IMR: Hello from IMR, tell us about the story behind OHM’s formation. And also the connection with the name and the music.
OHM: We met each other at a common friends place 5 years ago, afterwards we lost contact with each other till 2009. We again came across ourselves through a social network site in May 2009 and decided to work on experimental music with electronic sounds and electric guitar together. OHM is a sacred and very powerful word in our mythology, our music is mainly influenced by Indian classical music which represents the roots within all Indians and it is related to our mythology as well, also OHM is the unit of resistance which depicts electronic circuitry, which is one of the elements of our music.
IMR: How would you define the genre of OHM?
OHM: We would to call ourselves Ambient/Experimental/Fusion/Electronica
IMR: What major influences shaped up OHM as it is today?
OHM: Well, both of us have varied influences not limiting ourselves only into western music. At the same time, we like sticking to our roots i.e. Indian classical music. Thus influences ranging from Indian classical music, Folk, Rock, Country, Jazz, Blues, Electronica, Psytrance, Ambient, lounge etc. Basically as earlier said we keep on listening to new and diversified music forms from across the globe, we remember last night we were listening to this great Duo from Japan on YouTube playing Shamisen and Taiko drums.
IMR: What was the first ever original composition by OHM? Share the story with us.
OHM: Well the first unnamed composition we sat with was never completed, and we decided to work upon it later. But, the first complete track that we made is Northern Lights, Northern lights takes one through the night of a drug addict who eventually after enjoying his late night trip realizes the darker side of this addiction and seeks help to come out of it. Honestly there was no fixed story and plan how to build the track. We were experimenting with some chord progressions, gradually ideas poured in from both of us which helped us progress the track as it is today and create a meaning for the track.
IMR: You have worked in collaboration with many talented musicians. How has been the experience?
OHM: It has always been a great experience working with different musicians. We always get to learn lots of new ideas from varied musicians, which helps & enriches us in return. First of all we would like to talk about the great Tabla player Arif Khan who is the son of great tabla maestro Ustad Sabir Khan. Arif has played for us in our Hindi track called 'Ek Akeli Raat' which is not yet uploaded. Another name we would like to mention is Pratik Srivastava (Nephew of Sarod maestro Rajeev Chakravarty) who played Sarod in our track ‘7 to 8’. Chirantan Banerjee (Vocal), who has been on the top ten chart of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2008 and runner up of Pantaloons rocking singer, for now he has sung two tracks 'Majhi' and 'Ek Akeli Raat' the third one called 'Barkha Bahar' is under production.
Holger Dressler (Pianist), our German friend from Berlin, came up with this idea of doing a melodically rich composition with us and we are privileged to have him as a Guest Musician in our set-up.
IMR: About the musical background of the members.
OHM: Aditya started learning music at the age of 10 in the year 1997 initially on the Hawaiian guitar(Lap slide guitar) and later on the Acoustic guitar at the age of 18 in the year 2005. He has played for fusion group Taal Tantra (Sri Tanmoy bose)....and currently also playing with a fusion ensemble Fingerprints....He has also been part of rock bands in kolkata like Nucleus, Altered karma, Yatakas (Released a single in bengali under HMV called 'Ishara' and 'Kolikale which is yet to be released...won the best guitarist award in KBL war of the rockstars with the band Altered Karma;
Previously worked with: Worked with some of the most sought after musicians like Subhendra Rao & Saskia Rao (Sitarist an Cellist, senior disciple of Pt.Ravi Shankar), Ravi kullur (Carnatic Flutist), Kartick Das Baul,Shilajit,Tillmann Deinhardt (Saxophone, Germany), Matihaas (Guitarist, Germany), Mainak 'Bumpy' Nagchowdhury (Bassist), Rishabh Dhar (Pakhawaj), Sourav Roy (Keyboards), Saptarshi Roy (Keyboards), Indrajeet (keyboards),Abhishek Basu (Tabla),Indradeep ghosh(Violin), John Wubbenhorst (Flutist (USA), a disciple of Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia), Klaus Falschunger(Sitarist, Austria) etc;
Past Performances: Aditya has performed nationally and internationally in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, UK with the fusion group Fingerprints.
Soumajit's brilliant application of Powerful Synth Engines, Virtual Synthesizers and Compositional Skills are what makes him stand out from the rest. His ability to design sounds and circuitry is truly remarkable; Soumajit started learning classical indian music (Vocal) at the age of 3 under the guidance of Mr.Supriyo Chatterjee and later moved on to learn from Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty.....He won the "Best Classical vocalist award" in West Bengal in the year 1988 and at the age of 13 he got a scholarship from a NGO foundation in Norway to learn music. He pursues Online lessons on Controllerism from Matt Moldover(USA) & on Reaktor from Peter Kirn (USA).Has completed a diploma course in Sound Production, Design & Engineering from Pune, India. He has developed his unique style & technique of programming sounds & arranging music. He has worked on several DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) like Cubase, Nuendo, Reason, FL Studio & gradually over the period of time and got his hands on them. Presently he works on different Standalone Sound Design modules like Reaktor, also plugins from Spectrasonics, reFX, Symphonic Orchestra, Choirs, Ivory and plenty of other more.
Worked with: Peter Dines (Electronic Musician & Sound Designer, Canada), Matt Moldover (Controllerist, USA),Rishabh Dhar (Pakhawaj), Mr.Supriyo Chatterjee (Vocalist), Saptarshi Roy (Keyboards), Nilanjan Ghosh (Tabla), Holger Dressler (Pianist, Germany), Ben Christie (Director)
Past Performances: Classical Indian music (Vocal) performances across West Bengal; Lounge sessions at Ten Downing Street (Pune), Aqua Lounge (Pune) and several other places around Maharashtra.
IMR: Both of you have performed nationally and internationally (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, UK) as a part of another project. Have the musical experiences of playing to a wide audience in different parts of the world make a mark in OHM’s compositions?
Aditya : It has been a wonderful experience playing before the international audience, last year in 2009 we performed at this one of the biggest theatre in Europe called Koninklijke Showburg, which is at Den haag in Holland, we received 8000 people standing ovation, which was like a dream.
IMR: It seems that you plan to release a Hindi project on a national scale. What type of compositions do you have in mind for the project?
OHM: Yes we do have the plan, and we are working on it. We have completed two of our songs and the third one is under production. We are composing for the mass, so that each and everyone can sing the song even the instrumental interludes....we are trying to make it very catchy and simple at the same time.
IMR: Since you use a lot of programming in your music, how do you go about the live shows? Are you very selective about live appearances?
Aditya: No, we enjoy playing live, we are not selective about any specific location or event.
Soumajit: Yes, though the production involves programming, but that does not limit us to not perform on stage. As Live Electronic Musician & a Controllerist, I don't limit myself to just playing patterns of sound files/samples loaded onto the system. I use Ableton Live as my main Digital Live Workstation on a Macintosh Laptop, hook up the same with several MIDI Controllers & produce Live Grooves, Ambient Textures on Stage using Designing Software's like REAKTOR which is a very powerful tool for me to design my own soundscapes, sound generators, groove boxes & tweak on their parameters using my Custom Build Effects Rack Chain. Performing Electronic Music live is a far more advanced form of deejaying, wherein musicians have to remember several parameter mappings with the MIDI Control Change Algorithms, design abstract sounds live & practice to perfect the techniques.
IMR: Tell us about the track ‘7 to 8’.
OHM: Back at the home studio Aditya started composing the melody and chord structure of 7 to 8....Soumajit was not at home...Aditya recorded a scratch rhythm track and the melody in Cubase and found it was sounding decent so he thought it will be a nice idea to treat Soumajit when he comes back home...Soumajit had a musical treat awaiting him at the home studio....Soumajit was Mesmerised with the melody and immediately sat to work on the tracks...He immediately started working on the minute sounds, grooves, LFO's, filters, bassline...etc... The track, is based on an Indian Raga called Raga Jog and was composed in 7/8 time signature, but later they decided to lead the track from 7/8 to the natural rhythm...the track is called 7 to 8 coz the basic track was composed between 7 pm to 8 pm....and also coz the tracks moves from cycle of 7 beats to cycle of 8 beats.... :)
IMR: OHM has composed the background score for SRFTI’s short films and also for a documentary called ‘Calcutta Rescue’. How was the experience?
OHM: We desire to work on Background scores, because to us it’s the most challenging thing to work on. We had an amazing experience doing the score for the films, spent endless nights working on the movie frame by frame, scoring helps us in broadening our composing skills and help is explore ourselves as a musician more and more, its a challenge we always love to face.
IMR: You have been a guitarist for a couple of Bengali rock bands and have also been a part of internationally acclaimed acts like ‘Taal Tantra’ and now?
OHM: How were the challenges that you had to face to adapt to the different spheres of music?
Aditya: It has always been very challenging for me to adapt with all the genre's of music, I have always learnt from life and people. I have taught myself step by step, earlier i knew nothing except to play the acoustic guitar, I was on the verge of being Kicked out from a band i used to play in earlier in my musical career, the reason being i cudnt make tones and could not play the electric guitar and handle distortion, I took it up as a challenge and proved them. One of the biggest contribution in my musical career is made by Mainak 'Bumpy' Nagchowdhury a well known bassist, under his supervision i got to learn a lot about music, and music production. Tanmoy Da (Tanmoy Bose) and Rishabh Da (Rishabh Dhar, Pakhawaj exponent) played a major role in my indian classical learning, Soumajit helps me a lot learning about indian classical music and electronic music. My girlfriend plays major role keeping the music in me alive, without her I would never have done anything what i am doing now. My whole Ideology behind music is to be a good student of music and learn from each and every musician on this planet.
IMR: How would you rate Kolkata in the perspective of infrastructural support for musicians? Especially for the brand of music OHM patronizes?
OHM: LAUGHS!!! It is astonishing to us that Kolkata was once the cultural capital of India and now with not much happenings. There is no such infrastructure here to support musicians & for our kind of music, there are places over here & many others are opening up. We are sure that in future, OHM would be the "Future Sound of Kolkata"
IMR: Share with us some memorable experiences of OHM.
OHM: We remember the night when we realized that we are ranking No. 01 in the Top Ten Myspace Global Charts. We are still very happy about the incident & we cherish it as our first achievement. Our second & probably our most memorable moment is when we got to meet, world renowned musicians like Ustad Zakir Hussain, U.Srinivas, Shankar Mahadevan, A.Sivamani, Karsh Kale, V.Selva Ganesh, Pt.Debashish Bhattacharya & personally spoke with them
IMR: Some future plans of OHM.
OHM: Release a Full Fledged National Hindi Album with Music Videos.
Approach an International Record Label to release our compositions.
We have a probable US & Canada tour in 2010, yet to be confirmed.
Work with many renowned musicians, film makers.
IMR: How do you see the present music scenario of Kolkata?
OHM: As said earlier, not much is happening in Kolkata as far as music is concerned. To us, the Kolkata music scenario has reached a monotony, every single band are trying to do the same stuff, except for a handful of bands & musicians.
IMR: A message from OHM to everyone.
OHM: There is so much to listen & so much to learn from each & everyone. Being polite & humble is the key to success. Listen to our compositions, work & support it. All of your valued comments on the music is highly appreciable.
---Roopam
