UK-based Sheila Chandra is the Goddess of world music. Two decades after working on the genre, her performances even today are path breaking.
She is the Goddess of world music. Two decades after working on the genre, her performances even today are path breaking. “The emotions have to come through my voice,” says UK-based Sheila Chandra who recently performed in India after 21 years at The Big Chill festival earlier this month.
With no formal training, Sheila’s fascination for music is what lead her to forge a niche for herself. “As a child I wouldn’t shut up. I sang everything from jingles to folk songs and took up instruments when my voice broke at the age of 12,” she smiles.
Sheila is known for experimenting with her vocal landscapes, adapting it to produce vocal percussion. “I think more and more vocal techniques are being tried out. British
folk, gospel music, Chinese music, all of these are making their presence felt,” she explains, adding that at the age of 16 when she stepped into the world of music, she had to literally fight. “My family was against my musical inclinations and I broke ties with them for ten years. There was nothing called world music and bands like Duran Duran were doing well. That’s the kind of music people were listening to,” she reflects.
The flak she received from the purists was an entirely different story. “The first generation said I shouldn’t be doing what I was. They didn’t expect an adult to break rules. Also the music coming from Indians based in the UK was considered second class,” she says. The acceptance and appreciation that followed seems to have made the struggle worth everything.
Sheila gets nostalgic about meeting Robert Plant (Led Zepplin’a front man) for the first time. “He had dropped into my studio to say hello to me and I wasn’t clued into Led Zeppelin. He calmly came into my recording room when I was playing the ghatam and started playing around with the piano. I looked at him for a moment and then looked away. I thought Robert Plant was the keyboard tuner!” she laughs.
k_shridevi@dnaindia.com
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