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`Music is beyond language'

WorldSpace's Seetal Iyer and V. Prashant are grateful to technology that hasn't changed the concept of radio

PHOTO: SAMPATH KUMAR G.P.

KICKED ABOUT MUSIC Seetal and Prashant may be like chalk and cheese with their choice of music, but they unanimously vouch for the magic of the radio and the power of music

Seetal Iyer is a name and voice synonymous with old Hindi film music. Today, the journalist-turned-RJ is Programme Director at WorldSpace Satellite Radio, managing the content of Farishta, the 24-hour classic Hindi film music channel, and Jhankaar, the 24-hour contemporary Hindi music channel. Digging up hidden archives and forgotten tapes and getting to "break that song" on her channels gives her a high.

Very few know that V. Prashant, who spins his own rhythm on Spin, WorldSpace's international hits channel, is the man behind some of Seetal's best-loved radio shows when they worked together at another private FM channel. This journo-turned-web-surfer-turned-content manager is now Programme Director for Spin. This bandana-toting wild-haired dude with a passion for rock, metal, dance and trance will also listen to any new sound and what the neighbour is playing!

The two friends who believe in bringing a happy smile between people's musical ears, comfortably settle down to speak breathlessly to BHUMIKA K. about how the radio charm hasn't really worn despite the flood of downloads and MP3, and how music will forever be just that.

Seetal: Prashant, I think in many ways you are typical of an urban audience in terms of taste for music — you listen to international music, you know retro Hindi, you listen to Kannada music.

Prashant: Yeah, I agree.

Seetal: Now, how do you do this?

Prashant: I have all these influences — at your neighbour's house they are blaring Kannada music, your friends have some English music to talk about. You switch on TV you have Bollywood music or Tamil music. It's like constantly learning new languages. It's so typical of a city — you meet all sorts of people all over the city and each has different tastes. If you are open to anything that sounds good, you will take in everything.

Seetal: You've worked with an FM kind of radio set-up. Then you moved to WorldSpace. What made you move?

Prashant: You tell me too about that... in my case there was one genre and I could focus and really specialise in it. I could give the audience exactly what they want — uninterrupted music without any interference. Without it being diluted by anything else. What about you?

Seetal: It was the possibility of programming a 24-hour genre-specific music channel. The platform really stood for music, and recognised various tastes in music. It did not seek to impose any one commercially driven thing. It recognised the needs of various people living here.

Prashant: Sheets, I wanna know from you now, what do you think of the music listening habit? How has it changed? I know there are lots of music sources now. How does radio still matter in spite of MP3 players and Pods and downloads?

Seetal: That's a question everyone asks. You are forgetting, the magic of radio lies in surprise. In your iPod, you're the guy who burned the songs; even if you put them on shuffle mode, you know! There's never gonna be that "Oh my God! Where did that song come from? I heard it 25 years ago!" No other medium can give you that joy. I'm telling you, there can be hajaar technology, but radio has fought back through the TV age and it's back.

Prashant: And I think it's here to stay. Nostalgia really brings tears in your eyes.

Seetal: The way we listen to music — I don't know if it has anything to do with our culture — everything we listen to has a certain (context) in our life that is tied into the song. A certain song always takes you back to that time. I know that there are songs that will bring back fragrances. That is what nostalgia is all about. You've heard a song when you were 10 years old when your mother was frying poories. And when you hear the song it's Pavlovian almost.

Prashant: (Laughs totally in agreement)

Seetal: Whether we like it or not, we attach incidents from our life to special songs. There are songs we like to get drunk over, some, where we feel what a terrible life we have, and there are songs we like to celebrate with.

Prashant: Yeah, like Holi has its own songs. And it involves you. Like you listen to Amitabh Bachchan's Holi song when you are very young and then again you remember all the incidents associated with it — of how you played Holi and then had chai with your friends on the terrace.

(Has radio changed the way people listen to their music?)

Prashant: Ya, nowadays with FM it has. A guy can message in his request, call in or mail. There are so many ways to reach a radio station unlike before. Now he can be a part of it... the more interactive it gets, the better. We can write back to say "Why don't you listen between five and six? Your song will be on this show". Earlier you never knew when your request would be played. So new forms of communication have helped make radio interactive.

Seetal: At one level there is an instant gratification of your need. Earlier, you would write a letter and wait. And listen to figure out when it will play. But the point is radio has always been an interactive and intimate medium. Technology has made the distance between the RJ and the outside world shorter. But even at that time, it was perhaps still an intensely personal moment.

Prashant: I think it still is...

Seetal: Yeah, it still is. I think that's something technology hasn't changed at all. It's not made it impersonal. We use the slickest of software now at our radio stations. We no longer bung in CDs and manually play songs. But the fact that what comes out of the radio, with the RJ talking personally, has not changed.

Prashant: That's what radio is supposed to do. That's why people listen to it. It's constantly running in the background... it can be a personal or a background medium.

Seetal: It doesn't grab you and say, "Do this". It just lies there quietly.

Prashant: Unlike TV that demands your attention all the time. And as soon as you hear a tune... it leads to conversations... I think it's a lovely medium.

(I'm listening to:)

Prashant: I'm listening to a bit of trip-hop and trance and a lot of world music as well. My station Spin is an English music station for a college audience. I play this music then go to a restaurant or coffee shop and the same song plays. You don't want to hear your work outside... so you tend to experiment with new sounds.

Seetal: A switch-off doesn't really happen for me. There's no clear-cut like or dislike for me. I honestly believe that if you truly love music there is no genre.

If you truly love music it doesn't matter what the language is. Old Hindi film songs cut across every single corner of this country — even a guy in the corner of Trivandrum will be belting a Rafi song without understanding a word.

Prashant: Sometimes you don't even need to have a hunger for different kinds of music. You just open up your mind and listen in and you'll tune in to it and get hooked on to it.

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