Exclusive Premiere: Radha Thomas and Aman Mahajan’s Wistful Wanderings on ‘The Morning After’

Bengaluru’s seasoned jazz voice Radha Thomas and pianist Aman Mahajan have been working together for 10 years but when it came to putting together their debut album Bangalore Blues, they went back to basics. Mahajan says, “I’m quite happy with this duo format; it’s stripped down and allows us to be really interactive. With the singles, the idea was also to do one from a Bangalore (‘Load Shedding’) and the other from a New York (‘The Morning After’) perspective.”

While “Load Shedding” was released earlier this month, Bangalore Blues released today (March 15th) via Bengaluru label Subcontinental Records and the New York perspective has arrived in the form of “The Morning After” and its music video, shot by filmmakers Sharath Holla and Komal Khiani. Featuring Linda Ramakrishnan Persson channeling the role of Thomas’ night out in Manhattan, the song and video narrate a story of drinking all night and musing regrets. Thomas adds about the video coming together, “Sharath and Komal just happened to be visiting N.Y. for some other work so it was perfect timing. Linda, who acts in this video, is my daughter-in-law and in many ways she is exactly like me. So she had no problem slipping into the part. She lives in N.Y. so all in all a lucky win for us.”

The song features a bit of Thomas’ signature vocalese and melodies loosely based on raag Bageshree. The vocalist adds, “But the tonic shifts in parts, so that means it’s not a raga in the true sense. But the treatment of the song itself is also Indian, in the movements, breaks and so on. If u close your eyes you could have lyrics in Hindi or Tamil I think.”

There’s more videos expected out of Bangalore Blues, including the title track and possibly “Only Illusion.” Most of the launch gigs are out the window thanks to government advisories on the COVID-19 pandemic, but Mahajan adds, “We’re planning on using the downtime to play and write a lot more, so expect to hear more music from us soon. We’ll also be touring with this set as soon as we can.”

Watch the video for “The Morning After” below. Get ‘Bangalore Blues’ here.