 Papon ~ We first featured Papon on the first CD-gazette of The IDEA, as part of the band "New Delhi". Multi-tracking great music out of a computer-based studio at the time, the band eventually went down without ever playing a live show,.. but did get a sort of album-deal from featuring in The IDEA #1 (repeated in #3). That happened through Vineet Singh Hukmana, who heard them on the gazette, got in touch and signed them on for a fascinating project. That involved getting the band together with others from around the country to a resort in Bangalore, where each band and individual artiste laid down a track for a joint album due for release soon, but already playing on the Indigo Radio station of the Worldspace satellite system. Vineet was Head Honcho at "BPL-Oye!" and the nascent "Indigo Radio" at the time, and is now #2 with Saatchi & Saatchi in India. But he too is quite a bit of a digital musician, composer and singer in his spare time, recently releasing an album of cutting-edge Punjabi music together with his brother as the "Balle-Balle Boys". Since then, Papon has in turn moved on to a solo-career as a musician-composer, singer and recording-studio operator, shuttling about the country on exciting advertising, corporate and television assignments when not cocooned in his studio (Purple Harmoniks) slogging it out on others. Here's what he has to say for himself today: "Music, for me, has always been
a part of life, more so, probably because I grew up in an environment
where music encompassed the entire sphere of life. Both my parents
are traditional folk musicians of the northeastern Indian state
of Assam and the days of my childhood started with waking up
to the strains of my father's voice doing his riwaz to the accompaniment
of a tanpura. During the early years of my life, my father, "Both of my parents played an
instrumental role in acquainting me with the intricacies of sur,
taal and lay, three important ingredients of music, without which,
I feel, any musical composition would be incongruous. I feel
that those few years of training in classical vocals and tabla
helped me a lot to hone my skills in voice modulation and to
have a better understanding of Indian rhythms and beats. Looking
back now, I feel that the musical environment where I grew up
was the right blend; a mix of Indian classical music and Assamese
traditional music. Assamese folk music has a strange pentatonic
feel about it, and this characteristic can be compared with other
forms of pentatonic music like blues. I feel that my childhood
had a significant impact on my life as a musician. With my father's
guidance, I had an extensive association with Assamese traditional
music during the early years of my life. "My first foray into making
music started off with my Roland XP-80 and a friend's computer.
Making music with the help of a computer and software specially
designed to edit and mix compositions was a unique experience.
It took me a while to figure out how the hi-tech gizmos and the
software work but gradually I started a home recording setup.
The setup I work on now is a decent one and it's been only six
months since I got everything together. "Multi-track digital recording
has indeed ushered in a new revolution to the concept of recording
and creating music. It has been a tremendous benefit for young
and aspiring musicians as well as hardcore pros. Now anybody
into music wanting to try a hand at composing and recording original
music can do it with just a little bit of hard work. There are
so many like me who cannot afford a recording course abroad,
and India doesn't have any good schools for providing professional
courses in sound engineering. But many sound-recordists in India
have become seasoned sound engineers on their own, learning and
mastering processes on the job. It takes awhile but I guess it's
a better way to learn and then further discover the technical
intricacies involved in the process of sound recording. It obviously
also helps if one can observe a pro at work for a while. Composer, Singer & Musician 79-H, Pocket 4 Mayur Vihar, Phase 1 New Delhi - 110 091 (India) |
who is an established musician in his own
right, introduced me to the different types of traditional Assamese
music. My mother who had trained in Indian classical music made
me go through formal training in Hindustani Classical music.
But the more exciting prospects of playing a game of cricket
with friends or other exciting discoveries of childhood refrained
me from pursuing it further.
to create
music which would incorporate the traits of folk, Indian classical
and new-age electronic sounds too. The age of high technology
and new gadgets has allured me more towards the sounds of new
age music. The beep and cackle of a modem connecting to the internet
has become a sound we associate ourselves with everyday. A sound
which would have perhaps sounded alien to people half a century
ago. Indeed, the sound dictionary has become larger today than
it was a few decades ago and this has resulted in the emergence
of a host of new sounds, sounds which have been incorporated
by many new-age musicians. Several new-age musicians who have
experimented with different sounds and melodies derived from
traditional music from across the world have been a source of
great inspiration for me. Nitin Sawhney, whose music is a unique
integration of electronic sounds and traditional Indian tunes,
is perhaps one of my favourite new-age musicians.
I
have a funky sound card (a 'Pulsar' by Creameware), a 950 mhz
AMD chip, 256mb RAM and an ASUS A7 pro motherboard with a VIA
chipset on it. I use Cubase VST for multi-track recording and
sequencing and now I'm starting off with Nuendo. I had worked
on Cakewalk Pro Audio for a couple of years and this experience
helped me a lot in figuring out other types of recording and
sequencing software. The other audio software I use includes
Soundforge 5.0, Acid pro, Orion, Fruity Loop, T-Racks (a mastering
software), etc.
