Master of Melody
Roshan Kumar Mogali
The Indian Express
If there ever were a musical sorcerer, then his shoes would fit Oliver
Sean to a tee. A rhythmic illusionist and conjurer of rhyme and
substance, Sean is simply sensational. At the trivial age of four,
Sean assumed the role of a singer. At eight, he was strumming away on
his guitar and when eleven, Sean waxed into quasi-lyricist. He is the
real deal, the whole shebang when one adverts music.
Sean doesn't conform to fads and vogues of the times. Contrary to the
remarkably sweeping trend of collaboration observed in the music
industry at present, Sean isn't too big on collaboration. "Though I
wouldn't mind collaborating with established producers, I am chary of
the messages in my songs transposing due to many cooks spoiling the
broth," he says.
His upcoming English album Getting Around, is also set to release this
year. The lyrics, being deep and soft, are intrinsically about peace
and love. Anent the title of the album, he says, "A single child, I
lived a protected childhood assuming the world to be all hunky-dory
until I encountered deceptive, two-faced people along my way. Having
grown-up and learnt it the hard way, now I have gotten around to know
life's ugly secrets."
Though he is mixed up with his lineage, belonging to multiple
ethnicity-Italian, Portuguese and Indian heritage-, having grown up in
Goa, he considers Goa as his hometown and his perennial destination
for peaceful contemplation. He also has a penchant for animals and
looks to it that ten per cent of his albums' sales revenue goes
towards animal welfare and to stop fur trade.
Having studied to be a sound recording engineer in the US, he is an
industry in himself, writing, arranging and composing all the tracks
in his albums by himself. Categorising his music as acoustic rock,
basically world music, he sometimes commixes it with music from ethnic
instruments. But then again, this isn't his conscious decision. "My
music attempts to blend genres. It blends rock-and-roll with rock
music, blends the music of 60s with that of the 90s. While arranging
music, more and more instruments keep coming into the picture and it's
always an artistic choice to accommodate these instruments," Sean
explicates.
This being his first time playing in Pune, he is assured of a large
audience due to the large number of colleges in the city. At the
concert here on Saturday, his fans could look forward to some music
from his new album Getting Around, a few chosen previous hits and some
classic songs like Knocking on Heaven's Door à la mode de Dylan.
His fabulous feats have included the French government including his
composition The Libran Mind as the theme song for its tourism campaign
of the Massif region. Entirely instrumental, this was uncharted
territory for the singer-songwriter. Sean is also the owner of two
recording companies – W.O.A Records and Sevenz Records. He figures in
a band called the Oliver Sean Band. Though for gag's sake, it is also
sometimes called Oliver Sean and the Longhaired band.
His multilingual world rock album Darna Chod Do, a commingling of
world music and mainstream rock, saw him delving into Hindi songs. The
ideas and compositions, being his own, he collaborated with several
lyricists on the album.
(As printed on the Indian express (online version at
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/master-of-melody/304420/ )
- W.O.A News Desk
