Daira, the high-energy Hindi art-rock band, has been involved in making music for a period of ten years and has produced 38 songs. Recently they performed live at Bastar. The first ever rock show held in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district was interestingly what recently happened here. This finally gave rise to an album consisting of five songs.
Piyush Kapoor, the vocalist, explains how jaadoo bastar came about initially; “In 2022 Daira toured throughout Chhattisgarh. And that is when I personally got a call from Bastar administration stating that we were supposed to perform there as well as conduct a musical workshop for the local musicians.” It was the energy and excitement that surrounded the whole band in Bastar which influenced them.
“We then moved forward taking a look at the local Bastar tribal music and were amazed. It was awe-inspiring, resonant and tuneful. At this point we realized that we had struck gold. We were lucky that the government had organized a workshop for us. Because we didn’t know that our jamming session and workshops would yield such amazing outcomes. Thus, it was at this time that we discovered how much their music and Daira’s sound blended together perfectly. That was initially the first thought of collaborating with them later which occurred to us first. Subsequently, we talked about it with the administration in Bastar before finally bringing our entire band down to Bastar after one month where Jaadoo Bastar emerged. Additionally, the show recently done by us in Bastar has been recorded as Bastar’s first ever Rock event.”
The folk musicians’ experience was quite nice while working with the five-man band members. According to Alok Ranjan Srivastava, the songwriter, “We were pleased by how surprised they made us when being associated with them. First off all their music has been there for years & thats why it’s too rich in itself emotionally-lyrically-melodically”.
We also discovered that their music was suitable for all seasons as they had a song for every occasion. For instance, different emotions and feeling have songs. It has a song of being happy, it has another one of not being in the best mood. That then made it very interesting to go through this experience because it was not just about going into the music. But going to understand how the music is linked culturally with their lifestyles. A second reason we appreciated them was that though they were new to world or rock music, their grasp on these new genres was simply outstanding. They heard it playing with electric guitars and drums and that’s all there was to it. They were quite comfortable with it immediately they got the vibes. Every time we changed a song’s groove, they knew where the song went and followed accordingly.”
