I would wake up in the morning and my father would be listening to Kishori Amonkar’s cassettes. “We met at a bar in Delhi. Then we exchanged numbers and by the next week we exchanged our music, and began collaborating,” she says.Speaking about the genre of music the band play, Mahima, the vocalist and lyricist of the band says, “The sound is up-tempo, with folk and classical Hindustani vocals. The duo draws inspiration from poets and singers from all verticals of time — Ghalib, Rumi and Shubha Mudgal to name a few — and amalgamates groovy, electronic beats with traditional folk riffs, on a bed of Indian and Middle-Eastern melodies. “So, a lot of work and good music in the ‘folk-funk’ wave will be created,” promises Mahima. We actually managed to get a lot of people grooving to our music, and that too at our first ever gig. “It was surprising how confident we were back then.. I will be touring in France, with the band in October. I still constantly try to gather knowledge from every source I can find. For me, it’s a constant journey to find my inspiration for next music creation. The band’s first gig was at The Gig Week in Delhi, three years back. When I quit my job and made music my career for good, I kept the ‘Basanti’ with me and ‘Rahza’ is Azhar, reading backwards,” says Mahima. It was a beautiful feeling,” adds Azhar. It was a karaoke night and we wanted to sing the same song, Black by Pearl Jam. During the afternoon, my grandmother and I would try to find the only channel on television that telecast live classical recitals. Sharing about her initial days and how she made her foray into music, Mahima says, “I started learning music from my grandmother, when I was 12 years old. “The name came about very organically.”It is not only their music that sounds quirky; their band’s name too is quite interesting. That’s how my base was built; from one song to another. All our tracks are produced, recorded, mixed and mastered at our home studios. That’s how we met first. “We are working on collaboration with a French Band called Bo Bun Fever for their upcoming album, Spicy Frog.The duo wood drying chamber makes sure that they do their music production themselves.Both Azhar and Mahima were strangers before the band happened. At present, Basanti aur Rahza is busy collaborating with a few international artists. Azhar, apart from being the guitarist, also produces the tracks. I was a journalist before we started this band, and I would write for multiple publications under my pen name, ‘Bawari Basanti’.”Even though the band is in the ‘studio mode’, quite a few of their tracks are on Soundcloud and YouTube like Sun, Namaste and Choli. Also, a collaboration with London-based dub artists, Zion Train, is on the cards and will be releasing shortly.Sitting atop their roof, Mahima Dayal Mathur and Azhar Anwar of Basanti and Rahza, the Delhi-based folktronica band are making the right noises with their quirky soulful music renditions.
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