(This article is sponsored by Sounds of India)

Purple Bat Productions introduces a stunning first-of-its-kind CD of rock/pop/electro-pop songs based on Tanuja Desai Hidier’s novel BORN CONFUSED, and written and performed by Tanuja (all vocals) and the London and New York City bands she sings/songwrites in. WHEN WE WERE TWINS (Purple Bat Productions, 2004) is now available worldwide.

Tanuja Desai Hidier’s first novel BORN CONFUSED has been hailed as the first ever South Asian American coming-of-age story. The book is set in the context of New York City’s burgeoning bhangra scene, and is a Larry King pick and Sunday Times London book of the week. Fitting for a cross-cultural tale, WHEN WE WERE TWINS: Songs based on Tanuja Desai Hidier’s novel BORN CONFUSED is a cross-Atlantic collaboration, written/recorded half in the US, half in the UK—with much downloading and uploading and my-night-your-day conversations to be had by all (in fact “Born Two,” the BORN CONFUSED theme song, was put together entirely by email). The bands involved include New York City’s T&A (Tanuja and Atom Fellows) and San Transisto, a five-piece in London, where Tanuja is based.

All fourteen tracks on WHEN WE WERE TWINS connect to different themes, scenes, and characters in BORN CONFUSED, and parallel the heroine’s journey from confusion, through chaos, to clarity—in a rock/pop/electro-folk context. “I wanted to continue exploring the book’s themes, redefining the C in American Born Confused Desi, to reinterpret the tale through music,” Tanuja says. “It seemed a natural progression as I was already in a band and BORN CONFUSED is largely about the way music brings people together. And both types of writing are forms of storytelling. Even while writing BORN CONFUSED, I was keeping a lyrics file and taping bits of melody lines with a view to putting together a ‘booktrack’.

It proved to be a really effective way of keeping up energy; sometimes if I was stuck, trying to express the same scene or idea through song helped me work through it. Also, during the writing process, being in the band was a wonderful way to get fresh perspective—and a break! After so many hours typing alone on a keyboard it was sheer joyful relief to go make some sweaty noise with a group of great people, to come together and collaborate. And on a personal level, it seemed only fitting to include both USA and UK tunes: BORN CONFUSED is set in New York/New Jersey, and I wrote it all in London. Both places are home now, and a strong theme in the story is learning to make your home in the people around you, and in yourself, so it seemed just right that you’d need more than one place and musical community to express all that. Plus, bringing New York back into the musical picture was a fabulous excuse for playing with much-missed friends again!”

WHEN WE WERE TWINS tracks include a South Asian New York desi response to the above-mentioned term ABCD (“Bridge & Tunnel”), a love song to Kavita, affording a bit more perspective into another character’s side of the story (“Cowgirls & Indie Boys”), a loop-and-synthfest based on the Meatpacking District-by-night scene (“Cosmopolitan”), and the title track, which refers to the longing to return to a state of unity between the book’s heroines as well as vis a vis a bicultural identity; this song is also an homage to New York City. WHEN WE WERE TWINS wraps with a Bonus Remix of a T&A track: B&T (Mukul's Hoboken Dub), featuring NYC’s very own reigning queen of the South Asian dance music scene, DJ Rekha.

All bands involved launched WHEN WE WERE TWINS this February to a full house at Joe's Pub, NYC's supper club in the Joseph Papp Public Theater, with special guest spinner Rekha accompanying on a custom-made live mix. This musical book reading event, called Rock ‘n’ Revolutions, was a New York Magazine, Time Out New York, and Flavorpill pick of the week—and was the first time all the musicians involved were in the same country, let alone room, at the same time.

Creative Artists Agency/Youth Intelligence and TrendCentral.com recently picked up WHEN WE WERE TWINS as a cutting edge first-of-its kind trend of the future—the ‘booktrack’. The CD is now available online at CDBaby.com and Tower Records US and UK, as well as a number of stores.

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