Mangaluru: Who doesn’t like cocktails? May be very few! It needs a lot of knowledge, diligence and master craftsmanship to put the different ingredients in palatable proportions. So is the case with Fusion Music. Namma Mangaluru has been recently in news for its budding musicians. Here is “SWARA”, Mangaluru’s first passionate fusion band, led by M G Gururaj from Brahmavar. They have come up with their first song and it has already been launched on their YouTube channel. And their master craftsmanship is Voila! Par Excellence!
The uniqueness of their band is that they have made use of one of the classical ragas in their first instrumental song and it’s based on “Kharaharapriya” raga of the Carnatic Music. Picturised in the beautiful locales of Haleyangadi, the song has been recorded and mixed at CAD Media, Mangaluru by Shinoy V Joseph.
The band comprises of M G Gururaj on keyboard, Yathish M on flute, Karan Jain on guitar, Naresh on rhythm pad and KK Kabir on acoustic drums.
Speaking to Divya Cutinha of Newskarnataka, M G Gururaj shared how the concept of launching a fusion band took its inception. “In Mangaluru there are very less instrumental bands. Usually people come up with fusion film songs. But we come up with original songs purely based on ragas of Hindustani and Carnatic music. We have also taken ideas from outside for our first song. The uniqueness of our song is we have blended both western and eastern music which will hopefully be liked by the music lovers.”
Gururaj grew up listening to music from his first mentor, his father keyboard artiste Ganapathi M. He later went on to learn Carnatic music under his teacher Shrinivasa Rayaru and Hindustani music under Ganesh Bhat. He started his own band “M G Musics” initially and 13 years have passed since then. He admires the works of A R Rehman for his use of Indian instruments and change of scale and chords. Gururaj is now part of SHADS, one of the leading event management companies in Mangaluru.
The concept of coming up with a fusion band was born after much discussion among the band members. “In future we have plans to make more sophisticated songs based on different ragas with western and eastern touch. Today, there are a lot of singers attaining fame but the musicians go unnoticed. But in fusion band, every artiste gets an equal opportunity to showcase their talents.
Gururaj has a short message for upcoming musicians – “Practice well! Even if you feel like you cannot continue, do not quit. Give your best. Unless you give your time you cannot achieve anything. We too have struggled a lot. We have almost practiced even whole night and we have worked with utmost patience. All our band members Kabir, Karan and Naresh are very talented, dedicated and very supportive. Kabir has worked as a co-artiste under A R Rehman’s sisters.
Yathish, a flutist in a candid talk with Newskarnataka, said, “Music has no boundaries and in our band there are members from different professions yet they come together and spare time for music. It was a concept discussed by all of us and we wanted to do something unique. We need to get the feel of every raga and we have tried our best to reach that in our maiden fusion song. Hope listeners will love our work.”
The band has their youtube channel “SWARA” and also a Facebook page on which they keep updating about their new projects.
Here is SWARA’S first refreshing and sophisticated fusion.
