Master of Melody If there ever were a musical sorcerer, then his shoes would fit Oliver Sean to a tee. A rhythmic illusionist and conjurer of rhyme and substance, Sean is simply sensational. At the trivial age of four, Sean assumed the role of a singer. At eight, he was strumming away on his guitar and when eleven, Sean waxed into quasi-lyricist. He is the real deal, the whole shebang when one adverts music.
Sean doesn't conform to fads and vogues of the times. Contrary to the remarkably sweeping trend of collaboration observed in the music industry at present, Sean isn't too big on collaboration. "Though I wouldn't mind collaborating with established producers, I am chary of the messages in my songs transposing due to many cooks spoiling the broth," he says. His upcoming English album Getting Around, is also set to release this year. The lyrics, being deep and soft, are intrinsically about peace and love. Anent the title of the album, he says, "A single child, I lived a protected childhood assuming the world to be all hunky-dory until I encountered deceptive, two-faced people along my way. Having grown-up and learnt it the hard way, now I have gotten around to know life's ugly secrets." Though he is mixed up with his lineage, belonging to multiple ethnicity-Italian, Portuguese and Indian heritage-, having grown up in Goa, he considers Goa as his hometown and his perennial destination for peaceful contemplation. He also has a penchant for animals and looks to it that ten per cent of his albums' sales revenue goes towards animal welfare and to stop fur trade. Having studied to be a sound recording engineer in the US, he is an industry in himself, writing, arranging and composing all the tracks in his albums by himself. Categorising his music as acoustic rock, basically world music, he sometimes commixes it with music from ethnic instruments. But then again, this isn't his conscious decision. "My music attempts to blend genres. It blends rock-and-roll with rock music, blends the music of 60s with that of the 90s. While arranging music, more and more instruments keep coming into the picture and it's always an artistic choice to accommodate these instruments," Sean explicates. This being his first time playing in Pune, he is assured of a large audience due to the large number of colleges in the city. At the concert here on Saturday, his fans could look forward to some music from his new album Getting Around, a few chosen previous hits and some classic songs like Knocking on Heaven's Door à la mode de Dylan. His fabulous feats have included the French government including his composition The Libran Mind as the theme song for its tourism campaign of the Massif region. Entirely instrumental, this was uncharted territory for the singer-songwriter. Sean is also the owner of two recording companies - W.O.A Records and Sevenz Records. He figures in a band called the Oliver Sean Band. Though for gag's sake, it is also sometimes called Oliver Sean and the Longhaired band. His multilingual world rock album Darna Chod Do, a commingling of world music and mainstream rock, saw him delving into Hindi songs. The ideas and compositions, being his own, he collaborated with several lyricists on the album. More at: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Master-of-Melody/304420/ http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/10/20/stories/2003102001760400.htm http://www.oliversean.com/ ~(^^)~ Avelino
