Babblefish

Welcome everybody, Bienvenidos! Before you mad, this is to let you know that the blog is sort of turning bilingual so expect some posts in Spanish in addition to the usual English posts. Enjoy!

El Estado del Arte (primera parte)

El Estado del Arte (primera parte)

Bueno. Donde está “Still in Transit” hoy? Inspirado por artistas como 1 Giant Leap y Manu Chau, nos fuimos a viajar al inicio de 2004 para hacer nuestra version propria de un proyecta de musica mundial y film – a la mochilista! En Agosto, despues de viajar por el mundo, Steve y yo llegamos a mi casa en Bangalore, India. Por ahora, la mayoria de los musicos habian sido grabado y el video tambien. Despues de un gran abrazo, Steve estaba volando de nuevo a su patria, con la destinación de Nueva York para empezar sus estudios en Hunter College en un programa avanzado en film. Yo me quedé en mi hogar en India, y empecé mi propio negocio en la grabación de musica.

Por los años siguientes, Steve fue cargado de terminar la pelicula documental, y yo de terminar el album… en una manera professional…

(mas viniendo)

Documentary Sneak Peak

Alright y'all. Time to whet your appetite with a little look into the film we made on our trip. Based on the responses to the Wideo Watch survey, I've decided to include 25% comedy, 24.3% music, 12.628% exotic locations, 12.629% on the meaning of music in the world, and 65% idiots making fools of themselves. Now I know this is slightly more than 100%, but the film is just so jam-packed full of stuff that mathematical laws and common sense really don't apply.

So click the "SIT Film Preview" link on our blog's main page, to see what all the numeric hype is about.

Stay cool,

Clack!!!

Second Master

... after finishing the Still In Transit music mix in May and driving back to Bangalore at lightning speeds waving the cd master like a madman, it took a while for euphoria to settle down. We listened to it from all angles in many countries and in various states of mind. As expected some changes were in order, so it was back to Chennai the first week of July for another three days of studio mania with Yotam and the dynamic duo of Mohan and Dipanshu. Lots of fun this time, Mr Kamal from Lounge Piranha, came along for the ride and after were were done on Sat evening, we took the second master and drove down to Pondicherry to play a short acoustic set by the sea. Then the after-party began with Siddharth and gang...

Wideo Watch

With much going on and little not to do, it is officially time to get off my hardly hardened and hardworking backside and finish this film. But let's take a quick a poll that may just help come up with the final recipe for cinematic magnificence...

1. Do you prefer stories that include:

A. comedy
B. music
C. exotic locations
D. idiots exposing the bareness of their souls and making a right fool of themselves
E. all of the above.

With the results of this fine survey I believe I will have the wherewithall to meet with my imaginary friends and Hollywood fairies to come up with the final rough cut (which will in effect be the festival and distribution version of this film).

Thanks.

Clack!!

The State of the Art...

Ok so where's "Still In Transit" today? Inspired by artistes like 1 Giant Leap and Manu Chau, we took off in early 2004 to do our own version of a "world" music & film project - backpacker style! By Aug 2004, after roaming the world, Steve and I were both in Bangalore India and most of the musicians who were to show up on the album had been recorded and all the video footage had been procured. 1 giant hug and Steve was flying across the ocean back towards New York city to start his first semester at Hunter college where he had accepted admission for a master's program in film. I on the other hand stayed back in my hometown Bangalore and started my own little music production house. Over the next couple of years Steve was in charge of getting the documentary finished and I was in charge of getting the music album mixed and mastered - professionally. This has been the longest transit of my life! While Steve continued to chisel and cut the documentary into shape in New York, the music album went through various stages of deep freeze, thawing, boiling and back into deep freeze. Geographical complications, personal issues and bad star alignment conspired to ensure that album would not be ready for a really long time. A lot of our collaborators from across the world, and even I at times, started to lose faith. But 2006 flipped the tables on me. When I met recording engineer Yotam Agam at Clementine studios in Chennai early this year, I knew I'd found my man. A few negotiations later in May, I found myself in an intense two week mixing session at Clementine and the album was finally done! Woo hoo! Barring a few tweaks, the music album is now ready to go into print. And when Steve is done with the documentary, which should be any moment (are we ready to commit to a date Steve? hehe...), we will be ready for releasing the package! The big question is how we're going to release it. Independent? Sponsored? Internet based? More on that real soon...