Sangh Gachhatwam - Let's Move Together!

11 August 2010, Wednesday morning 03:57am

When we pool resources together, be 100 percent in the present moment and give it all that we've got, magic happens. What started out as an original song composed in Art of Living teacher PW's car when she was driving, has now become a brand new CD single!

I was so inspired by PW's beautiful voice and brand new tune when she first introduced the song "Sangh Gachhatwam" at a satsang (musical get-together) 3 weeks back, I urged her to record it.

Took me 2 hours plus to get to the recording studio - 20-minute walk to Taman Bahagia LRT station, 20-minute ride to KL Sentral, 20-minute wait for the KTM Komuter, another 20-minute ride to Taman Tasek Selatan and another hour to fumble our way to...

The place where magic was created!

Angel Studio is so cool! Everything from the amps, digital mixers, workstation, mixing consoles, editing software, guitars, drums and especially the studio design... reflected the burning passion of the talented Mr T. You can see he really loves his work. No wonder he says work is play.

Music maestros at work

T introduced us to his guitarist Razey and musical director. Then PW briefed everyone on the concept of Sangh Gachhatwam. Inspired by Guruji, this song simply means "Let's move together" in Sanksrit. As the Art Of Living believes in a One World Family, this song was originally written in 3 languages - Sanskrit, English, and a tinge of Mandarin. For tonight's recording, however, PW added a 1Malaysia "twist" to it, to commemorate Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's visit here after 11 long years.

Once we got comfy on the sofa, PW sang Sangh Gachhatwam a few times. The guitarist soon joined in and a jamming session was in place. We then brainstormed music feel and direction. And the guitarist went in to record his acoustic accompaniment. PW was then ushered into the studio to start recording.

Raw takes with T on the mixing console

While she was doing her takes in the studio, I suddenly had this crazy idea to overlap the English lyrics as backup, onto her Sanskrit chorus. Spoke to T and we decided to try it out. Yours truly ended up in the studio with PW a second time, this time to record backing vocals!

All the years in various recording studios, supervising VO talents doing their voice overs, never quite prepared me for this. Sure feels different inside in there! It's not as easy as it looks. Must be nerves :)

It was then time to record the second guitar backing - strumming this time. Then, it was over to T to choose tracks, edit, delete, layer, add in sound and musical effects, echo level and all the fine bits that make a world of difference to the finished track.

The result? Magic! Everyone put their heart and soul into this. A big thank you to PW and T for making this possible. Guruji, we have a surprise for you on Friday.

And, 6 hours later, I'm still listening to the tracks on my DVD player, with a big smile on my face.