musical
mama
Shah mixes
old raags with
rock and pop.
SPOTLIGHT
raag & roll
From Barack Obama to Yo-Yo Ma, Falguni Shah has
earned fans in some important places, says Aarti Virani
here’s something appropriately musical about the
spot Falguni Shah, frontwoman for the band Falu,
selects for our rendezvous.
Tucked inside one of Manhattan’s more
tranquil folds, Café Doma pulses with the
buzz of espresso machines, rhythmic keyboard clicks and clandestine conversations. Against the inky black walls, Falu
(as she prefers to be called) is a contrast,
clad in a topaz kurta and a myriad of silver rings. Much like the music she is on a
mission to create—a genre she’s christened “Indie Hindi”—Falguni reflects a
rare brand of timeless elegance and
avant-garde charm, increasingly apparent as we discuss everything from her
musical mantras to motherhood.
120 vogue india december 2010 www.vogue.in
Having joined forces with AR Rahman,
performed for President Barack Obama
and collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, it’s hard
to believe Falu is merely one self-titled
album old. “I’ve slogged,” she reveals,
chronicling a journey that began in Mumbai when she was three years old, under
the guidance of her first guru, Kaumudi
Munshi, who honed her semi-classical
sensibilities. While completing her master’s in classical music at SNDT University in Mumbai, 16-hour days were the
norm. “But my informal training started
when my mother [also a classical singer]
found out she was pregnant with me,”
the 32-year-old confesses. “When you’re
pregnant, you practise for two, I guess,”
she says. “Before this baby comes, we’re
trying to finish my second album.” (Shah
recently had a baby). She and her
husband Gaurav, a brain cancer
specialist who regularly lends his voice to
the band, now spend weekends in a studio outside the city.
Although she isn’t a pioneer when it
comes to ushering classical Indian sounds
to the West, Falu is determined to leave a
distinct and unforgettable imprint on the
genre. “Zakir Hussainji has done it, Ravi
Shankarji has done it,” she clarifies. “But
I wanted to arrange my music in such a
way that an American person would sing
a song in English, not realising that they
were singing a raag—something that’s
been around for thousands of years.” Listen to her first album and it’s undeniable
that the effort is heartfelt, whether she’s
belting out covers like ‘Dum Maro Dum’,
or introducing us to soulful, original
tracks like ‘Without You’. In fact, one of
her personal favourites, ‘Hey Baby’, a
sensual love song laced with seductive
violin notes, is set to an age-old morning
raag called ‘Bairagi Bhairav’.
When I prod her for her inspirations,
she smiles impishly, as though she’s easing open a closely guarded door. “I wrote
‘Hey Baby’ when I really fought with
Gaurav once,” she admits. “I had to fly to
LA for a show right after, and I drafted
the lyrics on the plane. It’s so funny that
I write romantic and sexual songs when
I’m angry—it makes no sense to me.
When I showed Gaurav the lyrics the
next day, after we’d made up, he jokingly
said we should fight more.” The two met
over 10 years ago, at a ghazal class in
Mumbai. A Texas native, Gaurav spent
summers building his classical music
skills and dedicated an entire year to
studying in India. “He thought I was
goofy, I thought he was weird,” Falu recalls. “We had an instant connection.”
Unlike her debut album, which relied
heavily on melding ancient raags with
pop and rock, Falu’s second, backed by
Grammy-winning
producer
Danny
Blume, is entirely acoustic. As she struggles to remember all six languages featured on the album, she pauses. “I forget,” she says, sheepishly. “This is exactly
why my band members used to call me
‘pregtarded’.” But she continues, undeterred. “It features tribal musicians based
out of villages in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
I’d like to think of it as a chance to tour in
India and really share what I’ve done,”
she adds before heaving a wistful sigh.
“I’d love to go home.” n