Listen: Australian Dream Pop Band Jinja Safari’s Pepa Knight Makes Solo Debut
The Australian sitar-player, keyboardist and vocalist originally recorded his first single “Rahh!” while traveling in India
(right) Pepa Knight with Jinja Safari. Photo: Monisha Ajgaonkar
Clearly, there’s more Jinja Safari’s India connection than just the India tour they played in 2012. The Australian dream pop band’s co-vocalist Cameron ”˜Pepa’ Knight has released his debut solo single “Rahh!” which was originally written between 2011 and 2013, while Knight was traveling across India, including stops at Amritsar and Ahmedabad.
Although Knight spent two years traveling and recording samples for an album’s worth of material, he accidentally deleted all material late last year. Knight saw it fit to re-record the songs in a similar setting, so he set up a teepee tent in his backyard and turned it into a home studio earlier this year. If photos are to be believed, Knight’s music video for his dreamy new single “Rahh!” involves a white Hindu priest.
According to Knight, the song was written on top of an old fort in Rajasthan, “waiting for the sun to rise with a bunch of pilgrims and a Sadhu man.” Knight added, “The sample at the end of the track is the Sadhu chanting and the drumbeat was inspired by a tabla player I met from the same town.”
