Swaraag, the Sufi rock fusion band from Jaipur, was in the Capital recently for a show. SHALINI SAKSENA speaks with the founder on what makes them sought after and how they were part of the reality show Rising Star 3
They began their journey in 2014 and in the next six years, the band has over 1,000 performances to its credit. The band was formed with an idea to work with instruments and introduce that to the people. When they began to work on the music, they realised that in order to take it to a much larger audience they had to add a vocalist. And that is how sufi-rock fusion band — Swaraag was born.
“Our journey began back in 2014. Arif Khan, a freelancer and I decided to work on instrumental music. But after six months we realised that we needed a vocalist. We approached Khan’s younger brother Asif. He is the lead vocalist with the band. His forte lies in sufi music. In fact, each person in the band has a musical background, they are from the Sikar Gharana. We are from Rajasthan. So, people would demand that we play music from the region. Unfortunately, Rajasthani music is not much in demand in the State and hence we had not incorporated that in our band. We found that there was a market for it but not good content. We worked on this and introduced four things into our band — sufi, Rajasthani, instrumental and Bollywood music. This became our USP,” Pratap Singh, the co-founder and manager of the band explains.
But after being in the market for six years, they realised that they needed to add fusion in order to connect Indian classical and the youth. The fusion was done in a manner that it doesn’t sound odd. “We ensure that our fusion is such that it acts like salt in a dish. We don’t want to sound totally western. We have saxophone, drum and acoustic guitar. We don’t use digital instrument. This way the audience can enjoy the music of the instruments,” Singh shares. He says that the name of the band is derived from the Sanskrit word — swar and raag we all know — the music. The idea was to let people know that they are there to promote music.
He tells you that the reason why Rajasthan music is not famous even though it is a popular tourist place because the State is seen as land of royals. But when it comes to entertainment industry, people see only two-three things — food, palaces and royals. “Ask them if they would want to make a Rajasthani film and they want to know who will watch it. Another problem is that the dialect in the region changes every 100 km,” Singh opines.
The band was also part of Rising Star 3. While reality shows are good, it is not always the right place to showcase one’s talent. “It is not always correct. When I was there, I saw young people, who were there to showcase their talent but are nowhere today. One has to ask where they are today. Even if one wins a show, there are no guarantees that they will shine. One needs a combination of talent, marketing strategy and luck. While reality shows give you the much-needed jump, there is need to market it well. Talent alone will not take you far,” Singh says. However, he is quick to point out that for an artist, it is a big thing to be viewed on TV. Reality shows give you a face, a recognition.
Interestingly, he tells you that their music is not always appreciated. There have been two instances where they were caught on the wrong foot. One was when the band had to perform in Haryana. The people were looking to dance, our music is not on those lines. “The second was while we were performing in Vishakhapatnam. We wondered where we had landed. Finally, we played Amitabh Bachchan song. Three people came in front to dance. After 45 minutes we understood what they were looking for. The good is that we have people in our band with multiple talent,” he tells you.
