39.0°
Never Thought I’d Be on a Boat: Rupa and the April Fishes. |
Comments (2)Nothing Fishy Here
Rupa and the April Fishes set for Wanderlust
By Jackie VarrianoPublished: July 19, 2010
You’ve barely unpacked from High Sierra and you realize that Wanderlust is just around the corner. True, with Wanderlust the option of camping is nonexistent, the yoga is more intense, and the music is slightly more focused on bass-heavy beats. But, there are still plenty of reasons to attend this three-day event in our backyard. One of these reasons happens to sing in French, Spanish, and English; practices medicine in her spare time; and took a half hour out of her pre-tour European vacation to chat with me via Skype. Her name is Rupa Marya, and the ensemble is Rupa and the April Fishes. Scheduled to play the fest Sunday night on the Pulse main stage at 5:30 p.m., the Fishes are an amalgamation of alternative, world beat, songs filled with a myriad of meanings, and truly talented musicians jamming their hearts out. Occasionally political, occasionally heartbroken, the Fishes and Marya may not be out to change popular opinion on “world music,” but they certainly changed mine.
To be fair, the Fishes are actually Ed Baskerville (cello), Marcus Cohen (trumpet), Isabel Douglas (accordion), Aaron Kierbel (drums), Safa Shokrai (upright bass), and Pawel Walerowski (cello). Marya plays guitar, sings, and writes. “I am a solo writer, but the arrangements are all together,” she said. “Some compositions are completely composed, others are improvised and I become the architect.”
At first blush, they appear quite innocent, a handful of talented musicians playing classical instruments. They have toured extensively all across the globe, and I ask Marya how they have been received, and what crowds have been like — and she almost laughs.
“Well, it’s kind of funny, because we don’t know how people are going to react,” Marya said. “We’ve had amazing experiences in Greece, Sweden, and Germany, playing sold out shows where people know the music before we get there, and we go to other places where [audiences] are clapping quietly but they come up afterward saying they loved it. We are pretty loud and crazy on stage musically. People see these classical instruments on stage, and then we start playing and get pretty crazy and janky, and it’s not what they expected.”
Forming expectations about a band you may have never heard of is a tricky thing. When you hear that the lead singer is a tri-linguist singing in as many languages, and the band careens from gypsy sounds to Indian influences, tangos, and folk, if you are like me, your gut reaction may be to sit that set out. But we would both be mistaken. Because as one listens to a Fishes song, it instantly makes your toes tap. My body instinctively wants to move along, if only I could definitively find the beat.
Marya said the best places to play are “hot, sweaty rooms with joyful people. I just like tiny spots.” She also echoed a sentiment felt by many artists I’ve interviewed saying that playing a great show “really depends on if people are ready to go with you, and if they are all ready to go along it doesn’t matter if there are 7,000 people, or 30, or five.”
Over the course of our conversation, we talk about her writing process (“I don’t write from a place of agony”), the reason they decided to play Wanderlust (“We just started working with Velour, [Music Group, an artist management group involved with Wanderlust] and we are using this as an opportunity to celebrate our new relationship), how she is singing more in English now and if that was a scary transition (“It’s exciting”), and right in the middle of it all she asks me a question about myself, and my interests. In the years I have been interviewing musicians, artists, chefs, whatever, I’ve never had the tables turned on me. It turned the interview into a conversation, and made me like Marya even more. My preconceived notions about world music be damned, I can’t wait for Wanderlust and Rupa.
Wanderlust is scheduled July 31 to Aug. 1. Tickets are available in almost every form: full passes, day passes, and music only passes. Visit wanderlustfestival.com for more information, as well as to sign up for your perfect day of yoga. But hurry, classes are filling up fast.
2 Reader Comments so far ...