Saturday

Ananda Sen

Exuberant, energetic, exultant and dynamic are just a few words which can be used to describe one man, whose name is defined by his true euphoria and beatitude: Ananda Sen.

California-based vocalist, Ananda Sen, is the man behind the amazing project, “One Song a Week,” in which Ananda promised, in the summer of 2007, that he would write, record and produce one track a week for 52 weeks. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s putting these original songs for free download on his website. When Ananda first told me about this, I thought to myself, that’s crazy, there’s no way that a person can do all that in one week, but Ananda proves if you have the determination and fortitude, anything is possible. “Even just a year ago,” Ananda said, “I couldn’t have predicted what my daily, somewhat frantic, life would be like now.”

Looking at the present, I’m sure he’s more than pleased with how it’s turned out. When spending time with Ananda and getting to know the person he is, one learns that there is more than what meets the eye. Even having attained his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. from Stanford Law School, Ananda is far from narcissistic.

Born into a very musically-inclined Bengali family from New Jersey, it was at the tender age of three that Ananda began to delve into the art of music as he could be seen sharing the stage with his older sister as he sang and then later played the tabla. His parents had always encouraged both of their children to explore and excel in music throughout their lives. But as Ananda got older and became more distinguished in his academic and then legal career, music had to necessarily take a back seat. And so naturally, his parents were a bit tentative when he told them that he was leaving the law to pursue music full time. Ananda explains, “basically, the crux of it was, I was already a practicing entertainment attorney, but they saw that this music bug wasn’t going away, so they made peace with it and saw that this was something that I needed to do. And they’re great about it and really supportive. They listen to my songs and they watch my videos and pass it along to their friends.”

Ananda himself says that he has always been blessed with a strong support system when it came to music, consisting of not only his family but his friends. While he was in college and in law school, his peers would attend his performances and encourage him to continue with his musical endeavors. In fact, it was during his undergrad years at the University of Pennsylvania that Ananda came to know that a group of South Asian male-students wanted to start an acapella group. When the group asked for Ananda’s help in starting up, Ananda re-auditioned everyone, arranged their music and taught the members how to sing and perform on stage. Eventually this group turned into what is now known as Penn Masala – the first ever Hindi a capella group – and Ananda was the founding Music Director. Ananda told me that he’s still in touch with Sumit Bothra, one of the main founding fathers of the group, who is now a very successful artist manager in the UK, working with artists the likes of Nitin Sawhney, Fink and Goldspot. It seems that Penn Masala, at least judging from Ananda and Sumit, has proven to be a good launching point for careers in music and entertainment.

Since his days with Penn Masala, Ananda has moved far beyond his original passion of singing to become adept at multiple musical instruments, audio-engineering and producing. His philosophy when it comes to being a musician is simple: “Stick with the basics: what makes you a musician is that you write, record and perform music. Just focus on that, and the rest will happen because it has to.” And then he adds with a grin, “trust me, there will be plenty of opportunity to worry about marketing, promotion, and all those other things.”

Though unfamiliar to the South Asian music scene, Ananda believes that there are, “opportunities out there [for our artists] to play music. With the Internet, it’s wonderful that anyone can create studio quality recordings in their basement, and then promote and distribute their music on their own.” He then adds as a caveat, “But, I don’t think artists rise by themselves, communities of artists rise – they all help each other and elevate one another. I think that it’s important to maintain a sense of community with other artists even if you can technically do it all alone. The best thing for me about the song-a-week project is that it’s given me the chance to collaborate with other artists, who have taken the music far further than I could have alone.”

Carrying a soulful yet powerful voice on each track, Ananda is able to sing his heart out, even as he explores multiple genres while maintaining cohesive songwriting. It is no accident that when Ananda takes on a project, he shows his full efforts, discovering new possibilities to let his musical influences come together.

So what does the future hold for Ananda? “I’m releasing my first full-length album in April,” he explains. “But I’m definitely going to keep going with this project until I’ve hit my goal of 52 songs released. So far the song-a-week project has been a great opportunity for me to evolve as an artist and work with some amazing musicians. We’ve had a great time writing and recording the first 23 songs, and we only have 29 to go. Which reminds me,” he says abruptly. “I have to get back to work….”

Be Sure To Visit:
http://www.AnandaMusic.com
http://www.MySpace.com/AnandasMusic