The sitar maestro on his latest collaboration with guitar whiz Rhythm Shaw, meeting Pat Metheny and the new world of digital music
Purbayan Chatterjee and Rhythm Shaw
What was the genesis of this collaboration? What is the crux of the Purbayan Rhythm Shaw Experience (PRE)?
In musical terms, I truly believe in ‘instant affinity”. I met Rhythm in 2015 for a gig. Within a couple of months, we were on a 10-city national tour. We complete each other’s musical sentences despite coming from different genres. So despite our individual schedules and the odds against independent music, a collaboration was inevitable.
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The reason we call it an Experience is that every song in our repertoire is a visual experience as much as it is auditory. We plan to combine elements of modern-day production along with the live chemistry that we share as musicians to tell a story that is contemporary and timeless at the same time.
Why call it The First Train Out?
The First Train Out represents our first journey together. We set out from our individual disciplines (metaphorically stations) and meet somewhere at the crossroads as it were. It’s a journey within as much as it is without, one that takes us back to a common musical soul that we share. However, there is one more reason for this name... One of my all-time favourite songs is Pat Metheny’s Last Train Home from his album, Still Life Talking. His music has always inspired both of us. So we decided to name it First Train Out (FTO) as a bit of a tribute to his musical thought.
Purbayan Chatterjee with Pat Metheny
Could you elaborate on how you have weaved in Pat Metheny's sound in your track? Was there anything difficult about it?
In 2009, I was blessed to have spent some time with Mr. Metheny in his studio in New York. He had let me hold the guitar used for the song Last Train Home - a guitar that he had interestingly called Electric sitar because its sound had a certain twang to it.
When we composed the melody for FTO, we wanted to incorporate a groove played exclusively on the hi-hats — a groove which is used very subtly on LTH throughout the song. This groove sounds like the chug of a steam engine and represents the continuity of the journey. Mr. Metheny is a legend and the complexity and transcendence of his musical thought is, if anything aspirational for us. But very often a musical thought leaves a very strong impression on one's mind. FTO has a completely different melody and soundscape but there’s a musical thought that spins an almost visual web. Mixing engineer Kohinoor Mukherjee has very ably mixed the song.
The music video accompanies the track really well. Was it also conceptualised by the two of you? And how did you go about executing it?
The music video for this song is also representative of our individual journeys and the ultimate culmination towards a common journey. My friends, Ken Einhorn in NYC, Jay Patel in Minnesota and Rhythms friends in Germany helped him shoot it in the course of our travels. This culminated in our shots together being shot and then story-boarded and edited by the very talented Vivek Vishwanathan of Wev Productions. The concept emerged from the process of journeying.
You mention that this is an ongoing series. How many tracks does the series comprise of and when can we expect the next video to be released?
We plan to release about six songs over an extended period. We plan to release the next video in a couple of months time. These are not easy times for independent music, although I must say that they are promising and exciting times. We are in a brave new world of digital music. We plan to tell our musical story direct to our audiences through our YouTube channels. We remain grateful to our friends and colleagues who have shared this song on their social media and the digital and print media for the love and support they’ve shown so far (yourself included). We express this gratitude on behalf of the many, exceedingly talented singers and particularly instrumentalists who are trying to get their brilliant work out to the world.
Watch the video here:
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