a movie. I would immediately ‘voice-note’ it on my phone and that idea would unfold itself in my head throughout the day into a song. The lead melody would almost always write itself before even touching any instrument. I would next pick up the guitar and start jamming to it and I would know instantly if it had some joy and then only I would go to the programming software and start recording. It’s got to excite and challenge me for me to chase it. Then you know it’ll work with more layers on top. Most ideas just stay on my phone sadly, LOL!
WWM: Which three artists would you say made you want to create your own music? Who would you absolutely still love to work with in the future?
Zohran: They would definitely be Michael Jackson, John Mayer & George Benson. Seeing how serious they are about their craft and how much dedication goes to making music perfect, I knew I had to be determined equally to reach even half way. It’s the honesty they put into the songs that make them timeless. It would be a dream to work with Janelle Monáe because of her infectious personality and a world class beast of a vocalist and performer.
WWM: What can we expect from you in the near future? Any upcoming projects in the pipeline that you would like to tell us about?
Zohran: I am currently working on quite a few of my original songs for a double EP set for next year. Hopefully to line it up with a tour/live performance in front of an audience. The newer tracks are melodically richer and exude a more contemporary modern sound design pallet. I’ve learned a lot sonically from the Quadrilogy. I have a sense of specificity now in writing precisely what makes a song shine through, nothing extra. Writing less but effective to say more. Also exploring other styles of music. A few collaborations are also in the works with different soloists and vocalists. Lots to come.
Track credits:
Produced by Zohran Miranda & Kuber Sharma
Mixed & Engineered by Kuber Sharma
Bass by Rushad Mistry
Drums by Jai Row Kavi
Brass by Crehyl Pereira
Mastered by Shawn Hatfield (Audible Oddities)
Cover Art by Sadek Merchant
Cover photo of Zohran Miranda by Shruti Sankar
