Fernando Monte da Silva
Music is, has been, and probably always
will be one of those things that we just cannot help falling in love with. Pick
your poison; from EDM to the fado,
and from rock and roll to Bollywood, every genre has its lovers, and with good
reason. Like Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters (and formerly Nirvana) said,
“That’s one of the great things about music. You can sing a song to 85,000
people and they’ll sing it back for 85,000 different reasons.”
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That connection is being brought to the
fore by some people who work tirelessly to bring Goa’s music to the fore, this
World Music Day. One such individual is Varun Carvalho, who is attempting to
take music to the general public, completely free of cost.
“I was talking with Swapnil Naik, from
Musica Guru were talking on how we could unite Goa, and we realised that music
is the best way to unite people, so we came up with the idea of getting
musicians from all across Goa, cutting across languages, religions and genres,
coming together all on one stage for a free concert at the Mapusa Taxi Stand.
As a musician, I believe that music has no religion, colour or caste, and that
music is the best medium to unite people. We want to send a strong message to
the people that we are one and we need to rise as one,” he shares.
The musicians will perform on Varun’s
RiseNation Army truck, with the idea being for musicians from different genres
to jam together, get inspired by each other and create something worthwhile.
Varun believes that musicians can positively influence each other and can be a
positive influence on society too. “We want to send a strong message that we
need to respect each other and each other’s choices and live in peace and
harmony, learning and uplifting each other. As with every World Music Day
concert, it will be a free concert, and we invite musicians to come with their
instruments and be a part of the biggest music jam in Goa,” Varun adds.
The next day, the musical movement
continues at the premises of The248 Collective in Sangolda, which has long
since been supporting the live music scene in Goa, mainly through its two
pillars, Darryl Noronha and Vinesh Iyer, who have worked with several monikers
over the years, from The Live Music Project to Art Escape. This time around,
they will be celebrating World Music Day through the 5th edition of their
project, ‘Thursday Nite Live’ from 7-11 pm, with some old fashioned blues,
rock, funk and more. The music will hit the audience, courtesy the band
Demockracy, which includes popular musicians on the local scene, such as Vamsee
Krishna on vocals and guitar, Lester Godinho on drums and Jason Quadros on
keyboards.
“We’re looking at four straight hours of
‘full-power’ music. After the band has finished their set, all musicians are
invited to come and jam. We’re looking at a minimalistic entry fee, which will
enable us to continue to support the live music scene,” Vinesh says.
World Music Day may have celebrations in
various forms, shapes and sizes. However, there is one constant through it all:
music and harmony. So if you’re looking for either, or maybe a little bit of
both, you know where to go, and what to do.
