Swaraag band members reveal how they came to be musically inspired by the coronavirus 

Hyderabad: An eight-member folk fusion band from Jaipur, Swaraag first rose to fame when they appeared on the show ‘Rising Star’. Since then, they have performed over 1,000 shows across the country and overseas as well. The band features Asif Khan (lead vocalist), Tasruf Ali (saxophone), Rishab Rozar (guitar), Arif Khan (khartal/morchang), Sajid Khan (drummer) and Seif Ali Khan (tabla), Pratap Singh (founder) and Arif Khan (sitar). Following the pandemic, the group worked on original compositions to cheer up their audience and their song inspired by the coronavirus quickly went viral. They talk about the song’s significance and life after pandemic in a freewheeling chat with ‘Telangana Today’.

Covid song 

When we think about the corona song today, it was actually made by the funny situations/things happening during the lockdown. We captured the funny way we interacted with each other in the house in the lyrics which became “Ja Ja Re Corona Virus” song.

Life returning to normal 

We had a lot of bookings as soon as the lockdown was over. There were few restrictions for corporate events. We personally feel that Indian weddings have kept our market alive, we are connected to a lot of hospitality agents like hotels, flights, travel agents, etc. We have close relations with jewellers as well.

Opportunities limited 

‘Rising Star’ was a good platform; the first two seasons were very good. But the third season in which we participated was not up to the mark, they were themselves finding it very difficult to garner high TRPs compared to other reality shows during that time. They tried to restrict us a lot and wanted us to perform in a specific way which we were not comfortable with. Still, we learned a lot. ‘Swaraag’ as a band gives actual sounds of each instrument. It’s not like the sounds you hear of electronic instruments.

Sustaining a musical group 

There are almost no public events here in Jaipur because people here don’t go to such events. They like to listen to more of folk music. For example, a famous Punjabi artiste’s one-time payment for a show would be a Rajasthani folk artiste’s lifetime earnings. When we performed in Indore, we were really shocked to know that in today’s day and age, the daily wages of artistes is very low compared to the daily wages of someone performing in Delhi or Mumbai.