Tritha (Q&A)

“I started rapping out my frustrations of not eating fish, a staple food I missed from my life in Kolkata. I recited different names of fish and bengali recipes of fish”, tells us Tritha Sinha, a rising musician from India, about the origins of her new single “Macher Bajaar” (Fish Market).

“It came about in New Delhi in 2011, when my bassist Tony Guinard and drummer Paul Schneiter started jamming in the studio one day on a very high and aggressive tempo”.

“Those days”, Tritha continues, “there was a big hue and cry about an anti-corruption bill being demanded in the Indian Parliament, and the whole country was glued to the television. Days of political discussions, sometimes leading to physical fights between politicians on national television, which then led me to compare the political situation of the country to a fish market”.

“Veteran BBC Sound Engineer Miti Adhikari, who also recorded Nirvana, Radiohead, FooFighters, Coldplay and many others, got interested to mix the song as well as my debut album ‘PaGLi’. The video was realised by talented animator Ishaan Rathod who, along with Tritha, conceived the idea that the fish would be a metaphor for the endemic corruption in contemporary politics”.

“Everybody is seen with their heads turning into fish heads… Be it politicians, police, doctors, engineers, etc. It spreads like an epidemic, fish is like a drug… And everybody is tripping on it – from a normal middle class guy to all the candidates in the parliament and the whole country has just become a fish market”.

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You can hear more from Tritha on her Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud and Bandcamp.

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