Bringing a unique flare to traditional Indian music, drum guru Sarah Thawer combines musical elements and fuses genres with her captivating percussive performance. #MonsterArtist
Subscribe for more live music and interviews: / @bollywoodmonster…
SEASON 1: EPISODE 3
Drum guru Sarah Thawer discusses creating her own brand as a drummer through creativity, humour, and a willingness to think outside the box with her music. Featuring two live tracks in collaboration with a traditional Colombian flautist, the talented musician reveals her upbringing and journey as an artist.
The young artist studied jazz and world music at York University and was the recipient of the Oscar Peterson Scholarship, the highest award given by the institution. She brings together her two areas of study in this episode of MAD with a cross-cultural, traditional meets modern approach to music with “#TheKherwaGroove” and “Gaita.”
Go To:
1:42 “#TheKherwaGroove”
4:37 Playing with Rajdeep Chatterjee at #BollywoodMonster Mashup
4:58 Playing with Sanchari Bose and Bishakh Jyoti at #BollywoodMonster Mashup
5:53 “Gaita”
8:23 Genre fusions and improvising
CREDITS
“#TheKherwaGroove”
Written by Sarah Thawer
“Gaita”
Written by Sarah Thawer and Juan Carlos Medrano Magallanes
All Songs Performed by
Sarah Thawer and Juan Carlos Medrano Magallanes
Audio Engineer:
Vikas Kohli of Fat Labs
Videographers:
Charles Vilagut, Mike Gillis, Jawn Taboika and Filip Plaskota of Creators at Play
Production Coordinator:
Cassandra Popescu
Additional footage used with permission from Sarah Thawer
and a Monstrous THANK YOU to Ontario 150 for making this all possible!!
ABOUT MONSTRARTITY
Born in 2011, MonstrARTity Creative Community is a not-for-profit organization, based in Mississauga and committed to providing entertainment for the young and old alike. Ever expanding our productions, MonstrARTity is the producer of #BollywoodMonster Mashup, which is the largest South Asian festival in Canada, as well as the team behind the award-winning #MonsterRock Orchestra show.
Want to get involved in the MAD program? We want to hear from you
http://www.monsterartistdevelopment.com
LET’S CONNECT!
Website ► http://www.monsterartistdevelopment.com/
Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/monstrartity/
Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/BollywoodMas…
Twitter ► https://twitter.com/BollywoodMashup
Subscribe for more live music and interviews: / @bollywoodmonster… Bringing a unique flare to traditional Indian music, drum guru Sarah Thawer combines musical elements and fuses genres with her captivating percussive performance. #MonsterArtist
Key moments
View all
“#TheKherwaGroove”
“#TheKherwaGroove”
1:42
“#TheKherwaGroove”
1:42
Playing with Rajdeep Chatterjee at #BollywoodMonster Mashup
Playing with Rajdeep Chatterjee at #BollywoodMonster Mashup
4:37
Playing with Rajdeep Chatterjee at #BollywoodMonster Mashup
4:37
Playing with Sanchari Bose and Bishakh Jyoti at #BollywoodMonster Mashup
Playing with Sanchari Bose and Bishakh Jyoti at #BollywoodMonster Mashup
4:58
Playing with Sanchari Bose and Bishakh Jyoti at #BollywoodMonster Mashup
4:58
“Gaita”
“Gaita”
5:53
“Gaita”
5:53
Genre fusions and improvising
Genre fusions and improvising
8:23
Genre fusions and improvising
8:23
#BollywoodMonster Mashup
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About
Use CTRL+F to find key words if it is a longer transcript.
0:06
[Applause]
0:09
hey my name is Sarah and you’re watching
0:13
mad
0:14
[Music]
0:20
growing up my parents did not want me to
0:22
play the drums they did not want me to
0:24
be a musician because they said you’re
0:26
gonna be starving you’re gonna be on the
0:28
streets you’re a girl you’re gonna be
0:30
roaming at nighttime carrying your drums
0:31
no one’s gonna help you no one cares
0:32
about drummers if you wanna make money
0:34
you have to be a singer and you have to
0:35
be a pianist so I took piano lessons and
0:37
singing lessons for about 10 to 15 years
0:39
which I’m very grateful for now but not
0:41
back at that time so they told me try
0:46
and become a brand for yourself as a
0:48
drummer if you want to be a drummer so I
0:50
started posting up a bunch of YouTube
0:52
covers growing up in my teens which gave
0:53
me a lot of recognition with ar-rahman
0:55
some zoom on Vishal Dadlani a bunch of
0:58
other people in Indian music we have a
1:00
towel which is like a rhythmic cycle
1:02
called the Kara Kara is an 8 week cycle
1:05
and it’s played on door lock table and
1:07
it’s kind of like this that’s the rhythm
1:12
so a lot of these rhythms are played on
1:14
traditional percussion Indian folk
1:16
percussion instruments but I’d love to
1:18
adapt that stuff on the drum set with
1:20
non-indians and see how they interpret
1:22
it so I thought let’s have a good time
1:25
play this groove on the drums have a
1:27
Colombian traditional instrument have
1:28
some head movements and just have a vibe
1:30
and have a good time a lot of people
1:32
think oh these old Indian rhythms are so
1:34
boring in their from for old people so I
1:36
call this song hashtag the care walk
1:38
groove so it’s trying to bring these
1:39
rhythms to life
1:42
[Music]
2:08
[Music]
2:37
[Music]
2:37
[Applause]
2:39
[Music]
3:07
I love humor I love fun in music I have
3:18
this vision in my mind that when I’m
3:20
playing music my grandma sitting in the
3:21
audience and how does she connect with
3:22
me
3:22
she’s not gonna gonna connect with me
3:24
with my fast hands she’s gonna connect
3:25
with a groove with a smile I love
3:28
thinking outside the box I hear a lot of
3:30
sounds in my mind I think of drums each
3:33
kind of Limp having its own sound or own
3:37
texture and again Indian music not
3:40
stemming from a drum set as Western
3:41
music does it stems from percussion
3:43
instruments so how can you replicate
3:45
those sounds on the drums
3:46
so that’s whirly slinky thing it
3:49
replicates like the ring on a door lock
3:50
and that’s how I see it
3:52
you know taking the hay or playing with
3:54
the RORO toms I hear like congas or
3:57
playing with mallets you know when you
3:59
hit the cymbal you think of the wash of
4:01
a wind or wind chimes so just really
4:04
thinking outside the box and not
4:06
thinking maybe as a drummer thinking of
4:08
someone who loves textures or a musician
4:10
you know drummer musician first drummer
4:12
second since my dad had his own band
4:14
when I was young he gave me that
4:17
platform to play we played around Canada
4:19
played locally in Toronto as well so I
4:22
would say from the age of five was my
4:23
first performance on stage singing and
4:25
playing drums I officially became the
4:27
drummer of his band when I was like 12
4:29
or 13 years old before that I was
4:31
playing a lot of percussion like you
4:32
know the octopods the gut thumbs you
4:34
know the congas or whatnot yeah I think
4:37
playing with Raja sleep was my first
4:38
time playing with the Bollywood monster
4:39
mashup because it’s such a prestigious
4:41
festival as it is the largest South
4:43
Asian festival in Canada and playing
4:45
with Rajdeep was my first time and that
4:48
was my first incredible experience with
4:49
it and I just can’t believe when I
4:50
looked into the audience like I couldn’t
4:52
see a space of ground there’s like heads
4:54
heads heads heads I was like whoa son
4:58
chari we had a set list we did navigate
5:01
you know deviate a bit here and there
5:03
but it was a lot of formatted stuff and
5:05
be shocked it was a lot of Punjabi stuff
5:08
whereas Ansari was a lot of Asha Bhosle
5:10
stuff you got to be on top of knowing
5:13
your repertoire so the challenge is is
5:15
to make the artist happy by adjusting
5:18
your setup and your touch and your
5:20
playing too
5:21
achieve that sound that they’re looking
5:22
for we may be in Canada have a different
5:25
perception of Indian music you know they
5:27
live in India so maybe there’s a lot
5:29
more depth to that what they think of
5:31
you know meeting an artist from India
5:33
from Punjab or one from Gujarat so again
5:36
you know seeing the stylistic
5:38
differences and the authenticity that
5:40
they come with from India which I find
5:41
just fascinating and that’s something
5:43
that I really picked up is the ideas and
5:45
the stylistic stuff next up we have the
5:48
Sangeeta it’s with myself on drums and
5:50
one on the gaia hope you like it
6:14
[Music]
6:36
[Applause]
6:40
[Music]
6:52
[Music]
7:17
[Music]
7:33
[Applause]
7:33
[Music]
8:11
I feel like jazz is a very broad term in
8:25
today’s world you know back then maybe
8:27
jasmine traditional you know like Miles
8:29
Davis and stuff now there’s like hip-hop
8:31
jazz now there’s fusion jazz now there’s
8:33
Indo jazz improvisation of course is
8:37
very involved in jazz but it also is in
8:39
Indian classical music in afro-cuban
8:41
music so it’s an I think it’s an all
8:44
styles of music yeah because when you go
8:46
to jam sessions like I do you know I go
8:48
to New York sometimes in a jam session
8:49
no one’s gonna say okay so you play this
8:52
note on beat four and you have no it’s
8:55
like okay we’re gonna start okay play
8:56
you know how do I do that I remember as
8:59
a child my dad would put me on stage
9:00
when I was really young and I’d be like
9:02
okay dad what’s the next song wait and
9:04
figure it out and I would cry I’ll go to
9:07
my mama with my dad’s being mean to me
9:08
and my moms like no he’s trying to help
9:10
you he’s trying to teach you how to pick
9:11
up things on the fly thank you for
9:13
watching I really hope that you enjoyed
9:15
that if you liked what you saw if you
9:17
liked my beats I played on some other
9:19
videos as well so check them out and
9:21
don’t forget to subscribe
9:30
you
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