“Amercan Desi” arrives October 8th. Lead single “Badlands,” featuring sonic
tributes to John Bonham, Keith Moon, streaming now.
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Clara May (L-R): Tom Silva, Jon Lewchenko, Michael Sinclair,
Alex Gowland, Marcus Smith, Phillip Amererson. Photo Credit: Rachel
Oftedahl.
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“Badlands” is
the first single from the new album “American Desi” by Clara May
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"Rich and alluring... a
mini-melting pot of new American music.” – Chicago Sun-Times
Visit MTV Desi
where Tom Silva of Clara May discusses
his Malaysian roots, Desi-rock fusion, and how his own ideas about the American
Dream have evolved.
Chicago-based band Clara May will release its second album American Desi on October
8th, and like its predecessor, the album explores themes surrounding
identity and ethnicity, but this time from a more singular perspective. Indian-American filmmaker, songwriter and
musician, Tom Silva is the man
behind this story, as he recently discussed with MTV’s Desi website here. At
a time when immigration has become a flashpoint topic, American Desi makes the
issue intensely personal by following a young man from the shores of Asia to
Los Angeles to Middle America on a haunting journey of border crossings,
loneliness, love and ultimately triumph.
“American Desi charts the inner
journey of an immigrant to America,” Silva
explains. “He’s wowed by the American dream, but is forced to face the reality
that, for this country’s 11 million undocumented aliens, it can be an even
harder life than what they left behind.”
It’s a story that may seem too heavy for a rock and roll record until
you actually listen to American Desi. The album’s sound is heavy itself in all the
right ways, making an epic noise with anthemic guitars, rattling bass, booming
drums and Silva’s baritone.
Combined, it conjures something as offbeat but
interesting as Lou Reed fronting Led Zeppelin. This can be heard on American Desi’s first
single “Badlands,”
which features a drum solo in the great tradition of British drummers like John Bonham and Keith Moon. Of the song’s lyrics, Silva describes them as a plea to immigrants to own their heritage.
"Be yourself and honor who you are,” he says. “The
song grew out of wanting to represent what an illegal immigrant feels like in a
new culture. I deeply love America, but the truth is that half of new aliens
have no health insurance and less than a high school education. Many do not see
their family or friends for decades and feel trapped.” Ultimately, Silva reminds us that the overall
message of the song is triumphant, saying, “‘Badlands’
calls to immigrants to assert themselves as people who deserve dignity and
respect.”
American
Desi by Clara May is scheduled for release on October 8th. Tom Silva is available for
interviews. Contact Josh
Bloom at Fanatic for
more information.
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Clara May
American
Desi
(S/R – Oct. 8th, 2013)
Track Listing:
01. American Desi
03. Kanyakumari
04. The Last Word
05. You Called Out to Me
06. Long Shadow
07. KL Days
08. LA
09. Seville
10. Perfect One
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Clara May Links
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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion
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