Let’s begin with a sort of word… well, more like phrase analogy.
categories and tags of this post : arms of a Hindu goddess
I’m in the process of making the cover art for Tandem’s first album. I wanted the cover art to show that Tandem is a one-man band. But I didn’t want to go with the cliché image of a guy walking around with a bass drum strapped on his back, a harmonica mounted near his mouth, and holding a guitar in his hands. I wanted it to be different, but not an Octopus either. After a fair amount of brainstorming, I decided to go with the Hindu goddess Kali. But instead of the weapons, fire, cup, and decapitated head, she’d be holding band instruments.
To go with the Hindu-inspired cover art, the working title of the album is Hindi Mahta Himik. When spelled correctly (hindi matahimik), it is a Filipino phrase that means “cannot be silenced” or “cannot find rest/peace,” which is how I feel about making music. I played with the spelling a bit to make it sound like it’s Sanskrit.
It took a lot of thumbnail sketches before I got to a pose that I liked. I found it hard to position the instruments in a way that didn’t look crowded. I drew my final working sketch on A3 paper. And just like the Forged Records logo, it was done in Ms. P’s English class. It didn’t turn out to be Kali herself. My goddess has three heads/faces, but I think it still has a strong Hindu goddess vibe to it. Not sure about the headdress though. Looks too much like an onion…
I’m off to read up on more Twistedbrush tutorials to help me get this done right… but not before I serve you this week’s Tripper’s Heaven! To go with our running theme, we have Kula Shaker!
Brit psychedelia
Kula Shaker is a post-Britpop, psychedelic-rock band that came out in the late ’90s. Their music is reminiscent of ’60s psychedelic rock, fused with traditional Indian music, giving it some flavor of Beatles material from the same decade. The band name actually came from King Kulasekhara, an 9th cenetury Indian emperor.
I only really listened to their 1996 debut album, K. And the only other song of theirs that I got to listen to is their rendition of Deep Purple’s rendition of Billie Joe Royal’s 1967 hit, Hush. Yes, it’s that complicated. The three below are all singles from K. I put the URLs just in case Youtube is being meh.
1. Tattva
You can really feel the Beatles influence in this one.
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bYj2o7y4rk”
2. Hey Dude
I love the guitar riffs in this song, especially the intro that really builds up.
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDHd-vxcMDo”
3. Govinda
Among the three, this song was the one that became a mainstream hit in the Philippines. As I recall, it was overplayed to the point of losing its magic. Youtube won’t show the official video in this country, so we have this slide show of Hindu deities instead.
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