For her latest album, Susheela Raman collaborated with Rajasthani musicians, Pakistani qawwals and a French cellist. She tells Divya Kaushik that playing with African musicians has been an amazing education
It is mostly said about her that she has a remarkable ability to discover different musical styles and merge them. So it is no surprise that for her latest album, Queen Between, Susheela Raman collaborated with some stellar musicians from Pakistan (the Rizwan-Muazaam qawwals, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s nephews), Rajasthani master musicians (Kutle Khan, Nathoo lal Solanki and Rana Ram Bhil), Vincent Segal, the cellist from France, and other collaborators from France and UK.
The album showcases Raman’s voyage into different musical worlds and styles which draw their rhythmic sense from South Asian and African origins. It is a journey which is harmonically and sonically adventurous with an overall experience of acoustic, live and organic and yet very powerful. The mood ranges from very intense and fierce to mellow, gentle and meditative. The album is about songs and voices but the musical landscape is dynamic and psychedelic.
There are some recognisable elements but the sound is absolutely unique. Says Raman, “Queen Between is a new chapter in my work. I am so privileged to collaborate with so many great artists from across the world. All music is collaborative. These days people who work in music move around a lot, so of course you meet people. I went to Rajasthan five years running for the Jaipur literature Festival so I met some amazing musicians there. I also had a project in Pakistan so I went there a few times, especially to lahore, which is an amazing city. I have always loved qawwali so it was a dream come true to work with qawwals like Rizwan and Muazzam. In France I have always had a lot of musical connections and one particularly important relationship since I started has been with Vincent Segal, an outstanding cello player and a record producer as well. He is the kind of player who really brings your music to life. This album has a great potential to connect with an Indian audience and I have been getting amazing reactions so far.”
Along with her partner Sam Mills, Raman has travelled to places like Turkey and Ethiopia to play and make music with different people.
“It is amazing because you can always find a connection point but enjoy the differences as well. One great experience was playing with the veteran sax player Getachew Mekurya in Addis Ababa. He has a very special sound and we played some music based on Ethiopian musical scales which we have been inspired by ever since. There has always been a bit African component in my music and playing with African musicians has been an amazing education,” explains the British Indian musician who has launched five albums and was nominated for the 2006 BBC World Music Awards and the Mercury Prize in 2001.
About the title of the album she says that Queen Between “might be a person who doesn’t fit easily into categories or a personification of whatever links reality and unreality — music, fantasy, language, memory, desire, dreams, whatever you like.”
The tracks of the album are like an abstract painting that “doesn’t represent” anything. “There are lots of stories woven into the album, some of them are mine and some of them are borrowed. I think what the listener sees or hears for herself/himself is more interesting than having me spell out what it is supposed to mean. Whatever you experience and whatever you read and listen affects you while making music, for example, when we were writing the songs for Queen Between I was quite absorbed in a book by JG Frazer called The Golden Bough so there are a few ideas from that book on the record. It’s nice to have a bit of thematic continuity but I wouldn’t want to contrive it, it has to come of its own accord,” she says.
For her collaborative album, Raman took help of crowd funding. She believes that it is a way to develop new kind of relationship with the audience.
“Rather than getting money from a record company who then own your product or bankrupting yourself by making an ambitious album, it’s good to get your listeners involved. It’s a great feeling when somebody makes a contribution and I am looking forward to sharing some special things with people who donated to the album making process,” says Raman, who is known for her energetic, vibrant, syncretic and uplifting live performances built on the sacred Bhakti and Sufi traditions of India and Pakistan.
Raman’s inspiration comes from anything that looks or smells like the “music business.” She loves playing when there is something unpredictable and unique happening. “I am least interested in displays of virtuosity or situations where people are too uptight to let go,” she comments.
Raman has enraptured countless listeners with her own songs and with interpretations of songs from her Indian roots. She grew up singing South Indian classical music and began giving recitals at an early age. As a teenager she branched out into more blues-based music, which demanded quite different voice techniques. To bring these streams together she came to India to study with Shruti Sadolikar. “It’s a good training to know how to sing a melody and you also learn to remember things. Knowing how to navigate around certain ragas has always been a help even when singing other music. I do appreciate the sheer genius there is in the music even though I may have never approached it in an orthodox fashion,” says Raman, who was a part of MTV Unplugged and will now be doing a live session for KAPA TV from Kerala soon.