‘I don’t think I can define my music because that is the reason I create it’

O Womaniya from Gangs of Wasseypur was such a liberating song! And the music for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! too has great recall value. The person who created such melodies — Sneha Khanwalkar — is known for blending modern tunes and traditional folk music. Gomantak Times caught up with Sneha last week when she was in Goa for the Serendipity Arts Festival. The composer curated the ‘Museum for Sounds in my head’ there, which according to her, is something that she loves the most as of now. Excerpts...

- You curated ‘Museum of Sounds in my head’ for Serendipity Arts Festival. It talks about discreet sounds around us. What inspired you to curate it?
The idea was to have a simple theme that is relatable with everyone. We always talk about the inner voice. I too keep hearing a voice and wonder where is it coming from. We don’t have a speaker inside us but there is something that we keep hearing for sure. So, I decided to record this sound inside all of us believing that there must be some way to do so.

The question is what exactly is this inner voice? There can be different notions of the voice within. I decided to collaborate with different sound artists who are constantly thinking about sounds in a different way. I got in touch with Varun Desai, who records the sounds of higher frequencies and this was the beginning of finding the different versions of sounds existing. 

- What was the first sound that you recorded for this entire project?
There is nothing like the first sound that I recorded but there was this desire to hear those frequencies, those sounds which are not heard by the human ears otherwise. As we sit here right now, we can hear a lot of sounds — the music that is playing, the people chatting, clinking of glasses and more. 

- You collaborated with different artists for this project...
We collaborated with Pro Helvetia New Delhi, which is associated with Swiss Council. This gave me an opportunity to travel to Zurich and meet some amazing artists there. I thought a collaboration of the Indian and Zurich sound artists would actually give the sound museum the perfect meaning. I would have loved to collaborate with other countries as well because all these artists have different ideas and insights about sounds. 

- You started off with The Hope and recently made music for Manto. How has the whole journey been?
I will not say I began with The Hope but yes definitely I started getting recognition from then on. I had been doing several projects before it, trying to find out what I really want to do and how I want to do it. 

I was just 24 when Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! happened but even at that age, I was crystal clear about what kind of music I wanted to make and it was clearly visible in my work then. 

As for Manto, it was a wonderful experience to create music for the film in all ways. That project came to me when the movie had already been shot. I was working with Nandita Das for the first time and I must say it was wonderful, she understands music. It was an experience to weave music for the poetry that existed in the 1940s when Saadat Hasan Manto wrote some prolific love stories. In all, it was an enriching experience.  

- You travelled in the interiors of India for Sound Trippin. How has travelling impacted your music?
Earlier, I was in Indore, and there I never got a chance to travel. When I started living in Mumbai, people asked me a lot about the places I had visited in Madhya Pradesh. I realised that as a kid, I definitely had visited Khajuraho and other places but as an adult, I had not travelled at all. 

I wanted to travel to have my own experiences. I also wanted to be surrounded by artists. So I went to Romania, Geneva and the places where I was in residencies. Every place is unique because of the people who live there, the kind of scenarios that exist and hence even the music gets impacted. This music intrigues me. I wanted to explore all this. 

- How will you define your music?
You know what conscious rap means? Maybe I can call it a conscious rap or maybe not. I don’t think I can define my music. That is the reason I make it. One lady had told me some time back that my music is psychological. I think you can call it that because it does something to your mind.  

- How challenging is it to be a woman in this industry? Has this ever affected you or your work at all?
My dilemma is that I need to be interested in something that I am doing. If I am interested, then nothing bothers me, else everything will bother me. So the other factors like being a woman or anything else never bothered me at all. I was focused more on doing what I wanted to. 

- What is your inspiration behind creating the beautiful music that you have been creating? O Womaniya was a masterpiece. How did you come up with it?
I am interested in the way people are, what they eat, the scenarios existing in their region — all these elements interest me and inspire me to keep creating music. As far as O Womaniya is concerned, I would call it a journey. I had heard this song long before Gangs of Wasseypur happened but decided to do nothing to it. 

I had heard Rekha and found her voice interesting and that is when I decided to go with her. While I was working on another film project, I get a call from production to shoot Womaniya. Now, I just had a day, to do everything. Rekha was called down from Patna and then in a simple studio in winter-struck Varanasi, we recorded it. 

When the music was launched, I was in Nagaland. I remember using the hotel’s computer to find out about the reviews. I remember speaking to Anurag (Kashyap) when he broke the news that the music was being widely appreciated. It’s a risk to introduce music to the audience who have not heard something like it before.

LA-based Grammy-nominated musician Raja Kumari’s hip-hop and rap performance at Serendipity Arts Festival last week was curated by Sneha Khanwalkar