For close to a decade the Folk Foundation has been winning hearts with their re-arranged Indian folk soundscape to suit the contemporary audience. As they release their first original E Baapu in 2023, Indulge caught up with founding members Rajkumar Sengupta, Dipannita Acharya, and Ritoban Das.
Tell us about your latest single
Rajkumar: E Baapu is the first original that we recorded with the feel of folk music and storytelling. We have kept the soundscape in a contemporary style including a rap by a guest rapper. It also talks about women's empowerment.
Dipannita: I did not keep women's empowerment consciously in mind while writing, it just fell into place. E Baapu is written in a Haryanvi Hindi style about women who have to go through the match-making phase before weddings.
How was Folk Foundation formed?
Ritoban (Ludo): I met Dipannita at a folk festival and we were in touch. We even recorded a song. One day I told her to start a new project with new musicians and she was sporting about it. Then Rajkumar came to mind. On the very first day, we three shared a camaraderie. We decided on the name Folk Foundation and are playing folk songs in an urban style since then.
Why come up with a single now?
Rajkumar: We had released our albums from 2015 onwards but they were not original songs. Now we have a different member lineup. In E Baapu, we have Dipannita, Ritoban, Sudipto (Buti) Banerjee, Debdeep (Rohyt) Mukherjee, Tirthankar (Tito) Majumdar, and me.
Dipannita: Some of our originals were performed live but this is our first recorded and released song.
What is the foothold of folk music among urban music lovers today?
Ritoban (Ludo): Any music in the world has some touches of folk music in it. Folk music comes from people and nature. We might give it heavy names like Jazz or Blues, but their roots lie in folk music.
Do you face challenges in keeping folk music alive or do you think fusion folk is the way forward?
Dipannita: I do not consider it fusion music. Each of us has a perception of music formed by how we were brought up and the kind of music we were exposed to. Joy is the end of all of music.
Where do you see the band in the next decade?
Dipannita: People follow our music and appreciate the wholesome experience. Our content will be archived for the musicians.
Ritoban (Ludo): We will try to create more originals in the future but we will not stop playing traditional songs with original music arrangements. That’s our identity.
Rajkumar: We look forward to collaborations too.
What are your future projects?
Rajkumar: We are working with film songs.
Dipannita: We have two collaborative works including Gazi Khan Barna which we will release shortly.
E Baapu is streaming on Youtube and audio platforms