Leading composer and musician talks about the challenges of helping to turn this seminal novel written by Hanif Kureishi into a stage work, giving it a sound composition that reflects the time of its drama…
By Suman Bhuchar
THIS WITTY and playful story, ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’ is entertaining audiences and is musically described as a “sonic hybrid of different things”, according to its music composer Niraj Chag.
Along with his sound designer, Simon Baker, he has added almost another character to the 1970s milieu which is the backdrop of Kureishi’s novel, adapted for the stage and currently running at the Barbican Centre in London.
It’s a delicate act of creating a sound which seamlessly blends into a story and doesn’t push itself forward in any way.
‘The Buddha of Suburbia’ has a lot of commercial music and composed moments which go from 1940s Bollywood to 1970s Britain. To find a sound of that world and to make the compositions congruent was a challenge, he explained.
The show begins with a pulsating track and then soon goes into the Bee Gees song, ‘Tragedy’ to which the company do a humorous movement or later there is a more pensive moment when Joan Armatrading’s song. ‘Love and Affection’ is heard.
Other music soundscape includes recognisable genres like Jazz, punk and James Bond’s iconic song, ‘Nobody does it better’.
The show at the Barbican features visual images of documentary footage of 1970s London projected on the back wall of the stage along with a musical soundscape.
Chag received an email from Emma Rice, the artistic director of Wise Children, her own theatre company and director and co-adapter of the show – alongside Kureishi who whose original novel was published in 1990.
Rice knew of Chag’s work as he had worked with her twice before on ‘The Captive Queen’ when she was artistic director of The Globe. This play was a re-working of John Dryden’s 1675 Restoration drama, ‘Aureng-zebe’ by Yorkshire company, Northern Broadsides; and there was also, ‘Wah! Wah!Girls’ – a Bollywood Musical by Tanika Gupta in 2012.
Rice invited him to work on this show and his response was “it would be really cool” as he remembered the 1993 BBC Television series.
It’s a very technical process composing music and Baker was involved very early on before the company began rehearsals, he revealed.
Together with Rice they worked on the themes of the show, finding the sound of that world because the composed moments are quite varied.
They thematically distilled the show from the various scenes, the sexual ones, seduction moments, general family situations and racism episodes.
The script also contained references of sections that included the commercial music tracks as they came and in and out of the story.
“The themes can come again and again. For instance, the 1970s theme can happen again and again as a cool funky blast, while the seduction and love themes are composed for a particular moment but can happen at multiple points and can be deconstructed,” he explained.
In ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’, you also segue from a commercial track to something originally composed and it sounds like authentic track from 1970s.
“When I am composing, I have these references and I am keeping my eye on the fact that the instruments I use sound like 1970s, no matter whatever period they are from, compositionally they need to work with the sound from the commercial tracks and also have a world of their own,” he outlined.
“And then Simon Baker basically took it to the next level in terms of deconstructing those scenes, rebuilding them – it was a really cool process.”
Chag used a lot of authentic instruments of that period and enjoyed exploring their sounds.
“It’s almost like a retro future thing, we have drums, we have basses, and we have funk guitars – instruments from the 1970s and also synthesizers that are little bit more contemporary.
“So, we’re referencing this and adding another layer which was very, very modern. That was the sonic language in my head.”
But his skill is to blend his original compositions with the commercial music without the audience realising – in effect creating a seamless soundscape and one that enhances the action on the stage.
As an audience member you don’t really know what’s what and that is testament to his undoubted skill as a composer.
Chag reveals that his favourite piece of composed music is the 1940s track, ‘Arey Babu’ featuring vocals by Japjit Kaur.
“That was a really fun piece to compose and also bitter sweet for me, as the 1940s was my dad’s favourite genre of music from Hindi films. Sadly, he passed away a year and a half before this project. I grew up on this kind of style from him.”
The song is original and it’s an original composition and Chag used the recording techniques of the 1940s.
“You get that string sound to saturate the music to get that slight distortion, so it feels like a dated analogue tape.
“Sonically from an engineering point of view, it’s a lot of fun and compositionally I really enjoyed it.”
The music comes at the moment when the father (Ankur Bahl) is reminiscing and it’s beautifully choreographed over a cricket game – it’s almost like a music video that goes back to 1940s Bombay.
“I really like the way Emma (Rice) works, she has got an amazing aesthetic.”
Chag is a much sought after composer and has been working in theatre ever since 2002, when he composed for his first ever theatre musical ‘Baiju Bawra’ based on the 1952 film and directed by Ultz, after attending the Theatre Royal Stratford East musical theatre workshop.
Born and brought up in Southampton, his mother is from Kenya while his dad was from Uganda; he always wanted to do music from an early age. He began by playing keyboards and bass and aged 19 was signed to Outcaste records, where he released tracks for the label that was at the forefront of contemporary Asian underground scene.
He is a self-taught musician and composer and this year he has also worked on ‘Frankie Goes to Bollywood’, the Rifco musical and the new production of ‘Guards at the Taj’ currently playing at Orange Tree Richmond. Although the show is set in 1648, the musical language is much more contemporary and forms the emotive core for the story.
Music is an emotional fast track to the way the characters are feeling, he asserted.
“Guards at the Taj’ is very subversive and at times it sticks out from the piece in terms of how contemporary it is – given the play’s setting. With ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’, it’s a traditional transition and underscore in harmony with the era and the spirit.”
This is an original Royal Shakespeare Company production that first opened at its home in Stratford Upon Avon in April and transferred to the Barbican in London this autumn.
Listings
‘The Buddha of Suburbia’ runs until November 16, at the Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8BDS
More info/tickets here –
‘Guards at the Taj’ runs until November 16, at Orange Tree Richmond, 1 Clarence Street, Richmond Surrey TW9 2SA.
More info/tickets: https://orangetreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/guards-at-the-taj/
Niraj Chag
Link to ‘Arey Babu’ https://open.spotify.com/album/7cryfWJV6FPT7dRhpFFELu
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