Growing up in a Punjabi household, exposure to folk music is almost inevitable. Your father introduces you to Gurdas Mann, a timeless artiste who took Punjabi music to a global scale with his poignant and meaningful lyrics. Your mother acquaints you with Surinder Kaur who celebrated Punjab’s rich cultural tapestry with her raw and genuine style of music. And on your own, you find out about the groovy Jazzy B.
Such were the musical influences of music-maker duo Akshay & IP who converged the nuanced Punjabi folk genre called tappe with contemporary tunes to compose their latest track, Raanjhan Aaya for the launch of designer Masaba Gupta's bridal collection, Patiala Portraits. The track opens with Kareena Kapoor, one of Masaba’s maiden brides, dressed in a sartorial wedding silhouette. The lyrics make references to some of the design elements like the ‘kaali mirch and namak’ motifs.
The idea, as Akshay & IP tells us in an exclusive chat, was to exude proper wedding vibes while celebrating Masaba’s bridal edit. Speaking about the inspiration, Akshay shares, “Whenever we do a design-led track, we ask designers if we can be a part of the collection; get a glimpse of it. This time, we had the whole collection available to us to take inspiration from and because of that some design elements even made it to the lyrics. For Masaba, it was very important to showcase a wedding scene sonically but she also wanted it to feel intimate and personal.”
“Both of us as musicians are very fascinated by Indian melodies and how beautifully they blend with electronic sounds. That has always been the vision for the music we compose. In all our songs, we want to maintain the innocence of a folk song but also make it relevant to current times. In Raanjhan Aaya, the whole song is running on one beat and one ghungroo sound so that’s how we converged folk elements with more contemporary accents,” IP adds.
Prior to Masaba, Akshay & IP also worked up and close with designer Kunal Rawat to produce a personalised track for his show at the India Couture Week 2023. To their tunes, walked Ranbir Kapoor dressed in a fusion number featuring lungi pants and a bandhgala. Also known for their four-part musical wedding series, The Marigold Project, which was released earlier this year, Akshay gives us a little insight into their signature sound and where they want to take it next.
“We are focusing on putting out more songs so people can get used to the idea of listening to this kind of music. We want to build a community where people accept our sound. We don’t just want to be limited to a Punjabi-speaking audience,” he signs off.
Raanjhan Aaya is now streaming on all major audio platforms.
Mail: muskankhullar@newindianexpress.com
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