The Tapi Project, a contemporary Folk band with textures of World, Fusion and Jazz, is ready to tour Asia starting August 15
Yogi Saniyawala (right) and Swati Minaxi
Swati Minaxi's raspy voice was the first thing that drew us to the Surat-based band, The Tapi Project's music. When we dug deeper to seek out the talent behind their contemporary Folk music, we found that the band has been around for a year and consists of Minaxi, Yogi Saniyawala and Anand J Mani.
Yogi Saniyawala (right) and Swati Minaxi
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“Yogi and I were earlier part of a band called Odyssey, which had more of an alternate Rock sound with English lyrics,” says Saniyawala. “I met Swati at a college competition where I was a judge, and she was a part of the band that was judged as the winner. I was impressed by her different vocal delivery, and asked her to join the band; it's how The Tapi Project, the contemporary Folk band was born,” he shares, adding that Mani is the backbone of the band, who looks after their harmonic structures and arrangements of the songs. There is also a story behind the name of the band, that originates from the fact that Minaxi and Saniyawala were born in Tapi, Surat. While composing a song called Tapi, which was connected with the Tapi River, they decided to name the band after it.
(From left) Nihit Gupta, Swati Minaxi, Yogi Saniyawala, Gaurav Kapadia and Anand J Mani at a live gig
The trio is self-taught and don't consider themselves restricted to a particular genre. “Our tastes in music are diverse, hence the sounds we produce have different influences too. While we essentially play Contemporary Folk music, you will find textures of World, Fusion and Jazz in it.
The music is formed in contemporary arrangements, woven around inquisitive poetry and by revisiting Folk instruments,” shares Saniyawala.
Mani plays the keyboard while Saniyawala plays the bass, with Minaxi on vocals. “We have collaborated with various artistes including Vinayak Pol on the drums (who jams with Sunidhi Chauhan and Rahul Sharma), Tuheen Chakravorty from Indian Ocean on the tabla, Julien Moretto from Montpellier, France on violin and a local truck driver and Folk artiste Osmanbhai, who plays the Surando (an ancient Folk stringed musical instrument of Kutch, played with the use of Bow) from Naliya in Kutch,” he adds.
One of the tracks that we enjoyed the most is called Paigam. The song talks about communication before the age of digital media and brings across the simplicity of those times, beautifully.
According to Saniyawala, one of the biggest challenges the band faces is making their presence felt in metro cities despite being based in Surat. “The genre is not very popular since India is still big on Bollywood and other regional film music. We are hoping that our tour starting on Independence Day, which will include countries like Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and various cities in India, will help us spread awareness about both, the genre and the band,” he sums up.
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