MUMBAI: Her worship for music has pushed her to, along with her team, add a link to The Shah Hussain Project with Vol.2. The ‘Rabba Rabba’ singer is putting her alto voice to a more poetic use. For those of you who aren’t aware, The Shah Hussain Project is a series of compositions based on Shah Hussain’s poetry that are conceived though Vasundhara’s collaboration with Mir Mukhtiyar Ali. Roberto Narain, Vasundhara’s husband, is the producer of the project, who coincidentally also is the man behind the giant drum set. Shalini Mohan on Bass Guitar, guitarists Vishal Singh and Hemanth Diwakaran, and keyboardist Rajan Tisge together add a dash of music to Sufi Poetry.
When asked about the difference between Vol. 2 and the former, she highlighted, “Every musical journey has its own twists and turns that gives it form. It is a natural evolution from SHP Vol. 1 to Vol. 2. There are definitely common threads.”
The team is currently recording their eighth track and the gorgeous singer is in no mood to rush or put a limit to the number of tracks. Revealing her favourite tracks from the album she said, “My favorite song would have to be Tussin paina bhullo which, in Punjabi, means ‘Don’t forget again’. Another very special one is called Fakeera.”
She cleared our curiosity about her involvement in the project apart from being a composer and vocalist by answering, “The songs are compositions based on poems written by Shah Hussain. These songs are composed by both Mir Mukhtyar Ali and I. The only song I wrote is Tum Se from Volume one. Apart from that, I only fill in the English and Hindi lyrics for both the volumes.”
The equipment used is Macs with a Live Operating System. Other than that, they work with Roland Keyboards and V-Drums, and Tama acoustics. “The guitars depend on the guitarists. We use Fenders, Gibsons and Ibanez. This is our setup. Our studio has a studio-cum-jam setup. Since Roberto and I are live musicians, we come from a mindset that spells variety. So we have a very versatile setup. It can accommodate people coming in and working on the SHP,” Vasundhara said.
Speaking about their upcoming tours, she said, “We have already started doing concerts. Our first concert was in May when we release Vol. 1. Currently, we have a 90 minute set of material from the SHP. When we are ready to tour, we will tie it all up.”
The singer is yet to decide on the release date for the album as she believes that it just disrupts the flow and rushes the task to meet the deadline.” We intend on taking as much time as we need, till we feel satisfied,” concluded the singer.