“Yaara Ve is dedicated to our listeners from Punjab” – Swaraag

As a band, Swaraag is known for creating songs that are a fusion of different genres or musical sounds. ‘Yaara Ve’, a new single released by the band a couple of days back, features guitars along with traditional instruments like harmonium and tabla. The song, however, is rooted in a very traditional soundscape and that’s what helps it stands out in today’s times where most songs have a westernised base to them.

The romantic number, which has a tinge of melancholy in it, has been sung by Swaraag’s lead vocalist Asif Urra. While Asif has also composed the song, it has been co-composed and produced by Akshay Agarwal. The song, which largely features Punjabi verses, has been written by Mohit Singhi.

Explaining the reason behind creating a Punjabi song this time around, Pratap Singh, the founder and head coach of Swaraag, says, “As a band, one of the things Swaraag has been known for is its versatility. Since we want to cater to a pan-India audience, we are making songs in different languages. The tagline of our band is “Bharat ka ek hi raag, Swaraag”. Asif, the lead vocalist of our band, is very good at grasping different languages. We just thought of creating a Punjabi song this time and went ahead with it. ‘Yaara Ve’ is dedicated to our listeners from Punjab.”

Along with vocalist Asif Urra, the music video of the song features actors Gaurav Wadhwa and Muskan Mulchandani. It has been directed and edited by Arpit Gangwal and shot by Kamal K Kumawat. The video, which features three friends dealing with the emotion of love, is visually striking.

“We brainstormed on several ideas while putting together the music video. Asif had never featured as the lead actor or artist in any of the band’s music videos so far. We had thought of asking him to feature in one of our videos but were not sure of how well he would emote on camera. We had released a song called ‘Aayi Diwali Siya Ram Ke Sang’ during Diwali last year. There was segment in the video towards the end where Asif gets to have a darshan of Lord Ram. When he gets Lord Ram’s darshan, he had to emote in a certain way. When you see that part, you realize has bhakti bhaav all over his face. Arpit Gangwal, the director of the video, was extremely impressed with Asif’s expressions and stated that he acted much better than he had expected him to. Then, we decided to have Asif as lead actor on music videos. Mohit, the lyricist of ‘Yaara Ve’, came up with the concept for the video. As a director, Arpit visualized it very well.”

Swaraag has plans to release several original songs this year. The next song to be put out by the band will be released in five different languages. The band also plans to experiment with genres they haven’t tried out earlier in the near future.