MUMBAI: Born and brought up in Trivandum with roots in Bengal, ‘Probashi Bangali’ (Non residential Calcuttan. Yes we have a term for it!), Jishnu Dasgupta is the bassist/vocalist of much celebrated native band Swarathma. Swarathma’s claim to fame was their victory in Radio City Live, a contest for Bengaluru based bands conducted by the radio channel, in 2006. They won an album contract which pretty much marked the beginning of their careers.
“I never thought I would end up playing and singing for a band,” said Jishnu who FYI has a very strong academic portfolio. He graduated from NIT Allahabad and then went on to complete his MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur. He has worked in multinational companies like TCS, written for magazines like Rock Street Journal (RSJ) and has also worked in ITC. The man has done it all.
“TCS was a great experience. The guys there would organise little in house shows for people like me and I would perform every now and then and that was it for me. I started practising music after I joined college so I never really thought of making it a profession but RSJ changed my life. It was when I started writing for them is when I actually got into listening to a lot of Blues and Jazz. I got a very good understanding of how the independent music scene works and I got to interview a lot of underground bands and artists hence in the process I ended up learning a lot,” said the ex software engineer.
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However we as audience for a fact sometimes end up displaying similar affiliation towards a particular sort of music and that spreads like a virus thus the phrase going viral is such a sleek lingo in these technological times. Technology has brought about a lot of change even in the sphere of art and craft so much as to creating art with certain devices. Music being subjected to this technological revolution has seen a lot of change in its making. EDM is arguably the leading genre in our time and the frenzy is here to stay so what about people like Jishnu who make music with their bare hands and vocal chords?
“This question is not really valid for me. There has never been a time for bands. Now we have the electro pop genre to blame earlier we had some other reason and I am sure in the coming years we’ll find something new to crib about but what are we doing to grab people’s attention? We cannot blame another genre for the simple reason that it is popular. I believe if we utilise the talent we have been gifted with, channelize our creativity in the right direction, we can make a mark for ourselves despite all odds. It doesn’t matter if the genre you desire to cultivate yourself in is not popular as long as you give in your 100 percent but the thing is we don’t and I do not see why we need to point a finger at another genre.”
Swarathma has been a festival favourite around the nation with colleges like Jadavpur University having them as headliners to playing at NH7; the band has left an imprint everywhere they have performed. “My most memorable performances are the ones we have done for people who are not privileged enough to attend concerts.”
Swarthma organises a series of concerts called ‘Action Replay’ which is a self funded initiative to bring about the joy of live concert to the physically and financially underprivileged people. They organise concerts for childcare homes, blind schools, Alzheimer centers and NGOs. This initiative is a five year old one and has been spreading joy ever since.
Interestingly during this time of the year which any high schooler would rather sleep through, Swarathma teamed up with Mirinda to help these kids stay up. “Release The Pressure” is what Mirinda has named the campaign. It is an initiative taken by Mirinda to remind parents that the pressure they put on these little children is not the right way about it. At the end of it all, they are kids and they dream much beyond chemistry and physics textbooks. So this exam season Mirinda has let these children write open letters to their parents voicing their grievances against all the undue pressure and unjustified comparisons. Take a chill pill mom and dads and listen to Swarathma’s latest single in association with Mirinda called ‘Beta Sweater Pehno.’ “This song was made independently of the campaign but when we realized that even the campaign is echoing similar emotions we thought of collaborating,” added Jishnu.
P.S. Swarathma is all set to go live at BKC, Mumbaikars! Catch them live on 9 April 2017.
Check out their latest single right here:-
