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SURFING THE WORLD Riding the high wave of music

The two met in a not too extraordinary way at a common friends’, and discovered they vibed well and simply got on with making the music. “It all came together by accident,” says Shaair aka Monica Sharma Dogra. “And the feedback we got for our early performances, which were all just for fun, was like the universe telling us to do more.”

Indeed, says Func aka Randolph Correia (of Pentagram fame), it’s almost like the duo were led down the road every step of the way from the initial meeting to their current situation, where work is already on for the release of a second album.

“We started dating before we began making music. When we started writing, we realised we had enough for an album. So we thought let’s put it out there. Then we had to have a name. Before we knew it, we had an album, a video, and we were going to New York and London. It’s like you’re on a surfboard on a wave that’s always taking you further out, and once in a while it brings you back to shore.”

The first big milestone on that journey was the release of “New Day: The Love Album” with Counter Culture Records this summer. “It came from the first six months that we spent apart, before Monica came down to Mumbai. She wrote a lot of her story,” says Randolph explaining that the new day in the title referred to their relationship, their music, as well as to music in the country in general.

Musically, says Monica, the sound is best described as conscious dance music. This core is, however, overlaid with poetry, rock, funk, jazz and so on.

“It was the only natural thing,” she says of the shape that Shaair and Func has taken. “We both come from different places and with different influences. And Shaair and Func was about combining those influences and updating the sound constantly because we as beings constantly change and update ourselves.”

For Monica and Randolph, much of that change has happened in the hectic touring of London and New York that the duo has just returned from. and It also forms the bulk of the inspiration for their untitled second album.

“It’s going to be a tale of three cities, from Mumbai to New York to London. London, where most of the album was written, was particularly inspiring. And the album is also going to be a lot more grown up. We have a better understanding of where we are going as musicians. But all the love is still there, and in that sense it is a continuation of the love album,” says Randolph.

For details, log onto www.shaairandfunc.com.

RAKESH MEHAR

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