Bringing back the magic

Poetic renditions

Reinterpreting spellbinding folk gems from Eastern India, ‘Antarman’ is a Mumbai-based band comprising three singers, namely Pooja Shankar, Rahul Mukherjee and Randeep Bhaskar. The trio released their award-winning debut album last year and have now come up with a beautiful Kamrup folk song.

In a tete-a-tete with Anushree Agarwal, Pooja talks about their new single, their efforts to keep the essence of folk music alive and more.

How did ‘Antarman’ come about?
The three of us met at a common friend’s place in Delhi. We kept chatting about music and did casual jamming. We discovered that we were on the same page when it comes to the musicality or the essence that we all love. In 2011, we met again on a musical tour where we talked about working together. That’s how we recorded our first single and called it ‘Antarman’.

Your music in a sentence...
‘Antarman’ is about connecting to yourself. We do folk as a genre and it is people’s music, everybody can connect
to it.

How was the process of recording your first album?
The entire journey of our first album — a folk synthesis — was very memorable. The whole process went on smoothly. Musicians started associating beautifully with the project and we didn’t really have to fight it out.

Tell us about your new single ‘Kolonkini Radha’.
It is a very old folk composition and also a simple and melodious track. It is about Lord Krishna and Radha’s strong love; about how even though they weren’t married, the latter loved Krishna without worrying about getting a bad name.

Different talents that each of you brings to the band...
Randeep is a learned classical musician and we learn a lot from him. He looks into the technical elements. Rahul looks at the arrangement and commercial aspect. My part comes where I look at the entire production, the videos we do and about writing songs.

One of the best compliments you’ve received...
We’ve worked with some of the finest musicians in Mumbai who’ve said that they’d love to be associated with us because they are so sick and tired of doing what they have been doing. Our music helps them breathe and makes them feel like they are musicians again.

Your other hobbies?
Rahul only breathes, eats and lives music. Randeep is also pretty much like that. I enjoy direction and also paint.

What’s in the pipeline?
We’ve started working on our second album. It will be a confluence and we are trying to collaborate with musicians across five or six regions.