Aradhna Blog
This song is in 11 beats but you’d never know it. The rhythm is called char tal ki sawari. Try counting to 11 when the tabla begins, (taking about one second for each number), and keep counting over and over again from 1 to 11 throughout the song. You can follow how Jim Feist plays different variations all within that eleven-beat cycle. My sitar guru, Partha Chatterjee, taught me the rhythm (taal) while I was in Fremont, CA, for my annual lessons. You’ll see clearly how the taal works in the sitar solo where I complete each musical thought at the beginning of every new 11 beat cycle.
It wasn’t difficult to choose this as the final (more…)
When I am asked why I chose to make a life out of singing music out of south asia, I often speak of my childhood in Nepal, and the love I had for the music of those hills, where I learned Herana. It was a carefree life. Thousands of terraced rice fields were our playground. Steep mount streams were our swimming holes. For the most part life was wonderful, even though all around me people were living in abject poverty and need, which was the reason my parents were there in the first place, as medical doctors.
Some of my best friends ran around in bare feet and shorts because they didn’t own a shirt or shoes. I often (more…)
The recording of Amrit Vani at the end of 2007 was a 3 month triathlon that really took a lot out of us. 2008 was filled with touring and not much thought towards composing or recording. When we wrote Yeshu Muktinath in the spring of ’09, it was a relief to see that there was something left in the creative tank and even better that it felt like one of our best songs ever. It re-invigorated us and was a kick start for more writing and then… (more…)
Chosen was written before Aradhna was a band. In August of 1999, in a living room in Leicester, England, Chris and I fumbled around with chords and sitar lines and Chosen finally emerge. The mixture of Hindi and English, the way the sitar notes flowed around the guitar chords, the words that gave air to the hopes and beliefs of our hearts, all made sense and we knew we were on to something.
We put Chosen onto our first album (Deep Jale), and though we always loved the song, we felt the recording didn’t quite capture it. So we put it back on the table for this album, added some beautiful lyrics, switched out Pete’s gravelly pipes for Travis’ smooth tone. We let it float a bit more this time around and I think after 12 years, we finally got this song right.
Lead me from untruth to truth, Lord
Lead me from darkness to light, Lord
Lead me from the final death to fullness in immortality
Without you I am incomplete
Grant me the gift of seeing you
Lead me from untruth to truth, Lord
Asato Ma is an ancient prayer from India. We used the Gujarati words to compose this song and made a refrain from (more…)
