Blogswara on Twitter

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

Part II:

Blogswara Interview in Manorama News

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

Blogswara on Manorama News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your comments please!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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