Partha Prawal
The Indian music scene, over the past few years has witnessed a massive growth. Not only within India, but sons and daughters from the state has made their presence felt both in the global and the national scene. Zubeen garg, Angaraag Papon Mahanta, Dhrubajyoti Phukan, Kalpana Patowary, Debojit Changmai are few of the many who has made Assam proud.
Axl Hazarika is the new kid in the block, who has been bringing laurels to the state. The Indie rock artist has become the first Assamese to be officially launched by VEVO, the world’s no.1 music site.
VEVO, a joint venture of Sony Music, universal Music and EMI, exclusively released the music video of Axl Hazarika’s superhit Hindi Love Song Hum Badal Gaye recently. It appears like VEVO was gobsmacked by the hit Indian song to launch Axl Hazarika as the first Indian rockstar on the world’s most famous music website. The song marks a global breakthrough of Indian Indie rock music amidst Bollywood songs dominating the nation. It all sounds super-exciting for Indian music lovers since VEVO will finally feature an Indian rock artist.
Watch the video at Youtube : AxlHazarikaVEVO
Link to the video on VEVO : AxlHazarikaVEVO
Speaking to him, one could easily realize that ‘life is all about making the correct moves at the correct time’, without ever turning back-even for a once. As he shared some of his musical experiences with me, it simply made me wonder on the genius of this lad and forced me to ask myself a hundred times-what next?
Here he is, in his own words, our very own – Axl Hazarika!
The musical journey so far…
First of all, I’d like to express my greetings to the readers of Melange and Sentinel.
It’s been a very pleasant journey so far. I started composing songs ever since I learnt the first 3 chords. I released my first EP in 2008, the time when metal music was in its infancy stage in India. But it received really good feedback from the entire Indian rock community. It contained the first Indian metal song ever – Joi Aai Axom. Thereafter I released several metal songs as singles – like Maatribhoomi (in dedication to the victims of Assam bombings), Jai Shiv Shankara (industrial metal, sanskrit slokas fusion), B-deshi (raising the issue of illegal immigrants in our state), Life, Anger, etc. They also got tremendous response in the underground music scene.
I continued working on experimental music. From rock to metal, electronica to jazz, I’ve tried to blend all genres of music. So majority of my compositions fall under the avant garde genre.
However, my latest release has been the Hindi love song Hum Badal Gaye. It has overshadowed all my previous works.
Few words about Hum Badal Gaye
Hum Badal Gaye – the song is my first composition in Hindi. My brother Ryan Hazarika came up with the concept of an animation film. He wrote the story of a boy and his cat for the animation, directed it and I gave my sounds to it. Hum Badal Gaye was composed as the title track for the film. Initially we had great difficulty in producing the animation film as no one showed much interest. But we were determined enough to release it as soon as possible since it was a unique concept. Finally we managed to release it under our own record label Elektrokore Music. What happened next was beyond expectations. And now we can proudly say that it’s one of the most successful musical projects from our region.
All about the VEVO experience
Being launched on VEVO is like a dream come true. I never thought I would be there before any other Indian rock artist. The feeling is just awesome. I can’t be happier. It’s been just 2 weeks since my music video release on VEVO. Till now everything is going great. VEVO has opened the whole world for us; the best part is because of VEVO the song is getting a great reception, not only in India but from all over the world. This has been my dream, to have a song in Hindi be a success in other countries, and I hope more Indian artists can now follow along. We have great song writers, bands and musicians here in India, but foreigners don’t often get the opportunity to hear us.
Preparation for musical projects
Well, I take each of my projects as something special. It’s like I prefer quality over quantity. Out of all, Hum Badal Gaye has been the most different and unique. It was our first in animation, which also became the first certified animation film from northeast. The soundtrack is my first ever composition in Hindi. We’ve put in a lot of efforts into it.
The future reckons
At the moment we are putting the finishing touches to a follow up to Hum Badal Gaye. Hopefully we should have it ready sometime in August… And of course, we’ll take forward our production house – Elektrokore Music as far as we can and strive to make it the no. 1 Indian record label. So that more Indian bands receive the recognition they deserve at home and abroad.
Musical inspiration
The list will be endless as I am influenced and inspired by almost all the forms of music. Some of musical inspirations includes The Beatles, Maynard James Keenan, Simon Posford, Kraftwerk, Pantera, Rammstein, Bhupen Hazarika , etc.
The musician’s motto
My motto is to make music for myself and for music lovers. Composing music is what I began with. It has been my passion from the very beginning and I’ll continue to do the same for my own satisfaction and for the love of music.
Musical lines for the melange readers
Being an Assamese, I composed my first song in my native language, which was the first Assamese metal song ever called Joi Aai Axom. So to all the readers of Melange, Joi Aai Axom!
This is, just the beginning of a wonderful journey. With age, time and whole lot of creativity on hand; we can surely expect a lot from this musical genius. The compositions would get mature and there will be plenty more to cheer for .
Source:
Partha Prawal,
The Sentinel, Assam
via NorthEast Calling - NorthEast India | India's No1 online News Magazine http://necalling.com/axl-hazarika-a-musical-tale/
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