He’s known in Indie circles as the frontman of the erstwhile Cyanide – the Delhi-based Alt-Rock outfit, and last Thursday, Rohan Solomon launched his single track, Without A Trace. His third launch this year, the song is a pensive power ballad on self-doubt and contemplation. Solomon wrote, produced and mixed the song, and Tiffany Weiss from New York City composed the main melody lines of the violin and Cello, and 7th House Strings performed it. His second song of 2020, Victoria’s Secret, made it to No. 2 on the World Indie Music Charts. He also has songs like Lead The Way (2009), Moving On (2015); and Blue Sky, Hard To Breathe, Time – By Chance Trilogy (2019) to his credit. Excerpts from an interview:
What does Without A Trace convey?
This song is about questioning your self-worth. I also talk about the fact that whenever you find yourself in such a thought process, there will always be something to show you the way out of that ‘funk’. The metaphor used to describe it is ‘a guiding star’. Everyone feels these emotions of uncertainty. We must embrace the sentiment to overcome it.
Are all the three songs you released in the pandemic, interrelated?
There is no connection from my side, but different people interpret a song differently. While Keep Holding On is about the lockdown and quarantine; Victoria’s Secret is an intense acoustic rock song that talks about a protagonist named Victoria who is a celebrity and is having a difficult time separating her professional life from her personal; and the latest one is my story, and my feelings of having self-doubt occasionally.
Who accompanies you on the music?
I usually write all the parts of all the instruments and construct the song via Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) at my home studio. Once I get the basic structure, I take a call on who I want to collaborate with. Let’s say, for Without A Trace, I felt that I could use a symphony orchestra to tell the story and express that emotion. So I reached out to Tiffany Weiss of 7th House Strings (New York, US) to come up with parts for the violin and cello. Hearing those parts sparked more ideas in my head and I wrote some additional parts.
When did you write your first song?
I had just turned 13. It was a few days after my birthday, so it was October, 1997. The song was about a girl I had a crush on in school (laughs), called ‘True Love’. And you know what? I still play that song from time to time. I remember playing it on a livestream one day just for nostalgia.
An incident that made you fall in love with music?
I very clearly remember that moment. I was five, and we had a LP Vinyl record player and my mom or dad had very recently purchased Michael Jackson’s album, Bad. Though I was so young and had obviously heard a song here and there before, this was the first time I listened to an entire album in one sitting and it felt more like an experience. Ever since that day, music has always been a form of escape for me.
What do you feel about the English pop music scene in Delhi?
There are some talented artists in Delhi, some of them I have had the pleasure of working with. The scene may come across as small, and more staggered than what it used to be in the early 2000s, but it’s there.
Future plans?
I am writing songs consistently, so definitely new releases. I am also working on new projects in the capacity of a music producer/mix engineer/mastering engineer. Apart from this, I am running an online school for audio engineering and music production called Synergy Audio Productions. So, I have regular online classes with students.