Menu

INDER PAL SINGH

header photo

About me

In my early twenties, I realised that I wasn’t interested in the rat-race and the daily grind of monotony. Not that I wasn’t meant for it or that I was intimidated by it. But I just wasn’t interested, amused or captivated by it. I don’t think anyone is. But I realised I am a little bit of a “non-believer” in the system of keep doing something while cribbing about it. I couldn't stand the toxicity and class-based divide while working early on in my life – So i changed the flow. THAT has governed where I’ve headed in life and what has been key to a lot of decisions in the professional and personal space for me.

After a brief stint in the fashion and textiles industry, I ventured into a realm that was unknown to my DNA. I spent two years working with an N.G.O called Pravah in Delhi which made me travel to number of interesting places. Meeting people, working among them and seeing the immediate gratification that that kind of work brings with it, gave me the sort of direction that a 20 year old often needs. I did two fellowship projects. At Pravah, I had the opportunity to work through the Indo German Social Service Society which gave me the unique chance, then (and a obsession, since) to interact and engage at a personal level with traditional puppeteers from Rajasthan at Social Work and Research Centre, Tilonia in Rajasthan, India. Working among local communities , designing puppets and doing puppet shows highlighting various local issues was the focus of my work.

Through my work I aimed to address environment related issues using storytelling and puppetry. I worked closely with Anurupa Roy at Katkatha, a contemporary puppet theater trust. I continue to support Pravah in an advisory role and am part of the advisory board alumni for the NGO.

Being a puppeteer allows you to feel “in control” – God-like. It has taken me and my work to stalwarts like Dadi Pudumjee, Ranjana Pandey, Varun Narain and Puran Bhatt among others. I have worked across forms like contemporary puppetry, traditional Indian (Rajasthani) puppets and Indonesian Wayang Kulit (the ancient Indonesian art of shadow puppets). I also had the opportunity to represent India(supported by ICCR) at International Performing Arts Festivals at Brighton(U.K) and Singapore. I have since participated in a shadow theater workshop sponsored by Goethe Institut, Delhi.

I believe that the knowledge and skill-share based workshops for students from different discipline are the key to reviving and sustaing an art form. In the year 2020 I made an introductory module for short term and longterm lecture or workshop on Introduction to traditional and contemporary puppetry. My first lecture was done at School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India.

I was with NDTV for 14 years, as a Supervising Producer for the prime time political satire using puppets, The Great Indian Tamasha and Gustakhi Maaf. The shows and team have won several awards, including the Hero Honda Award and Asian Television Awards. I also served as Business and Project Developer for the NDTV Puppet Factory which was a part of the NDTV network.

Co-founded the leading Indian rock band, Menwhopause, we released anE.P - 'The story begins' ,1st album - 'Home' ,2nd album - 'Easy'  was released on EMI Virgin Records in 2011. 3rd album - neondelhi 

These albums were my body of work containing acoustic guitars and an assortment of instruments, folk as well as digital. i continue to work on several thought streams and projects about music and visual art , my debut release 'The wild blue yonder' was released in August 2019 on all music platforms.

I am a visiting faculty at AJK Mass Communication Research Centre , JMI University , New Delhi , India. I teach  the students studying Animation courses, on how to use a Digital Audio Workstation, to do basic and advance sound design for films and other audio visual mediums. I recently concluded a special lecture on Traditional and Contemporary puppetry in India and worldwide at School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. A small introduction for students studying architecture to be able to include the art of storytelling in a bigger scheme of things. 

I am a certified Music Therapist , i wanted to dwell more in using music and frequency's intervention in healing. I continue to research and study the role of music, sound, acoustics and noise in human cognition and cognitive behaviour.  

i am working with Museums Victoria, a body that consists of diverse state-owned museums in the state of Victoria, Australia - Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum, Scienceworks Museum and the Royal Exhibition Building. My work here was of an audio visual technician with Technical Events team, which does everything audio and video for Museums Victoria. I primarily run and operate technical equipment at Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks and the Immigration Museum and whenever theres a need for a video editor for various projects, i dive in.

At present i am heavily invested in up-skilling, got Dante certified  and studying Crestron deployment . I have always thought of easing cable connections so AVoIP , audio video over internet protocol is the future of tech things. We all love point to point connects but the future of things is not entangled in cables.

And music keeps going, that is something that fuels everything that i do.


PRESS


 

In the making for five years, New Delhi’s once vocalist-guitarist I.P. Singh (formerly of rock band Menwhopause) dons the producer hat for his debut album The Wild Blue Yonder. The result is a solid 10 tracks of eclectic, instrument sample-based electronic music. While “Shaft” opens proceedings gently, there’s chasmic bass beats and dreamy string lines dominating “Beam.” Instruments such as the bouzouki, oud, didgeridoo and more feature on the album, while the latter half pays obeisance to melancholic ambient electronic (“Firefly,” “Zither”). Stick around to the end and you hear Singh return to psychedelic rock on “Pi 3.14.”

 


 

IP Singh dons many hats musically. He is a composer, sound-designer, music director and researcher. With over 20 years’ experience as a media professional and puppeteer, he is highly skilled in audiovisual content, production, design and strategy. IP has spent more than 15 years with the iconic act Menwhopause and is known for his raw sound. He has now recently released his first solo album - The Wild Blue Yonder. Laced with delicious textures and sounds, The Wild Blue Yonder takes you on a captivating journey with ancient strains and modern music wizardry for company. The album features a host of beautiful and rare instruments that IP has collected from across the world, over a long period of time, such as the Irish Bouzouki, Egyptian Oud, Dombra from Kazakhstan, Dranyen from Tibet, Didgeridoo, Yueqin from China, among others. The ten track offering is largely ambient electronic music and is accompanied by a stunning animated video of one of the tracks called Firefly.

We connected with the artist to know more about him and his new album.

 

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your venture towards the work of music?
My name is Inder Pal Singh Takshak, IP Singh in short or just IP for my friends and listeners. I have been a musician since my school days. I started performing by doing musical score for traditional and contemporary puppet shows. It began in Tilonia S.W.R.C Rajasthan, one of India’s oldest. In Delhi I began working with Anurupa Roy at Katkatha puppet art trust. From there I spent close to 14 years, producing a daily dose of satirical puppet show at NDTV called Gustakhi Maaf and The Great Indian Tamasha. You must be wondering why am I sharing the entire story. Well one needs multiple and diverse passions to feed one another! Like a train that needs two tracks to travel, along with puppetry was music. I spent my time as a musician with Menwhopause, a revered band from Delhi and we released 3 full length albums and an EP. Menwhopause was also recognised as the best rock band in India by Jack Daniel’s Rock Awards. I am also a certified music therapist and am doing my work in the field of brainwave entrainment. I also work as a sound design educator and run a small studio where I provide music score for audio visual medium. And when it comes to sharing and educating I am a visiting faculty at MCRC Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi.

You’ve been a part of Menwhopause for a long while. What led you towards releasing your first solo album?
Evolution is inevitable. I had seeded a deep rooted love for stringed instruments. It came organically to me because as an acoustic guitar player I could do crazy thumping, create relentless rhythms and cradle like melodies. I started buying and collecting stringed instruments which had a different sound. A tambur (turkish stringed instrument) makes one even more curious sounds. These instruments for me were a totally different trip altogether. I use my instruments as texture, soundscape, main riff and a diverse engine of sound in itself. 

So I started culminating my vision into an album. Zither was the first song I made in a line-up of songs. And I instantly knew it was an album and the ship sailed on this immersive album. I loved the title The Wild Blue Yonder a dive into the far distance of what I want to discover with sounds and music. It has a taste of the different instruments that I play. I used the purest instincts as I mixed a range of instruments, some taking the foreground and some creating an ambient convoluted and complex mix of arrangements, carrying each song like a story.

Walk us through the making of The Wild Blue Yonder. (ideation, music, story)
The idea was to capture the sound of a zen-sphere. I was born in Delhi and while growing up here I remember waiting at the bus stop for the next DTC bus sometimes for 45 minutes with almost no cars and an occasional Lambretta scooter carrying an entire family. It was basically not so dense a city. Now an explosion of sheer mass and scale has occurred as a smoggy capital in Oct-Nov is now called The NCR. A city so eager to function in a grind of chaos, filled with love and hate, ups and downs, daily combat and truce. The idea was to make an album which gives you a taste of peaceful truce kind of a bubble. Something to have as a light focus and a listening experience which is layered with dynamics of relaxed sounds but inspired by chaos all around. It’s my green pill kind of music. Zither was the first melody I made, Zither is a class of stringed instruments. The word Zither is a German rendering of the Greek word cithara, from which the modern word "guitar" also derives.

To share more about the tracks , here is a brief note on them all

Shaft: The window that lets one see and feel the light. Beginning of a voyage, it sets the pace for the soundscape which is about to come. Peaceful deception of dark and a clear sound of a tiny music instrument called Guitalele taking backstage and foreground has minimal beats and textures synthesised and a tweaked vocal melody phrase. 

Beam: Its a zen garden of joy, to be able to see clearly and play around in the utopian lake. thats what this in the sky floating garden has . water flowing backwards .Cotton like flying ladybugs. Melodic arrangements comprising of various synthesised instruments mainly ‘Bandura’ a stringed Ukrainian instrument.

Starlit: A walk in a desert, lost and trying to get familiar with each deja vu.The groove and the sound of an OUD just draws one in, as if the Djinns are out to dance with you. The fire has no time to turn into ash, the night lit with stars burning bright like fire.

A Mother's Lullaby: A memory tucked away in the childlike phase of life, which had no fear. Being guarded and as if a mother sang a song each hour just to stay asleep knowing theres nothing that gonna harm you. But you have to wake up and seize the day. The muted guitars melding in with sequence of drums and an Irish Bouzouki leading the thought.

Birth of a Moth: A gentle reminder of the insect life how it starts , how short it is , asking myself why do Moths live just to be attracted to fire and thats the last dance, what is this  why does it happen. A wailing texture from my electric guitar mixed with Tibetan shaman singing bowls beat sequence guiding the Irish Bouzouki. The track sums up with synthesised overture of Indian Pakhawaj one of my favourite percussion instrument.

Once upon a Night: Mayflies - life span 24 hrs, thats a metaphor, but ya a man and a woman singing till they consume each other. Warped vocal phrases conversing with each other as main male and female protagonists. The track is opened by a phrase recorded on a Japanese Shakuhachi Flute.

Wasp: The vicious relentless wasp , out at night . Its as if a new dawn will never come. It’s a track where keys and a vocal grunt meets a didgeridoo. Dark and dirty synth with a very neo-punk bump to get down to the core of dirt. 

Firefly: Firefly is the track that i thought as an anchor for the vision. An ensemble of minimalistic beat and phrase rendition on a Guitalele massively transposed with soothing effects. And the sounds of the night where fireflies roam. Humble tanpura drone to keep the atmospheric tranquility. 

Zither: A cosmic flight , pretty much where the album was suppose to sum , in the expanse of the place where time exists differently. A staccato yet evolving synth with Reverse patters played on various stringed instruments in my collection.

Pi 3.14 π: Pi 3.14 π , is a teaser for the next story , the sound for the next album .Rock and roll drums and two Guitars in 2 octave  pitching together and a nomadic clap sequence to keep the voyage going .This track is the Album waiting in the wings for me.

The album is accompanied by a stunning animated video of one of the tracks called Firefly. What was the inspiration behind this video and how was it conceived?
Let me start by saying I love anime! From old Manga to the new and upcoming and more lifelike cgi. And simply put, I have an undying love the old hand flip books, stop-frame animations from Ek - Chidiya to  ‘Jiri Trnka’ to Porco Rosso by Miyazaki to ‘The Great Yokai War’ by Takashi Miike to BT -‘This Binary Universe’, my list of inspirations and stylisation is quite long. This video was about a tiny light emitting firefly. I remember I was mesmerised when I saw one for the first time. Like a little jungle fairy. To be humble to life-forms in our cities is a far-fetched goal for a repetitive urban rat race. Tiny insects who have their own mysterious life spans, to an extent we humans are no different.We are like Insects, almost a blip on the timeline of the universe. I wanted to anchor as many natural phases of the life and harmony as possible. Firefly is the track that I thought of as an anchor for the vision. I teach animation students sound design and Shubhankar Mehta was one of my students who has a brilliant sense of art in anime and was suggested by Dr. Atul my friend and an Anime professor at MCRC Jamia. I had already written and drafted the anime teaser 2 years ago with Bhanu Pratap an animator who I met at Comicon. Animation is a long process , and trust me I mean it. But the end result is so yummy. The story is set in the future, where digital consumption is the very essence that fuels the human race. The planet is run by Firefly AlienGods, one rogue firefly-god from a god’s assembly line finds its target-the protagonist. The Protagonist who is offered a reality seeking serum in a green shade. The aliens reach the man immediately and push him into the void of space, where he keeps falling and then enters a wormhole tunnel which transports him to the world of the alien Firefly god. The world of the aliens is different from his own world. The protagonist is shocked and surprised with this experience. He is in his soul form without any body.  He feels scared as he observes his surroundings. The protagonist discovers a utopian island in the air and is mysteriously convinced to reach it. He makes a jump to his destination and starts levitating towards it. As he feels optimistic and glad of his situation, the ground shakes and few hands plunge out of the ground. These alien hands grab the levitating man and pull him back to the ground. The aliens start to eat his soul and the blood is spraying everywhere. For a moment the protagonist resists but in the end he lets things go on and is eaten completely. The island in the bubble is still levitating in the sky. The ground of the island opens up and his soul is of a different colour. The protagonist had a face expression of stress and anger before the abduction. Now the protagonist has a face of a calm human being. He smells the fresh air of his surroundings.

Lastly what’s next?
Next up is a Video for the track ‘Beam’ from Wild Blue Yonder with an ally Dipeet Paul another fantastic animator, is creating a video for the track.

Track called Pi 3.14 π was a sample tease to next album which I wanted a gap-less story a tale of spoken words kind of a vision. I will jump into it with a writer or a singer songwriter or someone who has got an untold story. Ideas are brewing and I have patience, I like to be in a ‘No-hurry’ phase. Probably will get some vinyls made by my Bros at Amarass Records . And I am just enjoying a good spin of my album, looking in to The Wild Blue Yonder. 

 

The Wild Blue Yonder

BY AUDIO PERVERT - 10/30/2019
The Wild Blue Yonder is I.P Singh's debut album, a striking fresh narrative as a composer, guitarist  and producer. The album's title inspired from the famous Werner Herzog documentary, clearly points to a new and poetic direction, which is manifested in the tunes and selection of sounds. The album is a radical departure from the earlier style and 'role' taken on by I.P during his long stint with the indie-rock band Menwhopause (a trail-blazing act based out of New Delhi at it's height circa 2010). Beyond the decade long continuum of raging rock, ranting anthems and the given debauchery, I.P gradually transgressed to discover ambient, abstract, textural, exotic and even oriental forms. From Metal to Haiku and beyond !? The new album is an outcome of the changes he encountered at a personal and professional level. An introspective departure from the over-heated civilisation, as he describes " It's an anti-thesis to the chaos ... became my 'escape pod' from general madness of the city that i grew up in. The Wild Blue Yonder sets sails and heads out to the yonder and beyond, exploring the soundscapes that i had ringing in my head... Also a solo flight after being with a band for so long. Sometimes one doesn't know an exact destination. The point when it comes to what kind of genre one wants to represent particularly." Recently married, IP has also acquired professional skills in Music Therapy, aiming to pursue new vistas, yet keeping music and sound as his mainstay.
Though composed, sampled and recorded on an electronic platform, the album is deeply coloured by various ethnic instruments, known and unknown. Tunes feature the Irish Bouzouki, Egyptian Oud, Dombra from Kazakhstan, Dranyen from Tibet, Australian Didgeridoo and Yueqin from China. The peculiar treatment of these instruments and their diffusion with electronic sounds and beats creates a moving cinematic narrative. The presence of the guitar remains ubiquitous throughout most of the songs. We feel a sort of 'post world-music' taking shape. The liner notes from the album explains each song via emotive texts written by Malvika Nanda (heading Big-Beat P.R. based in New Delhi). The artist's urge to explain his instincts at play is strong as he states "We are like insects ... just a blip on the timeline of the universe. I wanted to anchor as many natural phases of life and harmony. A distinct bubble inside a chaotic urban humanisation..." The album was mastered by Pheek, an emerging artist and sound engineer based in Montreal Canada.

 

 


After his 15-year stint with alternative rock group menwhopause, it’s no surprise that IP Singh’s album ‘The Wild Blue Yonder’ or its lead single ‘Firefly’ comes drenched in well-polished lush textures that are as vibrant as the track’s accompanying music video.