KOCHI: Soon you can tap your feet and sing with Remo Fernandes, a synonym for pop. His live band ‘The Microwave Papadums’ topped with selected hits from various albums will reverberate in JTpac on Sunday. Remo one of the largest selling Indian artistes in English is a gold disc in this category.
Through his decades-long efforts Remo created an empire of Indian pop music by fusing Portuguese, African and Latin music.
After going crazy over Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, The Shadows, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, he was greatly influenced by the psychedelic music of the 70s, especially the music in the movie ‘Woodstock’.
That was the time when rock broke all barriers and became experimental as Jethro Tull fused it with western classical, Blood Sweat and Tears fused it with jazz, Santana fused it with Latin and Osibisa fused it with African. Rock truly became the voice of global youth.
Inspired by these musical traditions, Remo paved a stylised track of his own in Bollywood disco in 1980s and 1990s and explored the infinite possibilities of Indian pop. This musical magician penned, composed, recorded and even marketed his inimitable music. Remo’s views and vision reflect his obsession with sublime music.
In an online interview Remo shares his musical experiences and ambitions, with ‘City Express’.
On experiments with rock, pop and Indian music.
When the Indi-pop scene came into existence , our pop stars were singing Western songs, copied as faithfully as possible from the record. They were proud to be the ‘Indian Madonna’, the ‘Indian Jackson’, and so on. I felt that my music needed to be original, and needed to have an Indian identity — in sound and content. My compositions such as ‘Hello Rajiv Gandhi’, ‘Bombay City’, ‘The Flute Song’, and so on.
On being a lyricist and composer Do forgive my lack of humility, but I also arrange my songs, play every instrument and sing every voice in my albums. I engineer my recordings, mixing and mastering everything single-handedly in my studio. I design my own album covers and publicity posters. I also script, direct and edit my own music videos,” he said. My latest release ‘India, I Cry’ is on YouTube. Unfortunately it goes unnoticed by our media. But a film actress learning how to tweet makes front page news.
On the changes seen over the decades When I started out, music record companies were unable to see the market potential of pop or rock music. So I had to start my own company and release my own records. Eventually CBS, Magnasound and BMG Crescendo promoted the scene in a big way.
Today’s record companies have regressed to pre-pop rock days, and are unable to see anything beyond Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood or Gollywood — they are lost in the woods. So I’m going to release my music independently. I’m recording my new albums and a collection of my compositions from school and college days which will be released before the end of 2011.
On his socio-political role in music To me music is also a powerful means of communicating serious messages, be it anti-drug, anti-corruption, anti-women exploitation or anti-communalism. But I have always tried to convey heavy messages through light-hearted peppy songs, because I know that these lodge better in the subconscious — our youth has enough serious sermonising from teachers, parents and priests. The response is positive from all. One of the parents wrote to me saying that he stopped smoking as he heard the anti-drug album which his daughter was listening to. My music is my message, my way of life, my philosophy and my medium to communicate with people.