The Threshold of Coolidity

How powerful is music? Can a song’s lyrics haunt its composition. Seven Years is Antardhwani’s second original composition. I wrote the song based on some raags I used to play around with. The theme of the song is loosely based on a love and hate relationship I was going through. The chord progression is highly addictive and at our jam sessions I played it a lot while the whole band got used to it and put in music that was sheer genius. I don’t really recall when it actually became a complete song but it just happened. Alap put in hindi lyrics, I put in the English ones, and they gelled beautifully. Seven Years was born.

We all recorded our parts one afternoon at Pauli’s place. The song is rather unique. I personally think that it is Antardhwani’s best composition to date. Though Dil Chahne Laga continues to be most of our friends’ favorite. The song is characterized by a very unique chord progression, very ambitious vocals, a very mean bass line, a guitar lead that sounds like a sitar with distortion, keyboard riffs that give the song a psychedelic effect, and Pauli playing drums too. One of the interesting features of the song is its dual vocal track. Now, to make a voice sound powerful or “divine” popular tricks/effects are putting on a reverb, echo or a constant delay. These effects though awesome are very mundane. While Alap and moi were recording the first version at my place the first vocal track wasn’t up to the mark, so I recorded another. While playing it back I forgot to mute one of the vocal tracks. The result? An awesome surround sound effect. The deal is that both tracks need to be very similar but for every word either voice starts of just a bit sooner than the other giving this beautiful echo spectrum. So, as evident, I am addicted to this sound now.

Pauli took over the composition with his mixing expertise and also put in the drum track. This is where we were introduced to the intricacy of a band composing music. So, when you write a song, you get used to what it sounds like in your head, especially when you let the music linger for a long time before seriously giving it direction. In other words, it becomes almost impossible to picture it any other way. Back to the story, a week later, Pauli finished his mixing work and sent it back to me for my comments. Ladies and Gentleman, a volcano has just erupted! I don’t know what came over me but the moment I heard the final version I freaked out! There were parts I sang three times that were there just once, there were fill-ins that I had never pictured, I couldn’t recognize the song anymore. Ladies and Gentleman, run for your lives, the volcano is on full blast! All in all, I felt like I had sent my baby away wearing clothes that I picked out for him, and when he came back to me, he was wearing something I had never seen him in before. Pretty much, I couldn’t make much of a judgment that day. Around three days later after devouring the new version hundreds of time I felt I had attained nirvana. Lots of truths regarding the song writing process came clear to me and I could finally critique Seven Years. I found out that I loved the new editing which had actually made a song that seemed to be dragging on much more crisp. The new keyboard parts had added the psychedelic rock aspect to the song. In a couple of places I had suggestions which I discussed with Pauli coz when you have a thought you gotta get it off you chest. I am sure Pauli went through the same cycle of emotions because of my suggestions. A week of emails back and forth, listening to the song over and over again, the final version was born and it’s a beauty. This is what music is all about!

I learnt some valuable lessons that week. I have the talent to write really good music. But if I want the band members to record exactly what I hear myself, the result will obviously be nice but then there is no point being in a band. That’s what people like Dave Mathews do after calling their band Dave Mathew’s Band, and then produce rather monotonous music in my opinion. The truth is that, when you have the pleasure of playing with a band of talented musicians, you havta give them the license to play, let them add a touch that you could never imagine, and the result will be something that you would be proud of every single day. Seven Years would not have been the same if every band member would not have added their own interpretation to it. And now that I have listened to it a million times I wouldn’t have it any other way.