After the overwhelming response to his first two singles ‘My Anjuna’ & ‘Shadow of the Night’, Goan singer-songwriter, Kristian Bent, comes forth, guns blazing, with his debut EP titled ‘Where the River meets the Sea’. A concept, in his words, of two majestic entities flowing into each other, connecting like one but ultimately always remaining two separate forces. A simple representation of how we must learn to accept the things that are not meant to be. The album features Shayne Ballantyne and Joe Ferrao lending their guitar mastery, Clifford Siqueira on Drums and Michael D’Souza on Keys. The EP, in comparison to his first album, is far more hard-hitting, energetic and with elements of the old country.
Listen to Where the River Meets the Sea now – http://hyperurl.co/wzo19v
Kristian dropped out of college in Goa in 2008 to become a professional musician, formed his first band, The Streetlight People, two years later, then leaving the drum kit behind in 2012 to pick up the guitar and control his own trajectory in much better fashion. He then spent three years in the company of more amazing musicians as part of The Acoustic Road until 2016, leading from the front. He began writing the new EP somewhere in 2017. He moved to Bengaluru shortly after the release of his first album ‘Campfire Stories’ and wrote three of the tracks of the EP with the song ‘Richard’s Park’ standing as an ode to his time in the city. A year after he moved back to Goa, he penned ‘My Anjuna’, the song that prompted him to actively start work on the recording. The EP on the whole echoes that change in perspective, the evolution of his outlook on life. His sound has become more bluesy, more insightful, road weathered and matured.
In the interview that follows, we discuss the new album, but also discover Kristian’s unconventional life experiences and vast music exposure. Read on, to find out more.
What’s your take on the blues music scene in India?
I think one could safely say that the blues is an acquired taste but there is a large following in India and it’s only growing. People have often mistaken it to be melody centred – guitarists love the blues because they can put all they’ve got into it but it’s more than that. It’s a call and response of story and melody working together.
What do the blues mean to you? Some music styles may be fads but the blues is always with us. Why do you think that is?
My preferred genre isn’t the blues alone. Its folk, country and the blues, and all three are very similar in structure and layout. Stories move me more than melody and these three genres are just that. I suppose the introduction of digital/electronic sounds has overtaken the music scene in the past decade or so and has become more about the melody than the story. That’s a good indication of why these genres have stayed while some come and go.
What’s your songwriting process like?
I really wish I had a more elaborate process to talk about but I do not. I do have a few methods that I stick by. For one, I write down almost every fun/engaging one-liner I come across – be it in a movie, conversation or thought, and this provides me with a hook. Apart from that, I’m slowly learning to give up on inspiration and I’m happy to say that as a result, I rarely hit a writer’s block. I use a rhyming dictionary + a thesaurus to create a sort of table of ideas and the rest just flows.
Tell us about your musical journey? Is your family musical?
My family isn’t musical in that they don’t play any instruments. However, my tastes and preferences have come directly from them. My mother is big on the old country – Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams and so on. My dad used to love his old rock ‘n’ roll – CSN, Little River Band, Alan Parsons Project, Queen and a whole load more. We probably had about a thousand cassettes when I was a kid plus a few more when my brother, who was a music journalist, would send us new albums once he was done reviewing them. I’ve flirted with college/emo punk, grunge, hard rock and a lot heavier sounds when I was a teenager so my relationship with music is quite vast though I only stick to these three genres.
Any fond musical memories that you’d like to share?
I’m sure they’re there somewhere but I have the worst memory!
Where do you take inspiration from for making music?
Ah! I always stumble at this question. I’d say, the rain. I grew up in the wilderness and spent almost every day in the mud and by the river so I have a connection with nature that goes beyond anything else, though now dwindling the longer I reside in modern civilisation. I remember the dry, hot summers. I remember sitting by a roadside fire with the village boys on winter mornings. But the rain! I recall the raging monsoons very fondly and I think I’ve written about it too. Mostly, though, I take inspiration from everyday life.
Tell us about the experience of making your new EP, where the river meets the sea. Could you please elaborate on why you chose to write about acceptance? We certainly are living in uncertain times, but what inspired the ideation and thereby, take us through the collaboration with other artists, producers etc.
The title track was the last song I wrote before I left Goa for Bangalore in 2017. I thought greatness was just a door I had to knock on but in reality, it is a hard and worn out road trodden by many a dreamer. The problem with growing up in the wilderness and being homeschooled is that you tend to have a lot of time to dream, but leaving my hometown sort of opened my eyes to all the highs and lows that come with it. Only ‘My Anjuna’ was written in Goa but the other three off the EP were all penned down in Cooke Town (Bangalore). On returning, only a year later, I had a fixed idea of what I wanted my music to sound like and luckily, Goa has a number of fantastic musicians so it was relatively easy laying down these ideas on record. Not to mention, I found an equally fantastic mixing and mastering engineer in London who really brought each individual quality to the fore.
Could you tell us about your aspirations as a musician? What are your musical plans for say the next 6 months?
Aspirations are on an indefinite hiatus for the moment. The pandemic has put all plans on hold and the main thing right now is to keep focused and mostly, keep your head above the water. On a serious note though, it has been difficult to find a set band to take the stage with me and after quite a few years I might have run into some luck. So writing, rehearsing, working on myself in every possible way and looking to land some festivals next year – that’s what I’ll be doing for the next 6 months!
Most of your song titles are interestingly based on some form of nature. What’s the thought behind the same?
Like I mentioned, My family spent 7 long years away from modern civilisation partly, in a village two hours into Maharashtra from Goa and in a log cabin in the forest an hour further inland. At a very young age, I learned to hunt, fish and live with kerosene lanterns and piped spring water. I used to dream about school and girls and all those wonderful things that many were exposed to but in retrospect, I had a fantastic childhood without contemporary conditioning. I suppose I write so much about what I used to know because I wish I could someday wholeheartedly give up this material world and go back.
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Track Credits:
Kristian Bent on Vocals/Acoustic Guitar
Shayne Ballantyne on Electric Guitar/Lap steel
Joe Ferrao on Bass –
Clifford Sequeira on Drums
Michael D’Souza on Keys
Nevin D’Mello on Electric Guitar
