As the lights turned blue and red at Refinery 091 in Sector V on June 30, there appeared one of the prominent voices loved by the current generation — Raman Negi. After quitting the Delhi-based rock band Local Train, he treaded on a path of exploring his solo skills. Almost 11 months after his split from the band, Raman dropped his 10-track debut album Shakhsiyat in November and he’s currently on the Shakhsiyat tour. At Refinery 091, the audience swooned over his powerful voice, enigmatic presence. The trio (Gaurav Chintamani on the bass and Shantanu Sudarshan on the drums) kept the audience entertained on Friday night. He belted out 10 of his tracks and notable mentions would be Ulfat, Dastaan-e-shauk, Ek din, Mehroom and Shaagrid blues. The audience sang along and t2 soaked in his melodious tunes.
We caught up with Raman Negi and here’s what he had to say.
Tell us a little about your debut album Shakhsiyat and what inspired you to create it.
Shakhsiyat is a coming together of all the thoughts and melodies that were brewing in my head for a long time. I’ve experimented with my musicality in the album in a way that I feel it’s not restricted to any specific ideals of music anymore. It’s pop, it’s bluesy, it’s rock and it’s been lyrically tied together with various themes and ideas.
What are your future plans with your music?
I’m currently writing my next album and taking the time to indulge in it. Newer avenues are pushing me as a guitar player as well as a lyricist. It’s going to be out in the coming year and I’m stoked about it.
What do you prefer more? Making music in the studio or live performances.
In the studio, I’m with my own thoughts and it’s exciting and rewarding to see your ideas come to life. In the studio, I also get to bounce ideas off my friend and producer Gaurav Chintamani. Although, he prefers the title co-conspirator.
Live, however, is where the true test lies. How the trio sounds live, and how much of an experience I’m able to create for the listener is something which is a hit or a miss. As of now, the trio is sounding massive live but I’m constantly working on improving my live presence as I come from the school of thought where I know how organically live gigs build one as an artiste.
If you had to name a few artistes or people who’ve inspired you to do music, who’re they and how have they inspired you?
The list is endless; I have been heavily invested in guitar-based music for a while now and people like Jimi Hendrix, Dylan, BB King, Paul Simon, Tom Petty, John Mayer come to mind. I’m also greatly inspired by Mohammed Rafi, Sahir Ludhianvi and Rahat Indori if we were to speak about something closer to home.
Could you share your experience of performing in Calcutta and at Refinery 091?
Calcutta is a special one because it’s the last leg of the Shakhsiyat Tour. Post this we are going to enter the studio to get back to work. I brought my trio to the city for the first time so I was really looking forward to the reactions of the audience to the new tracks. Refinery 091 was awesome.
(l-r) Raman Negi performed songs from his debut album as a solo artiste, The crowd hummed along to songs from Shakhsiyat
Gaurav Chintamani (on bass), Shantanu Sudarshan (on drums) and Raman Negi performed as a trio in Calcutta for the first time