PANAJI: A sound rarely experienced in Konkani music till now, a vibe that feels unique! When RJ Joed Almeida, Banrap Lyngdoh, fadista Nadia Rebelo and Adrian Sequeira clubbed together in music producer Hillary Marcos Gomes’ project, Goa delivered a fantastic composition ‘Tuzo Uzzo’, a song that is bound to cast it’s spell on the young generation in particular.
According to Hillary, ‘Tuzo Uzzo’ symbolises eternity. “We are consciousness of the universe experiencing itself. You are an empty jar which is always full. We all were here before, are here now and will always be. There is just the timeless now and rest is just an illusion. One love and Boom!,” says the brain behind the refreshing new chapter in Konkani music.
RJ Joed describes the journey towards his debut as an artist, as ‘surreal’.
“Being closely associated with the music industry for a long time and coming from a family of musicians, I wasn’t still part of a song until now. I must say, it’s a surreal experience to be a part of a brilliant song like ‘Tuzo Uzzo’. Hands down, it was Hillary who believed that my voice would be perfect for his song and that it would lend value to his song and when I heard the final cut, I was completely amazed with the track. Sharing the same space with accomplished singers like Banrap Lyngdoh who’s an insane artist from Shillong and Nadia Rebelo, a Fadista par excellence; and finally a guy who they say is inarguably one of the best sound engineers, Goa has, Adrian Sequeira, it was a dream come true for me just to be a part of this team. Hillary Gomes is not your regular music producer. He’s an artist who breaks boundaries and stereotypes and is not someone who gets carried away with things. To him, every song is a work of art, every beat, every melody is so well-thought out and if he’s not happy with something, he will not stop until he finds the sweet spot. The lyrics is not something everyone can pen down in a night, it’s a surreal feeling and experience and that’s how it was with ‘Tuzo Uzzo’. To conclude, I’d like to say I’m happy to be a part of ‘Tuzo Uzzo’ and this probably will be a new chapter in my life as an artist and that I owe to Hillary Gomes,” Joed told livenewsgoa.com.
One of Goa’s ambassadors when it comes to Portuguese music, Nadia Rebelo is delighted with the way a Konkani song has been presented.
Says Nadia: “Adrian sent me a message one morning asking me if I’d be Interested in singing a part in Konkani for a song and I jumped to it. So, it was a very spontaneous decision for me to be a part of this song. That evening I met Adrian and Hillary. I’ve known Adrian since we were teenagers and since then it has always been about music with him, but Hillary I’d met for the first time. Since I knew Adrian and the quality of a musician that he is, I trusted him blindly and I was right. Hillary had something extraordinary ready. They gave me a brief idea of what they were looking for and in the beginning I was wondering if I’d be able to actually deliver. But everything went rather smoothly and I loved the fact that I had to sing a song slightly out of my comfort zone and I was very happy with the result. I am also very glad that our Goan language, Konkani has been used so well in this song. It’s a song that will definitely reach my generation and the ones after mine. So using Konkani in a song like this will definitely help to keep our rich language alive. For the spoken part, nobody could’ve done it better than Joed. I’ve always loved Joed’s voice on the radio so him speaking, just added a very beautiful touch to the song. Banrap’s rap was also superb and even though, it’s not entirely my style of music, I truly enjoyed listening to him and I believe he has a great talent and am looking forward to seeing his future projects. Hillary has a clear vision of what he wants and he works hard to make that vision come true. Working with him has been rather easy and he is very professional.
He told me to give the song my own touch and feel all the emotions that I wanted to feel, while singing it. Basically, he wanted me to be free and improvise with it and that’s what I love, personally as an artist. And as a fado singer, that’s what we do. We interpret. I’d definitely love to work with Hillary again and make more music. Here’s wishing lots of love & success to Hillary Gomes & Boomspace.”
Transcending the boundaries in the collaboration, Banrap Lyngdoh from Shillong-Meghalaya, said: “First time I heard when the instrumental played, I felt in love with the song before it’s even recorded, the beat is such a vibe, I had to surf and flow on it that way. It was such a pleasure working with this team, there’s more coming.”
