Great songs are always created by a combination of great melody and great writing - a piece of poetry. But in this time and age, it is difficult to hear this great, meaningful poetry in popular music and film music barring a few exceptions, although there is large volume of great poetry, classic writings by great poets in our country.

This gap was identified by Chinmayi Tripathi, an entrepreneur and singer – songwriter-poet who started off a unique initiative - Music and Poetry Project (2018) now known as MAPStudio India in association with her partner and producer – composer - Joell Mukherjii who left everything to concentrate on reclaiming classical compositions through contemporary music.

Verus Ferreira met up with Chinmayi and Joell to find out how they take poetry and fuse songs in them and what made them leave regular jobs to make music as their full time job.

Verus Ferreira: How did your journey in music begin?

Chinmayi Tripathi: So, I trained in Hindustani classical music as a child. Honestly, I did not have a great inclination towards learning music, but music came intuitively to me. Poetry came naturally to me, coming from a family of writers and scholars. As I grew up, I started writing my own songs and poems, they came naturally to me. However, I had no clue what I wanted to do in life, and if at all music fit into the larger picture.

VF: What made you come up with MAPStudio India?

CT: The fact that, everyone cribs about the existing state of lyrics / writing in our modern songs made me think about it. I thought, we have such rich heritage of literature, why can’t we loop in great poetry into contemporary music? Hence I decided to create an album based on classical Chhayawadi (Hindi) poetry that I found beautiful. I did a crowd funding campaign to raise funds for this album, and hundreds of people from all over the world contributed funds to help me achieve this dream. This gave me the confidence to think bigger, form a band– Music and Poetry Collective now known as MAPStudio. We consider our music World fusion.

VF: Who are the other band members in the Music and Poetry Collective and what role does each play in it?

CT: I am the vocalist – composer of the band and I play the dotara (a Bengali folk string instrument). Joell Mukherjii is also vocalist-producer and co-composer. Omkar Salunkhe plays percussion ensemble (Cajon- kanjira and a bunch of other small percs) Shriram Sampath plays the flute and Rahul Putai plays the bass.

VF: You play a traditional instrument Dotara in your music sets. Tell us something about the dotara.

CT: Dotara is a Baul folk instrument from Bengal that I fell in love with and started playing. It has four strings and just two notes and still it’s an incredibly versatile instrument. We use a lot of Indian percs and flutes in our set wherever guitar and bass balance the act.

VF: Joell, you have a Bollywood background working for a few well known music artists. Can you share your story?

JM: Yes, I landed up in Bombay to pursue music after having lived in Kolkata all my life. Music ran in my family, my father – Madhu Mukherjee is a veteran composer – producer and multi instrumentalist. My mother Himika Mukherjee is a well known Bhajan and Ghazal singer- composer. But when I came to Bombay, I was clueless as to where to begin. I landed up in the studio of Amit Trivedi and assisted him, produced for him. Then I also worked with Pritam on a few projects as producer, Mithoon and many other veterans. But then I realised that I want to do my own thing. Slowly I ventured into the Ad music production and simultaneously, continued to create my own songs.

VF: So what about you Chinmayi?

CT: I did my MBA, I then worked as a marketing Executive in a media company for a year, but soon lost interest. Then I co-founded a digital music company – Songdew Media that promotes Independent music. All this while, I was also creating my own songs and performing with a band in Delhi. I juggled corporate work along with my own music for four years before jumping into the creative ocean full time-as a singer-song writer-poet.

VF: Has any of the members done any professional level of music down the years?

CT: Each member of the band is professionally and commercially doing music only – full time - varying from studio sessions to live sessions. 

VF: You perform Indian poetry in the form of contemporary music. How do you select your music for your performances or for your music videos?

CT: For performances, I keep in mind the theme of the event and nature of audience and tweak my set according to it. I think all artists do that. For music videos, again the songs that have a story to tell, that can connect better through a video should be rolled into a video. Having said that, video is a very important marketing tool also for the songs and therefore we try to make a video for any new songs that we do.

VF: How do you select Hindi poets and what do they speak about?

CT: Well it’s an intuitive decision, poetry that inspires me, I pick composition, and music flows automatically. A lot of times, while reading a piece of poem, the tune starts playing in my head and I desperately want to sing it. So I sing. The songs are about themes that connect all us, our collective journey called life, beauty, joy, love, victory and defeats, rise and falls, eternal truths.

VF: Have you planned on making using Urdu poetry in your music or any other Indian languages, besides Hindi?

CT: Yes of course, Urdu poetry is a great part of our music, Jaun Elia, Faiz, Firaq, Ibn E Insha, Gulzar..and there are many more  that we plan to add in future. We would also love to bring in colors of other languages in our songs. For example, a new song that I am working on is in Urdu, but there will be some lines in Kashmiri. There is another song based on the  Sanskrit poetry by the great 12^th century Sanskrit poet Abhinavgupta.

VF: What is the source of gathering material for the songs you play? Do you have someone who is on call for guidance?

CT: Talking to poets, scholars, veterans, reading books, scrolling online libraries- these are all sources for our content.

VF: How do you select your music for your performances or for your music videos?

CT: For performances, I keep in mind the theme of the event and nature of audience and tweak my set according to it. I think all artists do that. For music videos, again the songs that have a story to tell, that can connect better through a video should be rolled into a video. Having said that, a video is a very important marketing tool also for the songs and therefore we try to make a video for any new songs that we do.

VF: What do your songs usually speak about?

CT: About themes that connect all us- our collective journey called life, beauty, joy, love, victory and defeats, rise and falls, eternal truths. These are some of the themes carved in the form of different poems.

You have a beautiful logo, can you explain what’s it signifies?

CT: The Ektara symbolises music, whereas the pen denotes the power of poets. The alphabets are in different languages of India and signify diverse, multilingual literature.

How has this music project affected your lives?

CT: It has definitely had a profound effect on my mindset, the way I think, perceive, everything has got a bit more depth. It has also given me a purpose for life, which was missing earlier.

VF: So what genre would you put this kind of music into?

CT: We can consider it World fusion.

VF: Do you have a regular band that plays with you at your shows, or is it sessions musicians.

CT: No, it’s a regular band that performs together.

VF: You also did some work with Times Music in the past. Can you share the details?

CT: Yes, I released my first Hindi poetry based music album under Times Music. However, I realised that record labels in India do not understand how to distribute anything that is different from regular Bollywood music. So after that I decided to do my music releases on my own, as releasing with a record label really doesn’t serve the purpose.

VF: Do you have any albums of your music released?

CT: We don’t release albums any more, we release singles with music videos as it’s a better way to market them. There is focus on one song at a time that way.

VF: Besides taking poetry from classical icons of Hindi Poetry, do you also produce your own compositions.

CT: I also write my own songs along with picking poetry by other great poets.

VF: What other work have you guys done besides music? 

JM: I have been a music teacher for 7 years. Shriram Sampath and Omkar Salunkhe teach music to select disciples along with learning with their own respective Gurus. Chinmayi writes poetry as well and has recently released her book which is a compilation of her own poems.

VF: Give us a run down on the Music festivals you have performed in India and overseas?

CT:We have performed our music at various music festivals, college festivals in India and UK, with the objective of popularizing great poetry and literature among the youngsters. Our live performances have been received well at the venues like - The Nehru Centre, Richmix, Oxford University and Asia House, India Habitat Centre, NDMC-Central park, Spoken Fest, Sahitya Aajtak - Delhi, Worli Festival, Kumbh Mela - Prayagraj, ICCR Mumbai, Levi's Lounge, Jaipur Lit Fest, Kala Ghoda Festival, Nehru Centre Mumbai, Khusrau Kabir Festival Mumbai ,Kabira Festival Varanasi, among others.

VF: What has been the audience reaction to spreading poetry of great poets message through music?

CT: It has been a great response. People across age groups have loved our music. They get inspired, happy and thrilled listening to it and this emotion is what makes our journey beautiful.

What have you been working on lately?

CT: We recently released two new songs based on poetry, Yugan yugan hum yogi (Kabir) and Chal Nadi so chalti chal (Vijay Bahadur Singh). I also released a book, which is a compilation of my own poems. I am also working on a new age version of Bhagwad Geeta, spiritual poetry in the form of contemporary music.

JM: Chinmayi will be releasing a few original songs too, one a satirical piece for women empowerment called Abla Nari and Ye un dinon kii baat hai. There’s also Usey le gaye by veteran poet Naresh Saxena.

JM: We also want to create more and more music that inspires the world and brings people closer, we need to do that. Besides we also want to perform in all parts of the world and in India and collaborating with some amazing talent out there. Other than this, there are some interesting plans to branch out MAPStudio into folk poetry of Jaisalmer and Kutch.

Interviewed by Verus Ferreira