Remo rhapsodies

Singer Remo Fernandes, is still regaling youngsters in India and abroad, since the release of his debut album Bombay City in 1987.

Born in Goa during the Portuguese regime, he was always exposed to Latin American, European and Indian music -- the ingredients, which are found prominently in his music.

After a degree in architecture from Mumbai, he travelled around in European and North Africa for two and a half years with a tent, haversack and guitar, playing in underground stations, street corners and café terraces, imbibing cultures and musical styles.

Then he set up his own recording studio in his ancestral house Siolim, North Goa.

Besides being the highest record-selling Indian pop/rock artist in English with albums like Politicians don't know how to rock 'n' roll and Pack the Smack, he also became popular among Hindi audience with Humma Humma, O Meri Munni and Pyaar to Hona Hi Thaa.

Remo performs on stage live with his band, without any backing tracks and no lip sync. Besides composing the music, writing the lyrics, engineering the recordings and mixes and designing the album covers, Remo plays all the instruments and sings all the voices in most of his songs.

After his last music video Cyber Viber, he developed a different kind of music, which he calls the music of soul. He released his latest album India Beyond last week.

Interestingly, the album also contains four folk songs, sung by his Siolim village ladies, known as fugdi in Konkani.

Sandesh Prabhudesai spoke to Remo about his new attempt.

What prompted you to come out with this different kind of music?

Ever since I released Bombay City in 1987, a favourite question with the journalists is "what kind of music do you see yourself making ten years from now?" I always answer that, besides rock and pop, I have this very different kind of music within me, which I want to produce and release one day.

Their next question invariably is "When do you see yourself creating it?" And my answer invariable is "when I'm too old to rock 'n' roll."

So have you reached that age?

Fortunately for me, I haven't outgrown rock 'n' roll at all. I guess I never will because I am married to it! But that 'different kind of music' got tired of being bottled up. At the wake of the new millennium, it grabbed me by the throat and told me in no uncertain terms that its time had come.

So in January 2000, I started recording this new album in a strangely serene and private state of mind. No one, even within my own home where my recording studio is situated, heard any of it until it was almost complete a year and half later.

What would you call this music?

If my past music was music for the body, this is music for the soul.

Is it spiritual music?

Yes. But I prefer if you use the word 'spiritual' to describe it, rather than me. Because if I did, I would find it presumptuous.

Will you concentrate more on this kind of music or pop?

I don't know. I guess musical directions have to be taken when they come to you, not by chasing them.

I am already doing another 'spiritual' album now. In fact, I started work on it even before I started India Beyond.

I will certainly continue playing pop and rock at my concerts because I just love the adrenaline rush of such music at live performances. But I don't envisage recording a pop album in the near future.

You have a good foresight of music. You were in the field of rock and pop much before it became a craze in India. Similarly, do you foresee an audience for this music?

Yes. Especially in India because for a while, music companies and television channels have been pushing only pop and filmy music. I think there are a lot of people out there who are tired of it, and are looking for a change.

Fusion is a new pop trend nowadays. Why did you take the original fugdi with ambient electronics?

I guess I was doing more than just following a trend or attempting fusion. I was attempting a very deep dive into my roots.

I have been hearing women singing these fugdis in a temple in a coconut grove by the river near my house for years. I know that their mothers and grand mothers have sung them in the very same rustic way. This thought gave such a sense of continuity not only to their songs, but also to my origins. I identified with these chants. In a certain way, they are part of my musical roots too.

So I used them as a little reminder of where I come from.

Do you expect your pop/rock fans to appreciate this effort?

My music goes out to people who have a soul.

People with varied tastes have the capacity to enjoy different kinds of music. But those with a limited outlook will stick to one genre of everything in life -- and probably criticise everything else.

They don't know what they're missing.