MUMBAI: Papon joined the likes of Ricky Martin and Shakira when he was approached by NorthEast United FC – the John Abraham-owned team in the soon-to-begin football Indian Super League – to compose an anthem. Papon studied a lot of anthems and wanted a track that rightly conveyed the confluence of influences that is the North East. The result is We’re the eight .
“The North East – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim – has such varied and rich musical influences like jazz, blues, gospel alongside folk music. It really is an interesting song that brings together all the different states that make the North East,” says Papon. Papon roped in other artists like the legendary Lou Majaw, Tipriti (Kharbangar) and Rudy (Wallang) from Soulmate, bands like Alobo Naga, Girish and the Chronicles, The Vinyl Records and Boomerang, folk hero Guru Rewben Mashangva, to work on the anthem that has everything from folk, to samba, to rock, rap and even dubstep.
We’re the eight has been sung in English but is quintessential northeastern in its flavour. “The song starts on very basic folk instrument called pepa – it’s made of buffalo skin, typically used in love songs and songs about the harvest. Most football songs have the sound of a war horn, so I have used peta for that effect. It then goes into a Bihu dhol, like a rhythmic dhol beat. Then comes in the rock ‘n roll bit – heavy guitars. There is a bit of the samba/ Latin influence, there’s a bit of rapping and even a bit of dubstep,” is how Papon describes the song.
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