Books: Remo Fernandes’ writing debut Party Edit 2021, The Music Issue – Part 2: A large portion of singer Remo Fernandes’s autobiography tells the untold story of his birthplace Goa
(Inset) Remo (above) with his partner Zenia in May 2018, soon after they read their vows to each other and moved in together Updated on Dec 11, 2021 09:20 PM IST By Karishma Kuenzang If you remember the song Humma Humma in the movie Bombay, you recall the world of music it opened to you thanks to indie pop and folk music star Remo Fernandes.Today, Remo, the Padma Shri awardee who began his musical journey with a mouth organ, before mastering other instruments, is celebrating decades of his time navigating the music scene in India and Portugal via his eponymous autobiography, Remo (Harper Collins). The desire to write an autobiography had first germinated about six to nine years ago, when Remo penned three chapters. “I’ve always loved writing and I wanted to encapsulate the Goa I grew up in,” says the musician who shifted to Portugal in 2015-2016. Bucket list Remo returned to writing during the pandemic as part of a bucket list of things he wishes to do. This was right after he completed another thing off the list—a project making music for Mother Teresa. When the world locked down in 2020, Remo had been in Goa for some down time. Unable to travel back to Portugal, he found inspiration in his old Goan house that has a garden in the front and rice fields behind it. Playing with The Beat 4, Indiana and The Savages at his 50th birthday concert in Panjim, Goa “The solitude was just what I needed for reminiscing,” says the Panjim boy. “When I started, I had no idea how a book was structured. I got a literary agent recommended by my friend Amitav Ghosh, and that‘s when the topic got a precise shape.” The most difficult part? “You may want to be very honest while writing, but you have to remember to protect the privacy of the person involved in the episode.” That, and reliving a road accident after a show at IIT Kanpur when he lost four of his band members who had played with him for 12 years. “I was palpably affected when I was writing those two chapters because that was like losing family,” says the 68-year-old. Go, Goa, Gone One of the biggest highlights of Remo’s book is his memories of early post-Independence Goa. “Your roots are a part of you because your childhood was either so beautiful that you loved it or terrible. My roots are of just plain happiness in the Goa I grew up in. I know people who are still falling in love with the Goa of those days. I was eight when the Portuguese left and till I was 18, nothing had changed in Goa. There were no illegal structures, nothing. And there are no books by Goans about those days, only by those who moved to Goa much later,” he explains. Remo’s eponymous autobiography, Remo (Harper Collins) “I miss the simplicity of life, the honesty and warmth of the people, and everyone having more time on their hands. There’s violence in Goa today, which was unheard of then,” he says. Musically too, it’s rare to find gatherings today where people will just bring out instruments and jam. “Today, people pick recorded music,” he says. What of the EDM festivals the state is now famous for? “Ninety-nine per cent of Goans don’t identify with the music being played there. You could host these festivals anywhere else in the world and they’d get the same crowd. EDM and techno started with foreigners settling in Goa. There’s even a trance known as Goa trance because it comes from the state. But this is music produced for parties and a totally different parallel in terms of culture,” Remo says. Ask him about Bollywood and Remo says he doesn’t give it much thought. “I respect originality and creativity. Today, a lot of prominence is given to simplistic melodies that everyone can catch after one hearing, thus replacing essence and soul. Another trend is to make soft melodic songs that sound the same. Everyone sounds like an American artistes of their choice, but in Hindi,” he says. He mourns the passing of indigenous individuality. “Our folk music is punchier and has a flavour that appeals to everyone,” he says. “When I first went to Bombay as a student, I formed a band with people from the slums who walked into the local trains and played fiery rhythms on their battered drums. That’s the originality we are missing today.” Follow @kkuenzang on Twitter and InstagramFrom HT Brunch, December 12, 2021Follow us on twitter.com/HTBrunchConnect with us on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/brunch/books-remo-fernandes-writing-debut-101639237847317.html ᐧ ᐧ