ARTIST: Dragonfly
TITLE: Blind: The Remixes
LABEL: Redstar Records
GENRE: Rock
BITRATE: 189kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 42m total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-00-00
RIP DATE: 2007-02-09
Track List
----------
1. Post Affection (Swami Remix) 3:37
2. Torn Up (DJ Manish Remix) 3:26
3. Soulfly (Dum Dum Project Remix) 4:34
4. Blind (Br.Cleve Remix) 4:18
5. The Holy Rollers (DJ Rekha, 5:15
Dave Sharma Remix)
6. Wrong Day (Sonik Gurus Remix) 3:51
7. Blind (Aki Nawaz Remix) 6:07
8. Ever In Love (Tj Rehmi Remix) 4:36
9. Soulfly (Bhaiyaa Cleve Remix) 6:59
Release Notes:
Originally Miki Singh and Jetset, the band was renamed Dragonfly after it's
first ever demo gig at a festival in the Carribean. "It just sort of came up.
There was no particular good reason why we chose it" says Miki. "Peter used to
be my guitar teacher and we became friends. He used to play in other bands with
Marc and Steve, and when we first decided to play this festival, I asked Peter
who we should play with, he suggested Marc and Steve. When we wanted to record
our first demo, Cleve joined us." Dragonfly was formed in 2001 and their first
album Departure was released, featuring a mammoth 28 tracks.
"We didn't have any defined expectations when we started out" says Steve. The
band comprises some very experienced musicians. Peter has played with The
Grateful Dead and Sheryl Crow, while Steve has played with James Taylor and
Juliana Hatfield. "We knew we were gonna go to the beach!" says Cleve, a
Bollywood addict, who sports a self-made Amitabh Bachchan Sholay t-shirt. "I
didn't even knew he played the keyboards!" confesses Miki about Cleve. Listening
to their music is like listening to one of those compilations that has songs
from all different genres of music. They play pop, funk, soul/ R&B, and mix it
with rock. "We wanted to do remixes of our own music, as part of an idea" and
so, Cleve joined the band.
"There's a trend going on all around the world where Indian music is really hot,
especially dance music and bhangra. We're launching the album (Blind) in France
after India, and there people really like the mixing of Indian sounds with rock.
It's the same in London. The things we're doing that are Indian right now are as
much for the rest of the world market, as they are for India. In some ways, its
MORE accepted outside India than it is here" says Miki. The new album Blind
features some very radio-friendly tunes like Holy Rollers and Post-Affection
which heavily use sitars and tabla accompaniment.
"The way we write our music has changed dramatically from album to album. In
Departure, I wrote pretty much everything, and we arranged it together. On The
Edge Of The World (the second album, the first to be released in India) we
started sharing, there were many song ideas coming in from different members,
especially Peter and Marc. In Blind it was much more a team effort. ... (for
Blind) we had four sessions of a week each where we re-visited song ideas, and
then chose the ones we liked."
Dragonfly works fast when it comes to writing music. "We had the first four
songs of Blind written in like one hour. We were just jamming, and putting down
ideas which we recorded on Steve's laptop" explains Miki. "I usually write based
on some kind of emotion that either I feel or I've seen someone else feel.
Usually when we're working on a tune, I don't have any lyrics till the day we
record! I sing bullshit lyrics when we're playing the music, and don't write
anything till we record. So, I'm basically the biggest procrastinator known to
man."
"I think our travels too are very inspiring, coz we get so many ideas from them"
says Peter, who speaks very little, but pulls off some mean riffs. "When you're
sitting in Paris and staring at the Eiffel tower, you just get inspired" adds
Marc. "Or the desert in Morocco" says Miki, causing all the band members to
burst into laughter at some inside joke that I obviously and disappointingly
haven't got. Each of the band members come from varied musical backgrounds.
Steve for one is a very Hard Rock-ish person, while Marc is more into Blues. "I
think the kind of 'happy accidents' that we've had over the last 2-3 years have
taught us a lot. ... we're like 'maybe this is not what we thought we were gonna
do, but it isn't so bad'" says Miki, who believes that the band members'
background acts more as an assist to the creative process than a conflict.
Blind will be released with an additional CD comprised of only remixes of the
original songs. Some would see that as an attempt to make their music a little
more marketable, but Miki thinks otherwise. "I really like Dance and House
music, but I'm not the kind of guy who'll write a dance tune. My first thought
was - 'other people remix your music, why can't we do it ourselves?'"
I bring up the point that the band members aren't exactly the youngest guys
playing rock music (Miki is in his early 40's and Peter and Cleve are older than
him), to which Peter retorts "Hey! Wait a minute!" and Cleve goes "I resemble
that remark!", and Miki adds "We're not the oldest either." People at their age
are usually at the end of their rock 'careers' and these guys are just starting
out, but it's their passion for the music they make that keeps them going.
"Marc's a youngster" says Cleve, adding "he's 11! He's Kid Rock!" Miki believes
that music is a "game for older people, coz that's when you really know what
you're doing. ... yeah, we're not teeny-boppers, but we're not selling to
teeny-boppers. ... we were at a concert once and someone told Cleve (about Marc)
'it's nice of you to bring your son to your concert!'"
"My impression of Indian rock is that some of the bands here have good original
music, but they don't want to play it because they don't think it'll be
accepted. We've been talking about holding more Dragonfest kinda things, and
just publicise it as original Indian music" says Miki. 2005 is a busy year for
Dragonfly. They're touring all over the world, and are playing a few gigs in
India as well. Pick up their CD from music stores, and catch them live at
Dragonfests. This is one band you definitely don't want to miss.