There is a seeking that exists in all of us—to seek something more than a house, a bank account, a marriage and social status.’, says actor and musician Monica Dogra. Partners in music and life, Victorien Mulliez and Monica Dogra, simmered their spiritual seeking in the form of their collaborative album, Genesis. The album was born out their concerts called Nākaloka, that invites participants for a divine embodiment through intentional and symbolic steps. The five-track album is deeply rooted in the journey of these concerts dancing with meditation and spiritual awakening.
Tell me about the genesis of Genesis and what does your relationship add to your music?
Victorien Mulliez: I think Genesis is a very organic birth of our mutual our creation. When Monica and I started our journey as partners, we really straight away connected with music. Every morning, we were playing music together. We started to develop it and started to offer concerts. From the concerts, we started to dive deeper into our collaboration.
Monica Dogra: My answer would be like, how far back do you want to go in terms of the genesis? I would call it qismat. I was in California at this Balinese crystal garden, watching a world musician friend of mine and met Victorien there. I have my history in electronic music for so many years with different avatars. What I think one could label as indie pop and maybe more along the lines of what would be considered rebellious. But I had a very strong spiritual practice that I was very shy to talk about and it would never be at the forefront of my expression at all for the last decade.
It was very beautiful for me when I first met Victorien, the amount of like encouragement I got to just sing things that normally I’d be very shy to sing. I would always feel like I grew up in America and I sang in a rock band. I would always feel like I couldn’t express a part of myself. The shame, the not enoughness, the Pakistan-India divide, the Hindu-Muslim political stuff, it’s ingrained in my system very differently than it is in his. So his love for Bhakti, his love to go and chant Hare Krishna alldayisnotfullofwhatitisforme.Inaway,Igettobeso unadulterated in the light of his love. We became pen pals first. He had played in India and Pakistan, so there was a connection that we could feel. It became very important to us to share a meditative practice. Both of us had been married before and we really saw our spiritual growth at the center of our lives.
Both of you have been in electronic music, how did you make a transition from electronic music to mediative music?
VM: We didn’t transition. I think what’s the most important is to express what is coming through us. And if we try to resist or block it then it just dies. It’s like a very wide spec- trum, but it also all comes together when we do ecstatic dance somehow.
MD: A lot of what I think the universal journey of the artist is you have this thing that connects you to something bigger. For me, that was always singing and telling stories when I was a really little girl. I am the granddaughter of pandit Barsuram Shastri Sharma, who was the last priest of the king in Jammu Kashmir. I was always a little weird mystic. I have been very much in love with the Bhagavad Gita and Saundarya Lahari. To me, the wisdom of the East is actually some of the most romantic contemplations of the Lord. We are the most romantic people on the planet— we pray through song, dance, rhythm, stories of gods and goddesses falling in and out of love and getting jealous.
VM: When I experienced the chanting of Hare Krishna, I became sensitive to music. I travelled to Pakistan, where I went to the Sufi shrines. In upstate New York, I went to a Native American gathering and I bought a flute there. And it slowly opened a whole different world for me.
The five tracks in the album are very different from each other, which one is the most closest to your heart?
VM: First of all, I would like to say that the album follows the flow of our concerts. They are in this order for a specific reason. And if you pay attention a little bit also to thevisual content that we release with the album, the album goes from night to day with a backward concept. The favourite one would be the last one. It just came through when we were in the studio. Somehow it felt good.
MD: Each one to me is a different world. But ‘Lokah’ was a surprise. It happened in the vocal booth just in that moment. There’s a song ‘Whoever you are’, which is a poem by Rumi. ‘Come, come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving, come and come whoever you are, this isn’t a caravan of despair.’ It doesn’t matter if you’ve broken your vows 1000 times before, just come again. There is a song that very much has this like Sufi flavor and is like a guided 15 minute meditation to a non-linear flute and vocal jam.
You guys have produced music for a long time now. What do you think has changed about the independent music industry in India?
MD: Everthing. I’ve been around since like the beginning of N87 Weekender and Sunburn. I was around when it was TV and not OTT. I think many waves of music have happened and I’ve been a part of them. Now it’s a new time and things are meant to change. Right now, I’m actually the least involved in the indie scene than I’ve ever been. And I’ve really been enjoying it. We’re still making a lot of different music.
VM: We also have already a new album that we are yet to record but it’s within us already. We’re going to have many more of that genre for sure. We’ve already been playing it live. We got to play it at NMACC. We’ll be at an eco retreat in the next week—we’ll tour in India, Europe and US this summer.
Words Paridhi Badgotri
Date 21.03.2024
