New record confronts stereotypes with hard-hitting
sound like Lou Reed fronting Led Zeppelin.
See the video now at Rolling Stone India.
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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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& SHARE
“American
Desi” is the latest single and video from the latest album by Clara May
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See the premiere of the
“American Desi” video by Clara May via Rolling Stone India
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“Rich and
alluring... a mini-melting pot of new American music.” – Chicago Sun-Times
“I’ve never heard an Indian song that had the grandeur
and toughness of an early 70’s prog-rock ballad,” says Tom Silva, the Indian-American leader of Chicago rock band, Clara May. “‘American
Desi’ is about the 20 million Indians who left India in search of a new
life,” he says of the title track of the band’s new concept album, out today. “The
words in English and Hindi evoke the feeling of not belonging, of being looked
at by other people who define you and don’t understand where you’re from.”
American
Desi, like its predecessor,
explores themes surrounding identity and ethnicity, but this time from a more
singular perspective. Silva recently discussed
the record with MTV Desi
and its story of how, at a time when immigration has become a flashpoint topic,
the album 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.
“For every Indian who has become a success overseas,” Silva explains, “There are the millions
who work in low-wage jobs without an education and without legal status. We
never hear their voices. These people may never see their homeland again. This
is the narrative at the heart of it.” 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 as heard on the American
Desi track “Badlands,”
which features a drum solo in the great tradition of British drummers like John Bonham and Keith Moon. The video for
the album’s title track recently premiered
via Rolling Stone India. The clip was directed by John Michael Bister, an accomplished Neuroscientist who hung up his
lab coat to pursue his real passion: animation.
Silva explains, “We used archival footage, stop-motion and
old-fashioned graphics to create a very tactile feel that juxtaposes Indian
footage with iconic images of Mount Rushmore and the Golden Gate Bridge as a
way of suggesting the immigrant journey at the heart of the song.” Bister
concurs, saying, “Once Tom suggested
juxtaposing iconic American images with footage from India, the surreal,
dreamlike aesthetic of the video really took off.”
Of the song’s sonics, Silva says, “I love the early 70’s British bands, but the biggest
influence on this song was ‘Private
Investigations’ by Dire Straits
from 1982. It has a deep, brooding emptiness that is atmospheric, but also
urgent. That’s why the song also has so much silence and emptiness – it’s to
evoke that experience of having leaving home. That said, the swell in the
second half of the song and the guitar work by Alex Gowland are meant to be defiant and convey the strength of
these brave Indians.”
American
Desi by Clara May is out now. Contact
Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
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Clara May
American
Desi
(S/R –Out Now)
Track Listing:
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
