MUMBAI: After having collaborated with international artistes like INXS and David Bowie, singer Sona Mohapatra is all set to launch her second album â€?Raat Din’.
The album which is likely to be launched by Sony Music, includes ‘songs of the night, going into songs of the day’. Ram Sampath has composed for the album, while Munna Dhiman has penned the tracks. The first video single “Diljale” will be released in August,… reveals Sona.
The singer raced passed 70,000 contestants to stand fourth in the World Song Contest in 2008. The song is titled â€?Sapne’ and while there was no video accompanying it, it featured in my first album. We have another reggae version of the same song and might put this version out in the near future….
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Having performed for the Lincoln Center in New York Sona says, The concert was held for a cause where I performed with my band. The venue was gorgeous and despite the minus 26 degrees Celsius biting cold, the hall got packed and we got two encores. That is a testimony to the great city of New York is and how much it appreciates live music, live performances and artistes in general….
Talking about the international collaborations Sona says, It is the age of the internet and anything is possible. My invite to play at the prestigious Lincoln Centre in New York with my band happened through the internet after all. While it is great to be collaborating per-se, I find this recurring obsession with â€?international’ a little amusing. I would also love to collaborate with artistes closer home like Shafqat Amanat Ali , Aruna Sairam even Kailash Kher,… quips the singer
Talking about the comatose stage that the Indi-pop genre has slipped into, Sona says, The genre doesn’t exist and hasn’t for a long time. There was a time in the 90’s when almost any rubbish sold. While we had some genuine pop artistes like Alisha, Daler Mehandi and Lucky Ali with distinctive singing styles and individual visual imagery too, the rest were truly worthless. And slowly the audience also realised the same and rejected the music outright.”
Elaborating, she says, Now, we largely have a film industry with the music industry being a mere ‘sub-set’ of the same. There is a rare act like Kailasa which manages to put out their own music with the band every now and then but one or two acts don’t make a scene happen….
Elucidating her views on plagiarism, Sona says, I’m no expert on this but copying or selling what is not yours could never be a good thing. It’s pretty sad seeing the industry backing and supporting plagiarists and then crying hoarse about piracy. You can’t have your cake and eat it too….
Sona’s future projects include UTV’s project â€?Aagey Se Right’. The song is called Daav Laaga. I shot for the music video with my band. It is an outright dance track and should hit the airwaves soon….
My song â€?Paas Aao Na’ has been licensed for an ad campaign and has travelled to several countries around the world and in 11 languages. It is a first for an independent artiste and I hope we find several ways to reaching out with good songs and stop cribbing about the sorry state of affairs. Things are good,… adds the singer optimistically.
