What do you like about music?
Yati : From a listener's point of view, music does to my life what it does to movies. Imagine Sam Raimi's Spiderman, but without Danny Elfman's ensnaring soundtrack. Yeah, you can't. It just becomes part of your story. You'll find me head banging or at least thinking about it every time another Motörhead song blasts in my head.
Jason: I like how versatile it can be, how simple to the ears yet with a lot of technicality to it. How one can capture the depth of the scene just by random notes playing in harmony.
What according to you is the most important aspect of a song? Lyrics or melody?
Yati : The melody (don't hate me, man). You want them to turn it up on the radio in their cars? The lyrics won't matter as long as the melody is great. You want them to analyse your words, post it in song discussion threads and remember it too? You'll still need a great melody.
Jason: Melody for sure. I actually focus much on the dynamic aspects of the song since I do have my fair share of learning music theory. That’s one of the many reasons that I hate modern pop songs coz most of them aren’t as technical enough for my ears. Even a groovy bassline can move my head and I wont focus on the lyrics. However that doesn’t mean, lyrics aren’t important as well. Any Queen fan like me would tell you, that Freddie was a lyrical genius
What makes a song appeal to you?
Yati : It HAS to make me feel something. Hope, fear, awe, happiness, nostalgia, melancholy, inspiration, evil, heroism... The scream, guitar solos, drum fills, everything, has to serve the context of the song, and has to make the audience FEEL the emotion behind it. That is all art is, you know? It should make you feel something.
Jason: The complexity of the entire mix. The eventual build-up of the entire song to get you those chills at the exact moment. The emotion of the song matters.
Talk a little about how you go about composing your songs.
Yati : I could be washing utensils, or sweeping the floor, or working in the orchard, and some melody, some hook will pop up in my head. I'll keep repeating it till I get my guitar and figure out the chords that line will need. I sing it, listen to it and then discern what it makes me feel. The rest of the song just falls into place as I realise what themes can fit the hook. Coming up with open ended or abstract lyrics is the best way to go about it. With time, I will sculpt the song to make it dynamic in the instruments and the vocals, and in 3-5 hours I will have the song completely constructed.
Jason: I am not much into creating/composing songs since m not much of a lyrical genius if you ask. But in yati’s case when he said something about his song and he needs to do a whole track on it, I was like all in. I could add in a bit more to rough structure of composed songs, some added accents that would enhance the end result.
Would you say a cover of a song helps the original song to become more popular, even if the original song's quality is inferior to the quality of the cover?
Yati : Absolutely. If laypeople can recognise the quality of the cover, people with good ears will eventually but surely think, "How the hell did those guys come up with this melody? Did they even know how much this song would affect me one day that I would scour the internet for different covers of it?". It gives the original artist the opportunity to become part of a richer culture.
Jason: Absolutely. The best thing about covers is you can do it any genre. And music has so much of it already. People have preferences and, in the end, if someone wants to figure the original one out, sure it exposes them to that genre as well.
Comment on the statement, "A cover is just someone copying something because they couldn't come up
with something original."
Yati : After mindlessly spitting this, they'll listen to Jimi Hendrix's version of "Hey Joe" for the 6th time that day. I cannot stress how important song covers are. Just slight differences in the guitar tone, vocal style, even the video, makes the artist's soul seep into that rendition. Why would anyone want to shoot that down? You get another angle of the song that you like, and possibly more people will know about the song to now enjoy the original version. Everybody wins.
Jason: Well, as I said, a cover could be as exact to the original, or you could use your artistic imagination to flow into the genres that you like. Obviously, a cover is a copy, you are copying a pattern of chords of the song, but one could obviously enhance or improve it. If you ask me, I am not that well into composing songs and, I was just a part of one and many more to come, but covers is what I can do seamlessly. That doesn’t degrade me as an artist.
How important is an app like Spotify or a site like YouTube in today's age of the internet?
Yati : Imagine what previous generations had to go through to listen to music. It hurt the artist more, in my honest opinion. If the only thing keeping you from becoming a cultural phenomenon is the fact that people can't access your material, it's sad for you. The people will find other songs to love sooner than you think. To have these sites distribute your material at minimal cost to you but with high chances of being shared is absolutely wonderful.
Jason: Social media is the key to this internet age, and apps like these help for more exposure than ever. People are accustomed to this easy life. One doesn’t have to buy CD’s anymore and those were at a cost if I'm not wrong. Streaming services are a way to go not only since they are easy to use unlike going through shelf of CD collections and they are cost efficient.
Comment on the rampant piracy of music.
Yati : Sad reality is, majority of the households have much, much more important things to spend on. Something that is so easy to pirate as music WILL be pirated. There's no escaping it. You can take the high road and say "People should support artists by buying their music, going to concerts, purchasing merchandise," and what not, but people do those things because they LIKE it. Not because they want to support the artists. There's no conclusion to this, it's just what is.
Jason: That’s the sad reality, I guess. But didn’t we all download pirated music at one point since it was free. I guess right now since the age of streaming in recent years, these have reduced. So that’s a good sign.
How important is music as a medium of expression of feelings?
Yati : Ask Slash from GnR. A shy lad who wore his top hat low and covered his face with his hair just so he didn't have to look at people. Interacting with people is scary business, and just because we got used to it doesn't mean it still isn't emotionally taxing. The ability to express who you are, what you do, in the context of a song is not just a bonus, but a gift so many of us need to tell the world what makes us, us.
Jason: Well if you can express your words in music with the tone and feel of what you want your message to be. It hits right on point. You want your listeners to feel what you are going through which also helps them relate in their lives. Everyone has their own playlist when they are in certain type of mood that they can relate to.
Name a few artists whose work has inspired you to take up music.
Yati : Linkin Park, Insomnium, Motörhead, Iron Maiden, Guns N Roses, Steve Wilson, Devin Townsend, Alter Bridge, Breaking Benjamin, KK, Shaan, Lucky Ali, Hans Zimmer, Nicholas Hooper, John Williams… I could go on. There's just so many, and each one of them has had some influence on my current work.
Jason: Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Linkin Park, Shaan, Lucky Ali, Hans Zimmer, Guns N Roses, Journey, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Silk Route, Bryan Adams, Eagles, Elton John, AC/DC, Toto, Beatles and most of the Classic rock and 90’s artist.
Do you believe there is a message in the music you make? If yes, what is that message?
Yati : It's quite simple. Making music makes you cool.
Jason: I can’t answer this. But what Yati said.
Pick out five artists whom you admire.
Yati : Guthrie Govan, Girish Pradhan, Devin Townsend, Axl Rose, Myles Kennedy… Basically song writers who have insane guitar/vocal abilities, since I started out as a guitarist and am now a vocalist.
Jason: Freddie M, Brian May, John Bonham, Jimmy Page, Elton John, Any member of the Beatles.
How were you introduced to music?
Yati : My family. My mother is a Carnatic singer and plays the harmonium. We sing bhajans at random times, I used to play the tabla when I was a child and the response I got from people back then would leave me wanting more.
Jason: Well, being raised a catholic has its perks. I was actively involved in church activities and every church has its own choir which I was a part. Slowly I developed interest and enrolled myself for keyboard classes seeing my friends in them. My mom used to work as nanny for Pankaj Udhas’ elder daughter. So she kind off pushed me into music as well.
Where do you see music and artists say five years from now?
Yati : Foresight is absolutely not my thing, I'm horrible at projecting things in the future, and I'd be lying if I said that it makes me sad. But I'm pretty sure that selling music online will be even more profitable than it is now, or so I hope. I see so many new artists going back to Rock n Roll, India's metal scene is flourishing and I, for one, can't wait for people to realise how weak their playlists were five years ago.
Jason: Its hard to say. I know many artists right now are struggling to survive in this pandemic. And, the ‘DJ culture’ is taking the world by storm. I have seen enough American Shark tank to notice that Music is a risky business. One needs to create connections or be incredibly good at it to be found online. And then there are many who are good it at it. That however doesn’t mean that the older genres would fade off. I hope to see more international rock/metal bands performing in India though.
What if music never existed?
Yati : I would just be a shirtless guy on Facebook, instead of being a shirtless guy in my own music video. Can't imagine what my personality would be like if it weren't for music. I don't think I assimilate more of anything else, maybe superhero movies, but even they need soundtracks. It would be a grey world indeed.
Jason: I would just be another software engineer on a chair with a PC in front of me.
Here are links to stuff that would show what kinda music I make and what I'm into.
Ik Shama : https://youtu.be/EHr7AwX8TSc
One Step Closer cover: https://youtu.be/hCj1qJtmge8
Hotel California solo cover: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2082291738488575&id=100001233067301
My social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kilmyster
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kil_mister/
YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/c/YatiAcharya
Jason:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jazz94
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simply_khadoos
No comments:
Post a Comment