Walk into any place in Goa, where live music is being played and you will hear some great music – covers of the best international artistes and groups – rendered in a top notch manner. While this can move any audience, there are many who crave for the sound of original music, original tunes and the personality that emanates through them.
Well, the times they are a-changin’
indeed. Over the last year, Goans have been treated to the exquisite tunes and
lyrics of fellow Goans; songs from the heart; songs about their journeys; songs
that tell their own stories.
Zubin Da Cruz, son of the late Emiliano da
Cruz, and a rising star himself, has come out with a couple of original songs.
“The most popular one is the first song I wrote, ‘Why Me?’. I’ve performed it
on different platforms and also perform it regularly with my band, True Blue,
all over the world. I have people asking me where they could get the song and
it feels great,” says Zubin.
“It’s a song about a rough time in my
life, so I wrote it in about less than an hour. It was like a sudden burst of
inspiration from the ‘Blackstratblues’ concert I had attended a few hours prior
at a college fest in Goa. I ended up meeting the band and was inspired by their
performance and crowd response. That’s when I realised original music has
something different to it,” he adds.
Another up-and-coming independent artist, Gretchen Barretto, who
has played with The Big City Band, The Usual Suspects, A26, and The Coffee Cats
and is known for her cover music videos on Instagram, recently came out with
her original song.
The song is called ‘Home’. “I wrote the song about two months
ago. It roots back to something I felt after a very long time: Happiness and
love. For the longest time, I believed that artistically I could only produce
sad pieces. And ironically, I could never complete a song. But I wrote ‘ Home’
when I was in a happy place. And it was my first complete original. It’s a
happy song that allows me to express exactly how I feel about someone who made
all the difference. I play it on my Ukulele and I sing it from my heart,” says
Gretchen.
Also known for his cover videos on his YouTube Channel, Cyrus
Raymond Berne, the former winner of Kingfisher Voice of Goa has kept busy in
between his performances with his band Estonia and other collaborations
including coming out with the anthem for the Churchill Brothers football club.
One of his original songs is called ‘Love’s Last Breath’, an acoustic song.
Cyrus has plans of releasing a studio version of the same given the positive
response it received. “It’s about a broken relationship and how things were
during that time and how things didn’t work out,” states Cyrus.
“I worked on this song for a month, right from writing it to
making its music. This song gave me that connect to myself ,” he adds.
Speaking of connections, Kevin Vaz has finally connected with
“his old gang” to compose a tune for a song he penned years ago. The name of
song is ‘Friend of mine’ and he says that “it’s a celebration of friendship
despite the toll that distance and busy lives can take on it.”
“I finally recorded it in my studio with the help of Blasio
Pinto (vocals), Aurville Rodrigues (drums), Mila Cardozo (lead guitar), Anthony
Fernandes (bass) and Saroj Fernandes (keys and vocals),” says Kevin, who played
all the rhythm and ambient guitar parts and Hammond organ. The likes of Remo
Fernandes have even praised the music video of the song by the group that goes
by the name Inflatable Tzars.
Another video that received praise was that of Aditi Silveira,
who is known for her performances with the group called Radical. “The song,
‘Subway’, is about two strangers who fall slowly in love with each other. I was
inspired by the movie ‘Shall We Dance’, where he takes the subway every day and
falls in love with dancing. The chords just came to me since they are
syncopated and I took the keyboard and penned down the tune and then the
lyrics,” she reveals.
She adds that she has been coming out with original compositions
since a very young age. “For me, music is poetry with a tune. I can compose on
either the guitar or keyboard. And I like to experiment with different chord
arrangements and syncopations,” adds Aditi.
Singer-songwriter
Vince Costa, who had come out with his self produced album ‘Saint and Sinner’ in
the recent past, offers his perspective with regard to original music: “There’s
no better time for an aspiring songwriter/musician to be creative and release
their music. Technology has made it easy to record, film and market via social
media. Attention spans have reduced, which means you don’t need an entire album
before you enter the space; I highly recommend and encourage getting the music
to the audience even if it’s a song at a time. Focus on the visuals as that’s
equally if not more relevant today.”