“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” is the philosophy behind Indian band The Ska Vengers’ new track “Frank Brazil”. The song and video will release on July 31st, 2015, and the six-member band is scheduled to perform promotional gigs in Bangalore and Delhi in July and August.“Frank Brazil” is a ‘murder ballad’, on the lines of Tom Jones’ “Delilah” or Johnny Cash’s “I Hung My Head”, about the life of legendary Indian martyr Udham Singh who assassinated Michael O’Dwyer. Frank Brazil was one of the aliases that Singh used over the years. The song is a tribute and will be released on Udham Singh’s 75th death anniversary.Dwyer was the British Lieutenant Governor of Punjab at the time of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919. He had approved General Reginald Dyer’s decision to open fire on hundreds of non-violent protestors that had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on the day of the Sikh festival of Baisakhi, April 13, 1919. According to a pre-meditated and cold-blooded scheme, where exits were blocked and events leading up to the event and in its aftermath were politically planned, soldiers opened fire on an unarmed gathering of about 20,000 for 10 minutes, killing over a 1,000 people. It was an attempt “not to disperse the meeting but to punish the Indians for disobedience”.Indian independence activist Udham Singh, who had witnessed the events of April 13, and was himself wounded that day, shot and killed Michael O’Dwyer in London on March 13, 1940, the man Singh held responsible for giving the order for the massacre.Says Taru Dalmia, one of the two lead vocalists of the band, “I’ve wanted to make a song about Udham Singh ever since I learnt of him and have been researching him over the years. The idea came up again at a jam session earlier this year. Part of what drove me to write the song is that upon first learning of Singh I could not believe that I had never heard of him. Also, his story throws up a series of questions. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. The song is our attempt to pay tribute to one of our national heroes.”Samara C, the band’s female vocalist, says the song was inspired by Singh’s last words. “The lyrics of our murder ballad are from the point of view of Shaheed Udham Singh and are inspired by his words as transcribed in his court hearing. When he was asked why he killed Michael O’Dwyer, he said: ‘He was the real culprit. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people…For full 21 years, I have been trying to wreak vengeance…I am not scared of death. I am dying for my country…It was my duty. What a greater honour could be bestowed on me than death for the sake of my motherland?’”The Ska Vengers comprise of Samara C and Taru Dalmia (vocals), Stefan ‘Flexi’ Kaye (organ/percussion), Chaitanya Bhalla (guitar), Tony Bass (bass), Nikhil Vasudevan (drums) with support from Shirish Malhotra (tenor saxophone) and Kishore Sodha on trumpet. Ska is a music genre that fuses elements of Jamaican mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues.Kunal Sen and Tisha Deb Pillai have created the animation for the upcoming video. “We wanted to depict the character in a contemporary, stylized and dynamic manner, taking a different route from the conventional “text book" representations of India’s freedom struggle,” says Sen.Gigs:Date: July 31City: BangaloreVenue: blueFROGDate: August 13City: New DelhiVenue: antiSOCIALFollow @ARTINFOIndia PREVIOUS TRACKS by THE SKA VENGERS:
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