INTRODUCING PRIYATHOMAS
There is an old adage that nothing succeeds like success. When that is applied to the music industry, you find that most performers are chasing someone else's success. The industry likes this because they already know how to sell Marilyn Manson. If a record company signs a Manson clone, they figure they can get at least a part of that established audience. By that logic, you find that a lot of up and coming bands sound an awful lot like the stuff you already know too well. The odds are stacked in favor of the bland, but every once in awhile, I get lucky and strike gold. The thrill that comes from discovering a new and utterly unique talent is the rush that keeps me writing about music. Last October, I got lucky in Amsterdam when I
saw Priya Thomas perform at the Melkweg.
Priya Thomas is a small woman of Southern India heritage with incredible stage presence. She is a striking presence with her bleached blond hair and dark suits. She's someone you notice across a crowded room. On stage she commands attention. She looks like she is delivering her songs using every fiber of her being. Her body moves with the grace of a temple dance and the swagger of a Mick Jagger. Performing with just a guitar and beatbox, Priya delivers powerful songs that recall bands like the Pixies or P.J. Harvey, but that are inexorable twined with India nuances. The music is like Priya herself ; Western but with an Eastern character that cannot be set aside or ignored.
"I'm from Montreal originally." Thomas told me when we spoke after her performance. "I grew up in Montreal speaking French and English. My parents are of South Asian descent so I grew up with Indian Classical music. My grandfather taught me to sing scales and they were harmonic South Indian scales, which are completely different. Then I went to school and I started to study Suzuki violin. It was a huge culture clash. It caused significant confusion in me. I didn't know where I was going."
You can sense the pull of between cultures in Priya's music. The opening track of her debut CD, Music for Car Commercials features a rootsy rock keyboard riff playing against an Indian classical violin sample. "I've straddled so many things in my life that it seems natural for me," Thomas says about the hybrid nature of her music. "Any attempt at "world music" would have been very odd for me." Priya finds it odd that people obsessed with world music demand that it stay pure. What they really want is for the music stay the same, like a fossilized leaf or a fly trapped in amber. "That's not really the way that India music is these days," she continues. "Everything is so global there's no way for things to remain so pure."
"What I am doing is a result of a lot of confusion," Thomas continues. "I call it mongrel music because I think it spits up a lot of conflict. It spits back at everything that's causing it as well. It's a little aggressive in that sense. I don't think the material is aggressive as far as content. Lyrically, it's more about actively wanting change than anything else. In that sense, it's a bit more anti-establishment than anything else going on in Canada right now."
Thomas bills herself as "Girl with Guitar and Beatbox" performs. She sings and plays guitar live with the rest of her music is programmed. She explains her strategy saying, "I wasn't able to play with musicians for this event, so I did it with a beatbox. That's really where things started anyway. Everything that's in the beatbox is stuff that I programmed." The physical aspect of her performance comes out of years of dance training. "I'm doing my Masters in dance right now. The body is a really important way for me to express myself. I think that's as important as the vocals or the music. Basically, if you're trying to communicate and you're coming from a place of turmoil, you'll do anything you have to do."
Music for Car Commercials was released independently early in 2002. The disc offers a different impression of Thomas. The music sounds calmer and more reflective in recorded form. Without the visual element, some of the east/west tension is lost, although it is still definitely there. "Fish Out of Water" reflects the angst of not quite belonging. The conflict in "It's All About You" are of the more universal, relationship sort. The disc is a strong statement of purpose for a new artist.
