'My music is honest and freeflowing'

UK-based singer Susheela Raman, on an Indian tour, tells Ritujaay Ghosh that she is influenced by several music genres.

If blending the sensibilities of Carnatic music with Western harmonies had been her only objective, she could have done that while staying in the U K. But Susheela Raman visits India every year on a sound mission.

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"I am influenced by several genres, but to put it in simple words, my music is fusion," says the singer who is in India to perform at a series of concerts. She was at Mumbai's Blue Frog last Sunday.

Influences
Raman was born in the U K. Her family moved to Australia when she was just four. Since then, she has been nomadic, trysting with rock, funk, jazz and, of course Tamil music which she's crazy about.

Raman's new album 33 1/3 reveals her various influences. "My album is an interpretation of the sounds of the 1960s and the '70s, of legends such as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon.

However, it's not a recreation of their numbers. It's my interpretation of their songs. My music is honest and free flowing," she says.

In the moment
"That's because the interpretation of the sounds have been different at different times. My feelings towards life become the words for the song," she says grandly.

"At times, a simple idea creeps up in my mind and becomes the lyric. At times,the harmony forms the base of the lyrics." Raman, who shuttles these days between the U K and Chennai, has already started work on her next album, scheduled to release at the end of the year.

The album will have influences of Tamil folk blended with western music.