After five solo albums written, composed and sung by him, drummer Sanjay Maroo’s new album London Eye , in collaboration with Harikumar Sivan, juxtaposes the classical with contemporary. Its title track is nine-and-half-minutes long with 180 beats per minute. It promises to showcase the best of both worlds.
Sanjay, a self-taught drummer, has been in the music industry for more than 30 years and is a part of two popular bands; Les Boys and Rock Machine (which later evolved into Indus Creed). In 1994, he joined Divya, an Indo-Jazz fusion band which went on to perform in the international circuit as well. After his tryst with various genres of music, Sanjay came up albums such as Fountain of Love , Chaley Jaoon and Tu hi Tu . He also won a spot in the Limca Book of Records for the fastest foot drumming at 18.433 beats per second (or 1,106 beats a minute).
“ In 2011, one of my songs ‘Heat in the Moment of Love’ won the Song of the Year in the first digital music awards for independent Indian music,” says Sanjay. “The idea for London Eye came when I met Harikumar, a violinist from Kerala. We decided to collaborate and present classical tunes for a modern audience.” The album has eight tracks. “About six of us from different parts of the country worked on the album. None of us actually met during the whole process. We put it together over a period of two years with the help of technology. The team had a lot of freedom because all of us worked separately. The only problem about recording an album this way is that you have re-do the tracks a couple of times. But as musicians our sensibilities blended so well that it wasn’t too difficult to pull it off.” Sanjay chose to work on an instrumental album for a wider appeal. “We want listeners to experience what we have played,” says Sanjay.
