Blues band Soulmate’s new album muses on the everydayness of life and love
Guitarist Rudy Wallang and singer Tipriti ‘Tips’ Kharbangar have just come home to the hills of Shillong. The core of the blues band, Soulmate, they have been living out of their suitcases for a while now, as they hopped across cities promoting blues and their new album, Moving On. “Throughout the country there are many blues fans but not many bands are playing it. But with our new album, we hope to reach out to a larger audience—even those who are not able to make it to our live concerts,” says Wallang.

There can be no better ambassador for the blues than Soulmate, one of the most original music acts in the English music scene in the country. Since the time they began doing gigs outside Shillong three years ago, the band has found a niche, appreciative audience. They perform regularly at The Haze Blues and Jazz Bar in Delhi and in Kolkata, Pune, Goa, Darjeeling, Mumbai and Hyderabad. In 2007, they became the first band to represent India at the 23rd International Blues Challenge, organised by The Blues Foundation of America in Memphis, Tennessee, in February 2007.

Moving On, their second album, continues the good work. “I’m getting older, a little bolder/Building up my confidence,” sings Kharbangar, surely one of the finest female Western music vocalists in the country, in the title track. That confidence is the tenor of the 12-track compilation that released early this month on the Blue Frog records. “The songs are themed around moving on in life, something that we have done as a band and even as people. The songs are about feelings and evolving with every new day,” says Wallang. The album, which was recorded and produced in the guitarist’s home studio in Shillong, muses on the everydayness of life and love. “Blues is about life. Every human being has the blues one time or the other in their lives. In the days of slavery in America, the only way a black person could vent out his or her anger and frustrations was through a song. That was how it got its name,” says Wallang.

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