Did you know that Bollywood actor-director Farhan Akhtar took a sabbatical that lasted almost 18 months, and ended up writing and recording an entire album of English songs?
“I felt a little bit of a burn-out setting in, just from working on films non-stop. I felt tired of having to get up and report to set every single day. So I took a break,” he told a British journalist back in 2019.
“I just felt I needed some time out for myself, to reconnect with other things, to look at where my life’s at – there were many changes happening simultaneously, the biggest being the end of a 16-year marriage. I wanted to channel what I was feeling, and put it out there, just to share with people. And I found that process very cathartic,” he says about making the album titled, 'Echoes'. Inspired by his musical idols Kishore Kumar, Pandit Ravi Shankar, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton and David Bowie, the album was recorded in Milan and was produced by Grammy-winning producer Tommaso Colliva (who's worked with Jesus and Mary Chain and Muse).
Now, five years later, Farhan and his live band are performing songs from the 2019 debut album on an India tour with Swiggy SteppinOut. They will be coming to Hyderabad on April 15, Jaipur on April 16, Indore on April 22, Bangalore on April 23 and Kolkata on May 6. More cities are in the pipeline for Farhan's tour. The actor revealed, “Echoes. It’s about chapters in my life and voices in my head that have influenced the writing. All of us have our personal journeys through life, through love. We struggle at times to make sense of our emotions and of the world around us. So here I am, speaking as honestly as I can about my journey.”
On his song for ex-wife Adhuna
'Let's Be Friends Again' is a bouncy song with the energy of 60s R&B. “I wrote that about the evolution of my relationship with my now ex-wife (Adhuna Bhabani). Hoping that we can maybe arrive at a place we were at when we first got together – really good friends,” he says.
“There was some thought about how, when I put this out there, everyone who knows me will know what it’s about. So I had a little bit of hesitancy about that. But at the same time, I thought: I must share this. There will be lots of people who are going through these emotions, who are at this crossroads, who are having these changes in their relationships. So maybe this can help them to think a little bit differently about where they’re at.”
On the lead single
Album opener 'Rearview Mirror’ deals with Farhan’s changing personal circumstances. “It’s me dealing with the guilt of being the one who ended the relationship. But it’s important to move past the guilt so as to evolve. There’s no point in looking past and looking forward at the same time – you’re never going to end up anywhere,” says Farhan.
Two poems-turned-songs
‘Seagull’ was initially written as a poem 25 years ago. “It was dealing with having been in love with someone, and her having to move away from Mumbai to where she came from. I knew that for practical reasons that relationship was over. It’s about remembering the good times, letting go of that person, and not hanging on to the negatives.”
‘Love Is Not Enough’ also began as poem. “It’s me questioning what it takes to keep a relationship together, to keep it going. It’s not about falling out of love with someone; sometimes it’s a compatibility thing. But as I was writing it, it didn’t feel right to be too introspective or too dark. It just naturally started veering towards wanting to be a happier song. So I just followed that instinct.”
Looking outward
Acoustic track ‘Why Couldn’t It Be Me’ is the only song on 'Echoes' that “isn’t looking inward but it’s about an external event”. It was written in response to a massacre in Peshawar in Pakistan, when the Taliban stormed into an army school and shot over 200 children. Farhan read an article about “a mother whose younger son hadn’t gone to school that day because he’d pretended to be sick. But his older sibling had gone and had been killed in the massacre. When I read that story I thought it must be such a strange dilemma for a young boy – ‘that could have been me in place of my brother.’ So just that thought got me writing, so I wrote from the perspective of that younger brother.”
Tell him the ‘Bird On A Wire’ reminds you of U2’s 'Trip Through Your Wires' and he says, “That’s definitely not anything that was in my consciousness when I was writing. But The Joshua Tree is one of my favourite albums, so it’s probably something that’s subliminally influenced me and that came through in terms of the thought.” Tickets for the India tour can be booked online.
