Sheila Chandra
Nada Brahma
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Nada Brahma was originally released in July 1985 as a special limited edition album. Only 5,000 copies were pressed, each one personally signed by Sheila Chandra. The marketing of Nada Brahma was unique. Instead of using the standard headshot as a publicity photo, Sheila took a tongue-in-cheek approach and used a photo of her foot ornately decorated with a Meendi design. The album is equally as adventurous. The first song on the album is a 27-minute atmospheric track in which Sheila paints strange, yet beautiful, images using her voice as an instrument. Sheila comments, “The musical story of ‘Nada Brahma (Sound Is God)’ was a perfect vehicle for me as a writer and singer to illustrate a great variety of Indian and pop vocal styles. It pushed my voice into new areas. I’m very proud of the track. It’s a kind of milestone for me which develops the idea of the voice as the greatest and most expressive instrument.” The other four tracks on the album are rhythm-based and have a “live” feel to them. Indian percussion is prominently featured, particularly on “Raqs” which includes the Tabla, Mridangam (South Indian drum), Ghatam (finely-crafted clay pot) and Ghungra (ankle bells worn by dancers).

“Nada Brahma was my fourth album for Indipop Records. I recorded it during a hectic twenty-four month phase between 1983 and 1985 that produced four albums. It was a period in my life characterized by rebellion. A time that was triggered by my less-than-happy experiences with a major record company towards the end of my contract with them as the lead singer of Monsoon (a then radical Asian fusion band).

“By the time I was seventeen, I had glimpsed at the music industry’s potential to turn me into a machine for turning out artistic product. I refused to let myself become that. So, at eighteen, I signed to a tiny independant label called Indipop where I could continue my musical apprenticeship in the field of Asian fusion. “With no marketing or commercial restrictions on me, I really enjoyed the arena of musical freedom I had created. At the time, so little had been done in the Asian fusion area, particulary vocally, that the field was wide open and there were many musical ideas I wanted to explore.

“For instance, on this album, ‘Nada Brahma (Sound Is God),’ is a twenty-seven minute piece loosely based on Raga Jog. Having established the raga (fixed note scale) and decided there would be no drums or lyrics, we went off to write the various themes and variations. We were playing around with the limits of what an audience would accept, with unusual musical arrangements and structures, and with the voice as an instrument.

“I enjoyed writing by myself, but it was also good to have two other writers - Steve Coe and Martin Smith - each of whom knew my voice, and were working to the same end in a musical style that was still embryonic, evolving and which had no contemporary comparison.

“Looking back, I think my willingness to push my voice creatively into new areas (which were often not ‘pretty’ vocally) was fueled by the knowledge that I had complete creative control over the recordings. If I didn’t like the track or the final mix, Indipop couldn’t release it. It gave me the confidence to be on the edge artistically and that, in turn, provided Indipop with some unique recordings.”

Sheila Chandra - 1995

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