A song to cheer the Indian team

Modified Jul 13, 2012 16:18 IST

Soular Flare: consisting of (from left) Paulson Joseph (electric sitar), singer/ composer Suchitra Lata and Trilochan Kampli (tabla)

Bangalore-based fusion band Soular Flare has composed a song in honour of the Indian team as it embarks on its London Olympics campaign.

The song, ‘A Billion Hearts’, seeks to inspire the Indian contingent during its Olympics sojourn and enthuse fellow-Indians into supporting their athletes. The band – consisting of singer/ composer Suchitra Lata, Trilochan Kampli (tabla) and Paulson Joseph (electric sitar) – came together recently and is just two songs old, but the members have each been practitioners for much longer. It has performed at several venues already and also at the World Music Day festival at The Alliance Francaise de Bangalore in June. Soular Flare is looking at releasing a compilation soon. ‘A Billion Hearts’ was produced by Soular Flare and Gokul Abhishek of Leitmotif Studios, Bangalore.

“It’s an anthem,” says Suchitra Lata, who grew up playing the veena in the Carnatic tradition, but decided to get experimental later on. “It’s meant to egg on the athletes, and for the crowd to cheer them on.”

Suchitra describes its genre as “pop Indian fusion”. “We’ve come together recently, but each of us has been in music for a long time. I have a strong background in Carnatic, but I’ve experienced various genres as a child – Broadway, Hindi film music, Hollywood… I’ve performed on the veena, but I’ve wanted to explore making music in a popular setup.”