Soon after releasing his
previous album, ‘Konkani Unplugged’, in November 2014, Sidhanath Buyao started
working on ‘Radio Buyao’, his 17th Konkani album. The album will be released on
March 29, 2015 at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao.
“After the release of
‘Konkani Unplugged’, I came across many people who had great voices but were
not singing professionally. I then put up a post on Facebook inviting people
who were passionate about singing and interested in recording songs in their
voice to be part of an album. The response was overwhelming and so in December
I recorded the first song with my good friend, Sanjeet Hegde Desai from California
before he headed back to the US,” informs Sidhanath.
The conceptualisation and
music for ‘Radio Buyao’ is by Sidhanath Buyao and the album has been presented
by Pallavi Buyao Productions with most of the songs being recorded at SB Studio
in Mumbai. The album features 14 singers including Ben Evanglisto, Prince
Jacob, Sanjeet Hegde Desai, Yatin Talaulikar, Churchill Alemao, Santosh
Lotlikar, Samir Kudtarkar, Urja Naik Gaonkar, Dr Vinaykumar Pai Raikar, Dr
Gayatridas Gauthankar and Usha Sardesai. The lyrics are by Nandan Hegde Desai,
Gajanan Raikar, Ramesh Veluskar, Devidas Kadam, Dipak Manirkar, Mandovi Buyao
Sansgiri, Hrishikesh Kadam and late R V Pandit. Popular Marathi singers Swapnil
Bandodkar and Vaishali Samant also feature in the album.
The album is dedicated to the
memory of Late Madhavi Sardesai and Sidhanath has sung a song with lyrics
written by Ramesh Veluskar. “The song has a different meter like 11-4 and 3-4
which is an unusual meter in music but the song is beautiful.”
Another unique feature of the
album is the inclusion of radio jockeys to introduce each song. RJ Prince
Jacob, RJ Aryan, RJ Namrata and RJ Uday Chari liven up the album which is a mix
of different genres. “I wanted the singers to be comfortable with the songs. My
songs usually are Bollywood music but for this album, you have a Kantar ‘Good
morning, thank you’ sung by Churchill Alemao while Yatin Talaulikar is singing
a ghazal in Konkani. Just as the singers are from different parts of Goa, the
same mix is provided in the album,” says Sidhanath. The singers come from
places like Cuncolim, Varca, Margao, Porvorim, Panjim, Mulgao, Bicholim and
Fatorda.
Speaking about featuring
Churchill Alemao and Usha Sardessai for the first time in an album, Sidhanath
says, “I had heard Churchill singing at many get-togethers and he has a great
voice. They both have lovely voices but had not sung professionally. I also had
live bytes taken of each of the singers which will be aired on Big FM after the
release of the album. It gives them great encouragement and at the same time,
it gives me more satisfaction to see the joy on their faces when they hear the
final song after the recording.”
Another interesting approach
to getting the album out to a wider audience is that the album will not be
available at music stores. To book a copy, one has to get in touch with any of
the singers. “We are already pre booked for 3,000 copies and the albums will be
available with the singers. It will give them an opportunity to share their
singing experience with music lovers. The songs will also be available on
iTunes,” adds Sidhanath, who has already started working on his next album, his
first Marathi album featuring famous Marathi singers.
