Blogswara - United in Music

Blogswara in the news again!

2010-03-23T04:50:00.001-07:00

I must thank Indian Express for their continued support to a non-commercial platform like Blogswara. This article appeared in their Kochi edition in the beginning of the month. Thanks to you guys, for your continued support to sustain the uncelebrated, off-stream music. (By the way, have you heard the songs yet?)

Express Features
First Published : 05 Mar 2010 12:48:00 AM IST

KOCHI: Blogswara , the internet music community that acts as a common platform for amateur musicians, has released its sixth album.

The album has 14 songs sung by 22 new artists in four Indian languages.

A free music movement where visitors/ listeners can listen and download mp3 files free of cost, Blogswara (www.blogswara.in) began as a blogging initiative by a few people around the globe, who loved to sing.

Till date, many of the singers associated with Blogswara have not met each other.

According to Joseph Thomas, who was one of the first to launch the concept of Blogswara, the attempt is to showcase the hidden talent of amateur singers before the world by producing original music and sharing it over the internet.

“Soon after the release of Blogswara version 5, we had begun with the work of the 6th album. For the first time, we have included a Telugu song, last time we had included a Kannada song. It’s the first time that so many amateurs are joining the effort, last time we had 15 new singers,” says Joseph.

Professional singers like Pradeep Somasundaram and TV anchor Divya have also rendered their voice for the album.

Blogswara proves that people, wherever they are or whatever languages they speak, can come together for a cause - here the cause being music.

And the digital age has made it easy for them to collaborate, the blog says.

True to its tagline, ‘United in Music’, the album has many lyricists and music composers from across the globe, who worked from their respective places together to come up with the album.

News link here

Blogswara V6 - Your comments please!

2010-03-01T04:32:00.000-08:00

Hello there, so we have just released our 6th online album and would love to have your feedback as usual. Do listen to the songs, and please put in your feedback in the comments section here. Don't forget to mention the song name and team when you put your remarks. We appreciate your feedback!

Our special thanks to Jyothis E for his continued support in providing the space to host the songs and to Pradip Somasundaran for all the technical help extended. Thank you folks!

Blogswara V6 - Song teasers

2010-02-25T22:37:00.000-08:00

Blogswara V6 - Song Teasers

Visit http://www.blogswara.in to listen to the V6 songs preview!

With 14 songs in 4 Indian languages, Blogswara's 6th online album is releasing on March 1st. Listen to the song teasers from the player given below and share the buzz with your friends. Tweet it, blog it to support the best platform for free independent music and let the Blogswara saga continue!

Follow us @Blogswara for Twitter updates.

Blogswara on Twitter

2009-11-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

We are happy to announce that Blogswara is now officially on Twitter. Follow us @Blogswara for updates on our albums and other news.

On another news, we have received 15 song submissions so far for our latest album V6. The songs evaluation is about to begin and keep watching this space for more details!

Interview in Manorama News - Part II

2009-08-25T06:39:00.000-07:00

Part II:

Blogswara Interview in Manorama News

2009-08-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Manorama News telecasted the interview with Blogswara members today. Check it out below:

Blogswara on Manorama News

2009-08-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

Manorama News, a major Malayalam news channel in Kerala, will be telecasting an interview with some of the Blogswara artist on the following dates and time. Do catch us there!

August 24, Monday, 2:30 PM
August 25, Tuesday, 5 AM & 9:30 AM

Blogswara V6 - Dates extended

2009-05-03T06:40:00.000-07:00

The deadlines for the Blogswara Version 6 have been extended. Please find the new dates below and you can check out our website for more details.
DEADLINE #1: June 13, 2009

DEADLINE #2: November 5, 2009

DEADLINE #3: November 26, 2009

DEADLINE #4: December 16, 2009

DEADLINE #5: January 1, 2010

DEADLINE #6: January 10, 2010

DEADLINE #7: January 15, 2010

DEADLINE #8: January 20, 2010

Blogswara V6 - Inviting Entries

2009-02-24T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hello

This is to inform you that Blogswara V6 dates have been announced in the website. Check out http://blogswara.in/blsProcess.htm for details. And if you would like to be a part of Blogswara V6, do not forget the dates to announce your participation! :-)

Music and peace.

Blogswara featured in Indian Express

2009-02-17T11:18:00.001-08:00

Blogswara has been featured again in the news. This time it is Indian Express (Trivandrum edition) who ran a story on us in their daily supplement Expresso (Click on the image to enlarge).

Interview with Deccan Radio

2009-01-23T03:45:00.000-08:00

Deccan Radio, a 24/7 Internet radio, has interviewed me about Blogswara. This show will be aired on Deccan Radio on 25th of January 2009 at 9 AM IST and 8 PM IST which is 8 PM EST on 24th of January 2009 and 9 AM EST on 25th of January 2009. Check out Deccan Radio's website for more details.

Thanks to the folks at Deccan Radio.

My experience singing Khushiyan

2008-12-28T01:03:00.000-08:00

By Rashmi Nair

I had fun singing this song (Khushiyan); it was my first attempt on an original composition. I must say it definitely was a great learning experience for me. I had no idea it was going to turn out the way it did. It took almost a month for the song to shape up. During that time, my parents were visiting us. It was almost like singing to an audience - the only difference was I received live feedback and often constructive suggestions. We laughed and joked about my ‘husky’ voice and my goof ups here and there.

I live in a small apartment complex, so after singing those high registers, the next day, I would often open the main door to see if there was an eviction notice pasted outside.

Silent Mind

2008-12-22T00:59:00.000-08:00

By Shivkumar Krishnan

The origins of 'Silent Mind' were in mid 2006, when i was experimenting with the Korg Triton and Karma range of synthesizers... I had conceived a soft instrumental piece that lasted for about a minute, to be used for montage scenes (showing transitions of time) in movies. Then when Blogswara V5 came along, I decided to amp this to a complete instrumental track. I played around with Virtual Instruments (from EastWest corporation, for instance) to simulate the orchestral sounds. Then I met Bill Williams, a sound engineer near San Francisco, who helped me mix the piece...

He was amused to hear the Mirudangam sounds! We had a fun time at the mix sessions, with Bill coming up with different Western drum sounds and trying to get it to gel with the whole piece...
I'm going to add vocals and continue with this piece in the coming months. Hope you like the piece and it gives you a peaceful state of mind!

Tools used to compose: Pro Tools LE7.4, Korg Karma synthesizer, Godin Freeway Classic electric guitar, EastWest Orchestra platinum edition, SwarShala (from swarsystems, to simulate Eastern Instruments).

My story of Azhaithadhu Yaaro

2008-12-17T01:23:00.000-08:00

It was in the last year that Vijay S had asked me to sing his first song for Blogswara. The song was called Kaathirundhen and it is one of the much appreciated songs of Blogswara's V4 album. I loved that song totally and was happy to sing it with Sindhuja, a wonderful singer. I practiced the song a lot, recorded it multiple times, but fell ill just before I was to make the final recording. I had a terrible cough which was followed by sever throat pain. My voice was hoarse and this lasted for almost 2 months. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the song and I requested Murali R to sing it. The song came out very well with the vocals of Murali and Sindhuja.

I was glad when Vijay came up with another gem of a song this year and asked me to sing it. When I heard the song Azhaithadhu Yaaro at first I wasn't sure if I could sing it. The shruthi of the song was way too low for my vocal range (I think my vocal range fits for the mid-range songs, not too low and not too high) and I expressed my concern over it. Especially the parts like "kaaNaamal kaaNaamal maayam" in the 1st charanam were too low for me and the song tempo was a bit fast. So the tempo was changed to be a bit slower and the shruthi a little higher. Still, the tempo did not leave much room for improvisations from vocalists but the song in itself was so beautiful and it did not need much improvisation.

Vijay S had started planning the song early, so we had enough time to practice the song. He first sent the song to Sindhuja and she was kind enough to record the song in her voice and sent it for me to learn. Vijay is a perfectionist but he also let the singers to take freedom in improvising at parts. There were so many emails sent back and forth and Vijay would also call me on the phone to discuss certain parts of the song or to explain the meaning of the song.

At one point of time, I thought I wouldn't be able to do the final recording, because my sinusitis usually gives me cold and nose blocks in regular intervals. So I told Vijay that I might not be able to finish the song on time or he better get another singer. But he was confident that I would be okay and that is how my voice went in. :-)

The orchestration of Azhaithadhu Yaaro, done by Vijay N, has gone through a lot of phases and Vijay N has done a wonderful job. He has made video about this orchestration experiments and you can watch it here.

I never met any of the people who have worked with this song - Vijay S is in Bangalore and we talk only over the phone or chat through Gtalk. My communication with Sindhuja was limited only to Gtalk and emails, and I have interacted with Vijay N only through emails. Yet, we were able to do this song and I think that is the beauty of Blogswara. That it encourages people to come up, communicate and collaborate irrespective of the location and with their love and passion for music.

Listen to Azhaithadhu Yaaro from here

Un-making of Azhaithadhu Yaaro

2008-12-15T02:34:00.000-08:00

Here is a video put together by Vijay N about his experience in orchestrating the song Azhaithadhu Yaaro.

Your comments please!

2008-12-11T07:59:00.001-08:00

The song teams who participated in the 5th version of Blogswara would love to hear your comments. Please do put in your comments in this comments space. Thank you.

BlogSwara Version 5 - Song teasers posted!

2008-12-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

Hola everyone!

It is time for another version of Blogswara! Yes, it is Blogswara's version 5!! We have posted the song teasers in our website, so hop over to there to listen to the 20 seconds long song previews.

We have 14 songs this year and in four languages - Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada (the first Kannada song of Blogswara) - and also instrumental music. All by some of the people who have participated in Blogswara's previous versions and many new faces.

So watch out for 12th December 2008, which is only one week away from now, for the grand release of Blogswara Version 5. And do spread the word around!

Inviting Entries for BlogSwara 5!

2008-03-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

We at BlogSwara are inviting entries for the 5th version of BlogSwara project. Please visit our website for more details and start working on your songs!

Blogswara on a thesis

2008-01-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

It is a joyous moment for all of us who worked with BlogSwara platform to know that it is getting attention from an opposite corner of the world. BlogSwara has become the center case study for an MA thesis submission.

Jessica Keyes, a student of Department of Music, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada has chosen the music blogging with a primary focus on BlogSwara for her academic defense. Her paper titled "Blogging Music: Indian Musicians and Online Musical Spaces" presents an ethnography of the Indian music blogging community and a critical analysis of the historical and technological foundation for music blogging.

Blogswara version 4 - Your Comments

2007-12-11T11:19:00.000-08:00

Friends,

BlogSwara Version 4 has just been released!! You can listen to the songs from here. Also see the artists involved with this album here. Do let the people who participated in this version of BlogSwara know your comments on the songs. You can add your comments to this post.

Thanks for listening.

BlogSwara V4 - Song teasers

2007-12-08T01:25:00.000-08:00

ANNOUNCING THE RELEASE OF BLOGSWARA VERSION 4 ON 12th DECEMBER, 2007

You can listen to the song teasers below and wait for the grand release on December 12th. Visit http://www.blogswara.in/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogswara to know more about BlogSwara.

Song: Eri Venal (Malayalam)
Lyrics: Sreeja Balraj
Music: Praveenkrishna G
Singer: Divya S Menon

Song: Kaathirundhen (Tamil)
Lyrics, Music: Vijay S
Singer: Murali Ramanathan, Sindhuja Bhaktavatsalam
Orchestration: Ajit Gopalakrishnan
Rhythm Programming: Bharath Venkatesan
Mixing: Nandu Mahadevan

Song: The Rain (Hindi)
Vocals, Lyrics, Composition: Kamini Natarajan
Lyrics, Composition: Uma Natarajan
Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Programming: Andrew Behla
Violin: Deepak Ramapriyan
Supporting Music: Jojo and Dean

Song: Aanakal Ompathu (Malayalam)
Lyrics: Preethy
Music: Joseph Thomas (Jo)
Orchestration: Nishanth Mani
Mixing: Nandu Mahadevan
Singer: Sreekanth

Song: Ithu Varai Enn (Tamil)
Lyrics & vocals: Ramesh Chellamani
Music: Nandu Mahadevan
Guitars: Anup Nandialath

Song: Tu Kahaan (Hindi)
Lyrics: Karthik Chandan
Music: Jay Krishnan
Singer: Shiva

Song: 20:20 (Instrumental)
Composer: Vijay

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

BlogSwara Version 3 - Your comments please

2007-03-24T04:10:00.000-07:00

Folks,

Please add your comments & suggestions on BlogSwara (Version 3) songs in the comments section of this post. Thank you!

Oruvenalai-Malayalam Version of "Hai Mera Dil"

2007-02-17T19:37:00.000-08:00

This song has been already released for Blogswara V2 as "Hai Mera Dil". The song had awesome lyrics by Ajay and wonderful soulful singing by Swati. Whwn I asked Sreeja balaraj whether she could write malayalam lyrics for it she came up with beautiful lines in no time. That was on November 5th. But then I was busy and got the time to try it just the day before yesterday. Well the result is here for all to hear! I think she has done a great job. it's not easy to write to tune. You need good sense of music, rhythm and of course good writing skills and imagination.This is just an experiment and I hope you all would like it. We hope to work together to create more songs in the future.

Song: Oru Venalai
Singer: Pradip Somasundaran
Composer: Pradip Somasundaran
Lyrics: Sreeja Balaraj
Piano: William
Violin Solo: Bhavyalakshmi
Additional Programming: Pradip Somasundaran

Broad Band Player:

Dialup Player:

Download This Song

Mella Mella - My thoughts

2006-11-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

It was March-2006 and I was listening to the tamil song 'Chennai Senthamizh' in repeat mode. That song gave me the inspiration to write/compose 'Mella Mella'.

Please don't laugh at me, I didn't even know the raaga of that song and I was ashamed to ask some of my friends. Finally my sister-in-law told me it was Raaga 'Naattai'. Wow what a raaga, I thought. I did some research and found that there were quite a few movie songs in that raaga.

This song is more closer to my heart than all my other songs for one reason. My mother appreciated it the very first time she listened to it.

Anyways, as usual, I sent it to JO and he liked it as well.

I was waiting for the orchestration and the final version. When I received the draft I was overwhelmed with joy. Anil the Magician had done a superb job along with the sweet voices of Jo and Vidyu who had sung it so nicely.

As you listen to this original version that I sent JO, you'll know how much of work has gone into the final version.

Jazzie Gift receives BlogSwara copy

2006-11-07T09:19:00.000-08:00

[Anil BS presenting a copy of BlogSwara Version 2 CD to music director Jazzie Gift]

I met Jazzie Gift, the music director who made waves across Kerala and especially amongst the youngsters of Kerala with one hit song Lajjaavathiye from the movie 4 The People. I was totally amazed to see this man in person because, believe me, he is a very nice and down-to-earth person. I went to meet him with Anil chettan, who introduced me to him. I explained the concept of BlogSwara to Jazzie and he was very much interested in the concept and he put the CD of BlogSwara into his laptop straight away. He asked about how it is done and listened to a few songs from the album. He was excited to hear that most us did not meet with each other and he mentioned the same to his manager. He discussed about the orchestration etc with Anil chettan. He said he would listen to all the songs once again.

Jazzie and his manager mentioned that we should popularise BlogSwara through media so that it reaches to more people. Also he was so kind to say that he will mention about BlogSwara to one of his associates who are into promoting music etc and will see what they can do for us. I requested him to look into the BlogSwara talent pool whenever he need to find fresh new voices and he said he would do that.

I also mentioned about M-Pod, and expressed my interest in doing an episode with him and he said he will definitely find time for that. He is a person who is very much interested in the new things and new media technologies. No wonder how he has been a hot favorite amongst the youth, considering his youthfulness and enthusiasm towards everything new and good.

Jazzie was in the East Cost studio for recording his Kannada work and was kind enough to spare sometime for us. Listen to his latest Tamil song from the movie Veyil with Khailesh Kher set to tune by G. V. Prakash which has been released just a few days ago.

[Jazzie listening to the songs from BlogSwara Version 2]

What media and people say about BlogSwara V2

2006-11-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

India's leading English newspaper The Hindu has a mention about BlogSwara in today's edition.

Slogan Murugan talks about the unity for music.

Krishna Kumar & Suresh Kumar have a detailed review.

Prabhu Karthik salutes the BlogSwara team.

All of these motivate us to come up with more power and more quality productions!!! Thank you all!!

Your comments please

2006-10-30T03:38:00.000-08:00

Please add your comments & suggestions on BlogSwara songs in the comments section of this post. Thank you!

The spirit of PurpleX

2006-10-29T02:56:00.000-08:00

We, the members of BlogSwara, have not enough words to appreciate the support that Connexions (a store in Chennai) extended to BlogSwara. Connexions Online continues to support to BlogSwara with hosting space!! Thank you Connexions for keeping the spirit of Free music alive!!!

BlogSwara 2 - Coming up soon!!!

2006-10-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

This Fall !

The revisit of musical deluge !

Blogswara* Vol 2 !!

with new faces, talents and same spirit...

After having received 100+ comments and enquiries, 10116 site hits (since May 17, 2006) your support and feedback have served well as booster shots to make an effulgent trail of Blogswara!

With more experience, more hard work and added new talent, we hope Blogswara 2 would better Vol 1!

Watch this space for upcoming release and as always please provide honest feedback and comments so that the Blogswara trail may shine brighter with every release !!!

!!! United in Music !!!

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*Blogswara is a unique and pioneering concept wherein amateur Indian music talent from worldwide collaboratively work on creating full scale original music productions completely remotely. The music produced is made available free for listneing. Most of the artists involved have not met each other and some not even talked to each other over the phone, All artist communications are made possible using personal e-mails.

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SONG TEASERS!!!

Song: Ente Manassilum
Lyrics: Indu
Music & Orchestration: Nishanth Mani
Sung by: Divya S Menon

powered by ODEO

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Song: Hai Junoon
Lyrics: Praveen Kamath
Music & Orchestration: Nandu Mahadevan
Sung by: Ramesh Chellamani

powered by ODEO

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Song: Mella Mella
Lyrics & Music: Narayanan Venkitu
Orchestration: Anil B S
Sung by: Jo & Vidyu

powered by ODEO

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Song: Ooyalaadunni
Lyrics: Indu
Music: Jo
Orchestration: Sam Kolli
Sung by: Meera Manohar

powered by ODEO

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Song: Hai Mera Dil
Lyrics: Ajay Chandran
Music & Orchestration: Pradip Somasundaran
Sung by: Pradip Somasundaran & Swati Kanitkar

powered by ODEO

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Song: Thoduvaanam
Lyrics: Arul Veerappan
Music & Orchestration: Mux Narasimhan
Sung by: Mux, Anitha & Meera

powered by ODEO

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Song: Ennaachu
Lyrics: Udhaya Kulandaivelu
Music: Prem Abraham
Orchestration: Ajit Gopalakrishnan
Sung by: Meera Manohar

powered by ODEO

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Blogswara Stats - Diwali Dhamaka

2006-10-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

That's some great news from Jo that Blogswara 2 would be seen and heard soon.

Here's some current Visitor Stats...Notice the whopping 96 GB Bandwidth ? :-)

Audio India - A directory for audiobloggers

2006-09-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

Guys,

When Murali came up with the idea of a directory for audiobloggers I couldn't resist because we see an increasing number of audiobloggers recently. Considering the acceptance from the netizens for the existing audiobloggers and the impact made by the BlogSwara project, more and more people are joining in the audioblogosphere.

The new directory is named Audio India. Please visit and let me know your suggestions. You can see all the existing audiobloggers with their name and URL to their blogs. Please let me know or email me - jocalling (at) gmail (dot) com - if I have missed out any URLs or if you want me to include your audioblogs into the listing. The listing is in alphabetical order.

This directory blog is only for the India audioblogs, as of now. This is because I think there are not many audioblogs (I should say music blogs here, because all audioblogs are not music blogs) in rest of the world compared to the Indian audioblogosphere. I checked with Technorati to see this. So please correct me if I am wrong in this assumption. And when I say audioblogs, please consider "musicblogs".

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Vaazhvu Chezhikka - Nandu's mix

2006-08-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

Here is Nandu's version of Vaazhvu Chezhikka. Please let us know your comments.

Song: Vaazhvu chezhikka
Lyrics & music: Narayanan Venkitu
Orchestration: Nandu Mahadevan
Sung by: Jo

And guys, we are not just sitting idle. We have already started working on a second version of BlogSwara. So wait for that! :-)

When Blogswara Artists Met!

2006-08-20T01:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a very happy day for me. Jyothis (Shaniyan), Anup, and Jo came to my home and we had a mini Blogswara meet! Umechi also joined us for a brief period. Anup is getting married on September 9th and Jyothis was also in a hurry since he had his friend's marriage the next day. But we had a very nice time talking and was great seeing each other in real flesh and blood since we all know each other only throgh the internet! Let's wish Anup a great wedding on 9th.

Pradip

Inthiathai (Mother India)

2006-08-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

Here is another of our collaborative effort for a very special occasion, the Indian Independence Day. Hope you all enjoy the song.

Artists : Krishna & Prem

Hi-Fi

Low-Fi

Oru Kunju Swapnam - In Vidyu's voice

2006-08-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

You have already heard this song, a wonderful poem by Jyothis, in BlogSwara first version with Kiran's voice. As the composer of this song, I was/am very happy with Kiran's rendition and we recorded this song together when Kiran was here in Keralam. Please listen to Kiran's version in the songs page.

And then I thought why not have a female version of this song and I asked Vidyu if she could lend her beautiful voice to this. She was so kind to agree to sing this song and I must say she exceeded all my expectations! I am lucky to have these wonderful talents to sing my composition. Here is "Oru Kunju Swapnathin" in the amazing voice of Vidyu!

And special thanks to Pradipettan for mixing this song so nicely.

Enjoy guys and kindly let us know your thoughts. Thank you!

Song: Oru Kunju Swapnathin
Lyrics: Jyothis
Music: Jo
Sung by: Vidyu

***Download MP3 from here***

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Writer Sujata on Blogswara !!! (Vikatan Excerpt)

2006-07-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

Celebrated tamil writer and intellectual - Sujata, has a word of praise for blogswara in the popular tamil weekly vikatan. Thanks to my friend Balaji Srinivasan who sent me the reference !!

Sujata explains how the songs are usually made in the film industry. The music director sends the tune to the lyricist thru an assistant. The lyricist writes the lyrics and sends back thru the assitant. The assistant makes several trips between them and finally when the music director is happy with the lyrics, he starts working on the complete song. The singers or the choir people are summoned even in the mid-night if need be and the songs is recorded. The music director keeps poking at the track for embellishments until the final (DAT) stage.

Sujata also explains how Blogswara has achieved it through internet obviating the need for any assistants (well..we cannot afford it in the first place ! :) ). He also notes that, although the quality of the songs may not be uniform he is impressed with the innovativeness of the concept.

Blogswara lives on

2006-07-17T03:28:00.000-07:00

I think its high time we had an update here :). The buzz created by release 1 of Blogswara was fantastic and the visits have not stopped, as more and more people are coming to know of our humble contribution to music lovers. I am proud to be part of this, sharing this wonderful experience with so many talented people. I think this journey has only begun and there will be many more Blogswara songs. With the introduction of more and more talents to audio blogging, we can only go from strength to strength.

Haseen ittefaaq, ye mulaaqaat
terii aawaaz, mere alfaaz
(A beautiful coincidence, this meeting
Your voice, and my words)

Breaks for three talented singers - Pradip, Jo and Harish

2006-07-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

Three very good singers seem to be on the verge of a break.

1. Pradip Somasundaran has got an invite from Sandip Chowta to sing

2. Jo has got an invite from M.G. Radhakrishnan to sing

3. Harish has been invited into Airtel super singer contest finals as a special participant where if he wins he gets to sing with Harris Jayaraj

The first two have achieved this by power of audio blogging. Wishing all of them good luck !

BlogSwara invites you to join us!

2006-06-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

If you are a singer, lyricist or composer, we are inviting you to join the BlogSwara team. There is no language/country/region barrier. So just write to us, submit your work samples, and our moderators panel will check it and get back to you.

So don't just sit there, come and join us, if you think you are the right person for this!!!

Update: You can email us at theband(at)blogswara(dot)in

Unai Paarthadhaal - The Origin

2006-06-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

As I listen to this song today in Blogswara, I am simply astonished. From the original version that I sent to JO last year to what it is today, It's an awesome journey indeed. Never in my dreams did I think that it would finally end up the way it is today.

I don't distinctly remember how this song really came up. All I wanted to do, was to write / sing something that everyone experiences in life ie. LOVE.

As usual, I wrote/sang it and sent my composition to JO and asked his opinon. He said he liked it and sang it a few weeks later. You'll notice as you listen, he gave a lot of life to that song. Very typical of JO.

Then came another wonderful musician AJIT GOPALAKRISHNAN. I had asked him if he could do the orchestration ( He was on his Summer vacation). Within a few weeks he came up with the orchestration and I loved it. As you listen to Ajit's version, you'll notice IR's impact on his music.

Finally for BLS-1, BARANI, ENCORE AND NANDU gave a new dimension to this song. As a composer and a writer I feel very honored by the final outcome.

So, here are the first 3 versions of this song. Pardon my voice as usual.

My Original Version

JO sings it and gives Life

Ajith adds IR's touches

BlogSwara in Radio Mirchi FM

2006-06-01T00:16:00.000-07:00

There is a show in Radio Mirchi FM called "PettaiRap" on all Sundays from 3.00 to 5.00 PM. RJ Nachi anchors this show. This Sunday, 4th June, 2006, there will be a link about Blogswara in the show (A link is basically what an RJ speaks between two songs).

He will speak about what a blog is, how a set of audiobloggers have united to make a music album, abt the bloggers(their names) and he will mention about the songs also.

My special thanks to Poornima, who made this happen. (She is a good singer, check out her blog).

Dialup-users - Feedback please

2006-05-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

Thank you for visiting Blogswara and our Blog.

If you are a dial-up user we'd like to have your feedback please.

We would like to know if you were able to download / listen to the songs.

We'll appreciate your feedback.

Thank you again!

Vaazhvu Chezhikka Varam - The Origin

2006-05-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

I am 'Narayanan Venkitu' sharing my thoughts about my compositions.

This post is about the 'Origin' of the 'Vaazhvu Chezhikka Varam' song that I wrote and composed last year.

Wanted to share this with you.

It happened just like that, one evening when I was listening to a song 'Aalila Manjalil' from the Malayalam Movie 'Surya Gayathri'. I remember I was driving from Livermore to Fairfield, which is around 45 miles when I made this tune. I was impressed since this was my maiden attempt!

I went home and wrote the lines in a week. It was a hard week. I was extremely stressed out. As I was praying to the God Almighty for my stresses in life, somehow these lines came from my mouth.

Those days, I didn't even have a microphone. So I sang it via the telephone and used Audioblog to save it. I sent it to Jo and the rest is History. Jo sang it so well..that I took a day off.!! when he published it.

I didn't know the Raaga at the time. Murali and other friends later commented that it was 'Aabhogi' when Jo sang this song so nicely. I had tears in my eyes when I listened to my first composition.

I've posted my version of the song that I sent to JO !

Jo moulded the song so nicely and now..you know... how it is in BLS-1.

I'll write about 'Unai Parthadhaal' next week.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Business Line writes about BlogSwara

2006-05-26T02:24:00.000-07:00

Guys, check out the article about BlogSwara in The Hindu - Business Line. Thanks a lot to Mr. Sankar and Anup's reference.

Dhool.com has an article about BlogSwara here.

Update: India Uncut writes about BlogSwara. Thanks a lot Amit and Akshay! You guys rock!!

Nice Gestures and Footfalls...

2006-05-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks, this is Murali, aka DontheCat, sitemaster of Connexions and with ears as big as an African elephant's for the right kinda music. This is a great initiative and May the Tribe Increase :-)

Sometime around 7pm (Chennai time) as I get into the coding mood, Naani Venkittu pops up in my Yahoo, mumbles "Good Morning" (he's brushing his teeth, its 7 am in Fairfield) says "brb" and suddenly "Hey, why is Blogswara down ?"... (now you know what's Naani's home page set to in his IE).

I type a "Surprised" icon, head over to Blogswara and Connexions sites and they are down with a 509 warning - BandWidth Exceeded. So I navigate to the Control Panel and find that Blogswara had a whopping 5 GB bandwidth transfers in 24 hours. 600+ unique visits. Wow ! That's serious traffic folks

Here's a quick view of the last few days. Jo would be posting mote stats over the next few days.
Read this as Date - Unique Visits - Total Visits - Hits - Bandwidth

May 25th shows zeros cos the server updates at midnight ET, but I presume another 5 GB again. Our permitted BW is 12 GB, we had crossed 13.7 and the server automatically denied access to the sites.

Blogswara is hosted on MODHOST.com, one of the best I've found on the web. I opened an Emergency Support Ticket explaining that the site must've had a tremendous amount of visitors b'cos of the Album launch and the media exposure it received over the past few days. On behalf of Connexions, I asked them to invoice for the extra BW and reopen the sites.

This is the message I recd from David of MODHOST.com

Hello,

I've increased bandwidth limit to 30 GB on this account. This will be a free upgrade for this month only. Please monitor your usage using Cpanel and let us know should you need more bandwidth.

Zippo, the sites were up again instantly. Now, that's what I call Service with Quality. Kudos MODHOST.com. The Blogswara circuit salutes your gesture. Folks who wish to thank personally can send a mail to "support at modhost.com".

Swamenath of Connexions is another cool guy. When I told him that the Connexions webspace was down entirely and explained the reason for it, he just said "Please get it going if we have to pay extra". While another client could have been a bit upset, he just asked me to Congratulate the Blogswaras (Blogswarites ??) on the tremendous response and extends all possible support where possible. Hats off Swame..
Btw, Swame's blog is Memoirs from the Cauvery Banks. He's yet to get into blogging on a regular basis ("hey, I'm gonna start today").

And you folks who created the Music, you came shining through... That's whopper traffic for a start, I say again. Hey, lets beat the 100 GB barrier :-)

Cheers and Keep The Party Alive....

More references

2006-05-25T03:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Neha Viswanathan for writing about BlogSwara in Global Voices Online and to Kiruba. Thanks a lot to both of you for your kind support. We appreciate it very much!!!

Finally, we are on!

2006-05-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Yeah people!

Our songs are online from today. From the very first minute of 25th May. :-) I would like to thank each and every person behind this effort and such a project wouldn't have been possible without their great efforts and constant support. Thank you all of my BlogSwara mates!!! I know I've been too harsh at times rushing on things but the response from you guys have been really encouraging.

What started from a question "Why don't you co-ordinate these audiobloggers and do something together?" has ended up in this concept called BlogSwara. Thank you Sen, for all your encouraging words right from the beginning.

Lemme write a small "Thank You" note.

Thanks to Narayan Venkitu, without his help I wouldn't have entered this amazing world of audioblogging.
Thanks to Ganesh for this cool name, BlogSwara.
Thanks to Mukund and Bharat for contributing the .COM and .ORG domain names.
Thanks to Connexions for contributing the webspace for BlogSwara.
Thanks to Kaps, Desi Pundit & Manasi for their support.
Thanks to Indian Express, Malayala Manorama and others for the press coverage. Business Line (of The Hindu) will have an article on us soon.
Thanks to all the bloggers who put a link to our website.
Thanks to Murali for his help on song list preparation and on the other things.

And thanks a lot to our team who had agreed to write, compose, orchestrate and sing the songs for BlogSwara right after I mailed them. You guys are amazing!!! Thank you!!!

And a BIG thank you to all those bloggers and non-bloggers who have encouraged us to go this far. Your encouragement is greatly appreciated.

Check out the lyrics of all songs from Lyrics page.

Checkout the songs from Songs page. You can also download the songs from there.

Checkout the artists from the Artists page.

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Blogswara blog

2006-05-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Thanks a lot for visiting our site. Please use the comments section to let us know your comments about our efforts and songs. We value your comments much.

We will be updating this space often.

You can also email us at theband[at]blogswara[dot]in