“Gar Ho Sakey”, featuring Shubha Mudgal, is an old-Left anthem of unknown provenance that is still popular with activist groups in North-India. Since this was a song which was known to all of us, the challenge for us was how to turn the whole feel of the song around and how differently could we present it. And we must say we are very happy with the final outcome. “Tandanu”, featuring Shankar Mahadevan, is a folk song from the BelurHalebid region of Karnataka which Rahul first heard from his aunt when he was a kid. It is a song that was made when Asheem and Susmit were in the band, so it’s been with us for a long time. Talking about why this was chosen as the name of the album, we had a huge discussion; it could have been ‘Tandanu’, it could have been ‘Cheetu’ or ‘Roday’...It came down to these three because we like having a name that is instantly separate... Tandanu is just a rhythmic word and has no intrinsic meaning. We quite liked the sound of it, which we feel is very catchy and unique. Tandanu sounded like it had something to do with music. If you Google it you won’t get anything except this. ‘Jhini’, ‘Desert Rain’, ‘Kandisa’ and ‘16/330 Khajoor Road’ would all appear to conform to this logic, but their first, titled ‘Indian Ocean’ (whose subtitle “A musical voyage with no frontiers” is still a great source of mirth for the band), sticks out like a sore thumb.
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