Adil and Vasundhara chat with Shana Maria Verghis about their first album Ampersand, which features collaborations with some of their musician friends like Ranjit Barot and louis Banks
You probably caught this pair jamming during an episode last season of The Dewarists.
They had appeared with Thermal and a Quarter. Adil and Vasundhara have had separate careers before they formed a partnership.
They seem blissfull about doing their thing now, “without any pressure.”
During an earlier interview to someone else, Adil (Manuel) had cribbed about some bands he worked with before. But he clarified there were high point then as well. “like the five years I toured with Silk Route. I’d say throughout, it was learning experience. You live. You learn. You walk.”
It was him who invited Vasundhara to partner with him, after he called her up. She liked his guitar. Vasundhara (Vidalur), who has a breezy voice, laughed when you ask whether she had gripes in her career before meeting Adil. “I’m much younger than him. So I hadn’t spend time with many people to know who was right for me or not!”
She does most of their songwriting, and remarked their backgrounds — she’s half-Bengali-half Assamese. He is from lucknow, but his dad was Goan — might lightly influence their music choices. Adil for instance learnt classical music and sometimes improvises with raags on his instrument. While an earlier song of theirs is loosely drawn from a Bihu (harvest festival in Assam) tune.
They cut a five-track EP a while ago and recently released an album called Ampersand, on which appear several wellknown Indian musicians with whom they variously collaborated. like loy Mendonsa, Ranjit Barot and ‘Uncle’ louis Banks. “This keeps things fresh,” commented Adil.
Ten songs are being released independently. They are available on the site, oklisten.com, and include, Pinocchio Times, Refuge and 15 Nights to Dawn, which means different things to them.
Adil recalled, “Pinocchio Times has an odd time signature of eleven by eight. We were recording in YashRaj studios and Ranjit Barot who happened to be there, loved it and wanted in.”
He said the songs refer to these ‘lying times’.
As for Refuge, Vasundhara was reminded of her grandmother, “who migrated from East Pakistan during Partition. So many had made their way to India,” she mused.
”While growing up, I noticed pockets of such people in CR Park.” The song 15 Nights to Dawn, related to creative decisions that artists make– ”Whether to do a 9-5 job they hate, because of the pressure. Or pursue creativity full time, which is more painful.”
Adil has been in the circuit for 12 years. He said he was lucky to follow the latter course due to his parents.
It’s been same for Vasundhara, who has a thing for language. After studying in Alliance Francaise, she took up singing in French.
Parenthesis, which appears on Ampersand, was actually in French. There’s another track like that, Flower in Doon.
Meanwhile, One Winged Goose sounds like gibberish, but has hidden meaning. As Vasundhara shared, “When you use the phrase, ‘break a leg’, you don’t literally mean it. I was dealing with discrepancies in language.” Adil added, “15 Nights... was screaming for a piano. loy Mendonsa and one of the guys with us go back many years. So we got him to play on the track. Before teaming up with Shankar and Ehsaan, loy had been a great jazz musician. And he’s old school, which is great. Because it meant he had been part of that era during the 70s, when they experienced the music in a particular way.”
He explained, “Most songs are urban stories. And it sounds quirky, but we often draw from visuals in our imagination and interpret them. This is particularly so in my case.” Vasundhara is touring with B.l.O.T, who released an album, Snafu recently. She tested her vocals to electronica, she “knew nothing about.”
On International Jazz Day the two will play at Speakeasy.