I want to collaborate with Nigerian musicians – Sivamani

Sivamani...on Sunday

Internationally acclaimed Indian drummer, Anandan Sivamani, who was in Lagos on Sunday, speaks with CHUX OHAI about his music career and dreams

On Sunday, Indian celebrity percussionist, Anandan Sivamani, was the guest of the Indian Fine Art Society in Lagos, alongside other extremely talented members of Asia Electrik, the musical band that he helped found a few years ago.

It was Sivamani’s first visit to the city, apparently on invitation from INFAS, to help assuage the burning thirst of the Indian community for classical music. Before then, he had been to other parts of Africa, including South Africa, Uganda, Senegal and Guinea, doing what he knows best: making music.

By dint of hard work and aided by an innate talent, he has managed to worm his way into the hearts of millions of music lovers in India and won for himself a large followership.

“I started my journey in my mother’s womb. I was born in Chennai, South India. My father was a percussionist and he gave the gift of drumming to me. Other drummers, such as Noel Grant and Billy Cobham, have also inspired me. They are my idols,” he says, in an interview with our correspondent.

Sivamani owes his success mainly to his father, SM Anandan, under whom he started his early training as a drummer. As a matter of fact, at a time his peers were still clinging to their mothers’ aprons, he was already adept with drumsticks at the age of seven.

About four years later, the drummer was deemed ripe enough to appear on stage with the band known as Silk. By the time he turned 14, he had started playing with SP Balasulbramaniam, one of the greatest singers in India and the man who would later influence his choice of music genre.

By now, it seemed that destiny had already charted a peculiar course for Sivamani. Unknown to him, his stint with Balasulbramaniam would in due course lead to more opportunities.

“Balasulbramaniam took me all over the world on his road shows. Apart from this, I was opportune to work with most of the big composers in the country. I spent about 24 years in the studios. Afterwards, I experienced different changes. A band from Germany, Ricky Ray and Olar Alexander, invited me to perform in Germany and I travelled with them on a playing tour of the country. When I was there, I saw different musical instruments. I thought they were fascinating,” he says.

 At that point, he thought of evolving his own peculiar style of instrumentation, a concept that thrives on the fusion of rhythms from diverse cultures around the world. Eventually, this led to the creation of Asia Electrik.

Dressed in his trade-mark red bandanna, red robe, gray trousers and ankle-length shoes, Sivamani led the other members of the band, Louiz Banks, believed to be the father of modern jazz in India, and Niladri Kumar, the designer of the Zitar (a rare combination of the sitar, a traditional Hindu musical instrument, and the guitar) and a virtuoso, to an exhilarating performance before a capacity audience on Sunday.

On stage, he was energetic, fluid, unpredictable and almost hypnotic. At a glance, it seemed that he was capable of holding any audience spell-bound with just about any instrument within his reach.  His style was profound, provocative and exuberant; yet it does not lack harmony.

There seemed to be a perfect understanding among the trio of Asia Electrik at every point during the performance. Although some of the guests must have expected to be given a dose of traditional Indian music, they ended up listening to the band play a rare kind of jazz.

But Sivamani, whose performance was clearly the object of attraction at the show, says it was not deliberate.

“I don’t plan what I do during every concert. My actions are usually spontaneous. Whatever that happens onstage is simply magic. The mood determines what I play. It could be Indian or African music or jazz. Anything goes. Sometimes I just make my audience clap to the rhythm of my music,” he says.

As a drummer, the maestro admits that he is deeply influenced by the Carnatic rhythmic tradition of his Hindu culture, which he describes as similar to the music from Africa, though the instruments are different.

“My music has the background of jazz. There is harmony, just as with jazz and I am concerned about making my audience dance. I prefer instrumentation because our band thrives only on one composition at a time. We play a fusion of different types of music. Apart from Jazz, we play folk and rock.  The important thing is to have fun and this is what we always set out to do. With Asia Electrik, you can choose the kind of music that you want,” he says.

Although the world class drummer left for India after the concert, which lasted almost three hours, with sweet memories of yet another visit to Africa, he sees himself coming to Nigeria a second time to attempt a collaboration with some Nigerian artistes.

“It has been awesome playing in Africa. The people are nice and friendly, particularly in Lagos. I appreciate this. I want to come again and play for Nigerians, not only for the Indian community. I would like to play for the public, preferably in an open stadium, someday. I want to collaborate with Nigerian musicians. Already I met some Asians resident here and I have started discussing the possibility of meeting and working with some musicians from this country. I want to play with African music instruments and learn more about African music and culture. I am interested in African drums because they are strong and very powerful,” he says.

He claims to have already achieved that feat with the Senegalese musician, Yousour N’dour, and the Guinean, Mamadi Keita, apart from having the privilege of meeting former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa.

Ever so modest, Sivamani would not admit that he is the founder of Asia Electrik, though he is clearly the livewire. “The three of us are the leaders. But, if you mean who comes first and organises things, I’ll say that I follow Louiz Banks. He is a great composer and maestro. People play music for different reasons, but I like to share my God-given talent as a drummer with my audience on stage. I give joy to others through my performances and I enjoy what I do,” he says.

Married with two children, the ace percussionist has one important hurdle to scale this year and it has to do with breaking new ground in Bollywood, where his own father got his break, too.

 “I am going to be involved in the production of a feature film titled ‘Arima Nambi’ in Southern India,” he says.