Known as a pioneer of Indian pop music, Remo Fernandes has a way with words and music. How can simple words that rhyme with rain, form a sincere yet melodic song that remains etched on the mind of music lovers? Remo has that magic to compose a song, ‘Rain, Rain, Rain’ which has received a great response on social media. In Goa, Siolim-based Remo Fernandes needs no introduction. Any social event or family party is incomplete with Konkani medleys composed and sung by him. In the past, he has given hits like ‘"Maria Pita Che’, ‘Rajan ani Prema’ in Konkani while children have grown up listening to ‘O Meri Munni’ and ‘Pyaar Toh Hona hi Tha’ in Hindi.
After releasing albums and singles consistently, he is now composing and recording songs but very rarely uploading videos. And the ones that he does becomes instant hits. The most recent song, ‘Rain, Rain, Rain’, was released after a year since his last video was uploaded on YouTube. However, within two weeks, the song has already crossed the one lakh views mark and is still gaining views. While the song was released when Remo was just leaving from Goa to Canada, since then, he has also headlined the Viva Goa Festival in Canada.
“The song appears to have touched heartstrings. A direct connection with the audience is wonderful to have, and this instant reaction to a new released song is possible now through Internet platforms. It is almost as immediate as the reaction of an audience at a live concert,” says Remo, about the feedback he is receiving for the song.
Remo wrote and recorded this song last year but the video remained unfinished for a whole year. This year, when he was in Goa, he was there to witness the first showers which helped him get the right shots for the music video, which makes it appealing to the ears and the eyes. “In the back of my mind, I’d been waiting for this year’s monsoon during all these months, to shoot the last remaining scene of the little schoolgirls and the rain puddle. I was lucky I was in Goa when the first big rain hit recently, and that it was a Sunday when the girls were at home and free. They had kept on reminding me about it for months,” says Remo about revisiting the song after a year.
Speaking about the inspiration for the song, he says, “The beauty, the serenity, the fertility, the power of nature, even the melancholy of the Goan monsoons which I always loved, ever since I was a kid growing up in Goa. And the rain makes all the dust in the air settle down, which makes the luxuriant greenery even brighter and sharper. The monsoon always provides floods of inspiration.”
What are Remo’s fondest memories in the rain? “Sitting in our veranda in Panjim, when I was around four or five years old, watching the water puddles magically forming in our garden, the little tadpoles swimming in them and thinking they were pretty big fish. Learning how to make paper boats from my father, colouring them, and sailing them in the flowing rain water. Now, as an adult, I just love sitting in my veranda in Siolim on the first night of the exploding monsoon, turning all lights off (if they haven’t failed already), with a glass of earthy cashew feni in my hand. And listening to the deafening rain, the thunder, and watching the bright lighting cutting through the black skies above the coconut trees. That’s the greatest music of all.”
The music, lyrics, arrangements, voices, all instruments, recording, mixing, mastering, video shooting and video editing, all these aspects of the video were done by Remo. However, Zenia Pereira shot the footage which shows Remo in the frame for the video. “Just as ideas flow for the lyrics and music of a song, ideas flow for the images one envisions for its video. And a lot of ideas come on the fly, while you’re recording the song or shooting the video,” he explains.
Remo now divides his time between Goa and Porto in Portugal and shares the difference about the rain in both the countries, “The heaviest rain in Portugal seems like a light shower in Goa. The Goan tropical rain is much thicker and noisier, and even the thunder seems louder and more frequent in Goa. And I love that.”
Speaking about his love and pace for working on his music, he says, “I compose and record at least ten to fourteen songs in a year, often more. But videos are much more time consuming, and I only make one or two per year. I don’t make them intentionally to stay visible or in the news - the kind of concerts I do aren’t really generated by these songs or videos, and neither is the sale of albums. I’ve give out most of my music and videos for free now anyway, so they are purely labours of love.”
Remo has a busy travel schedule set for him with an upcoming performance in Mumbai lined up this month. “We just did a concert in Toronto, Canada, where we headlined at the Viva Goa Festival on World Goa Day. Now we’re taking a little holiday and touring around this gorgeous country and flying to Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal to visit their beauties of nature like Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, Emerald Lake, and the Rocky Mountains. We will visit Vancouver to see the old capital Victoria City on an island, which is supposed to be extremely beautiful. And having lived in France years ago, I’m very keen to visit Montreal and Quebec City, the picturesque French town in Canada. Then, we go back to Porto for three days, and from there back to Goa for a week, to do our next concert which will be in Mumbai. It’s going to be held on August 15 at the St Andrew’s Auditorium in Bandra, in aid of the Kripa Foundation, which is the celebrated Fr Joe Pereira’s association for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Then, we return to Porto to enjoy the rest of the summer and autumn,” informs Remo.
The previous song that Remo penned was ‘Fado da Terra Lenta’, or ‘Fado of the Slow Land,’ a fado dedicated to Alentejo, a beautiful region in the South of Portugal. His first fado was ‘Fado Goa’ which featured in ‘Goan Crazy’ album in 1984, making this his second fado.
The last huge project that Remo worked on for three years was the opera he wrote on the life and work of Mother Teresa. “Now, it’s the one-off songs I might feel inspired to compose and record from time to time, such as ‘Rain, rain, rain’. I have a whole backlog of them pending, which I ought to start recording one of these days. But the funny thing which happens is, before I start recording one of those, I tend to write a new one, and want to record this one instead,” concludes Remo.