Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Inside the
Speaker 1: Studio on iHeart Radio. My name is Jordan Runtog, but
Speaker 1: enough about me. My guests today come from different cultures,
Speaker 1: different continents, and different compositional backgrounds, but together they made
Speaker 1: a unique blend of music design to spread joy and
Speaker 1: healing energy. From the West comes Mr Joe Walsh, the
Speaker 1: guitar icon who's rocked us for over fifty years with
Speaker 1: spells in the James Gang Barn Storm and of course
Speaker 1: the Eagles. He's joined forces with Maestro Amjad Ali Khan,
Speaker 1: the revered Sarad virtuoso and one of India's greatest musicians.
Speaker 1: Along with Amjad's sons Ayan and Aman, they've recorded a
Speaker 1: collaborative EP called Prayers. It's a seamless melding of their
Speaker 1: individual disparate sounds. Prayers isn't rock or classical Indian. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you'd call it, but the positivity is palpable.
Speaker 1: Proceeds from the three track collection of a donated to
Speaker 1: Intra Health International, an organization that provides support to front
Speaker 1: line workers during the COVID nineteen pandemic. I grateful that
Speaker 1: all four Joe, Amjad Aman and Ayan took the time
Speaker 1: to speak with me. I hope you enjoy our conversation,
Speaker 1: Hi Jan, taking it all the way back to the start,
Speaker 1: How did this collaboration start for you? How did you
Speaker 1: first cross paths? I met Ayan? Some people I know
Speaker 1: in India said we have a people, we have somebody
Speaker 1: that you should meet. So I met Ian and we
Speaker 1: sat down and visited, and he showed me his acts
Speaker 1: and I showed him mine, and we had a We
Speaker 1: had a great visit. We had a great visit, and
Speaker 1: I'm grateful that we were introduced to each other. And
Speaker 1: later on down the line, I met his brother and
Speaker 1: they said, hey, you got to meet our dad, and
Speaker 1: so eventually I did. It came to pass that I
Speaker 1: was explained the serroad and given some lessons with it,
Speaker 1: and so I had a little more understanding of what
Speaker 1: it was. I did that because they're both string plucked instruments,
Speaker 1: so there's enough there to be able to comprehend the
Speaker 1: instrument and the other way around. And we played together,
Speaker 1: figured what that out that was, and it was all
Speaker 1: good and it was all positive, and we really enjoyed
Speaker 1: each other's company. So eventually we decided maybe we should
Speaker 1: try and and make some music somehow, and eventually that
Speaker 1: led you, I have a studio here, and and the
Speaker 1: con family was in the States, and when they got
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles, we went into my studio and just
Speaker 1: played and roll tape, shall we say, uh, not knowing
Speaker 1: what to do anymore than just let's play and see
Speaker 1: what happens. And and that's what we've done, say and
Speaker 1: then let's just plain and see what happened. And that
Speaker 1: of good music comes out of that mindset. Over the
Speaker 1: course of it, we did this project. It's this incredible
Speaker 1: marriage of Eastern and Western music. And on the surface,
Speaker 1: these two types of music seem like they couldn't be
Speaker 1: more different, in different modalities and a lot of different
Speaker 1: poly rhythms. When you got down to it, did you
Speaker 1: find that there was more common ground than you initially expected? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I was. I was tontally confused at first because in
Speaker 1: what I do, all you have to do is count
Speaker 1: to four. Yeah. Well, Indian music doesn't care about four,
Speaker 1: chef and seven, or chef and eleven. It's all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff because they've been making music for hundreds of years.
Speaker 1: And I always thought it was a big, scary monster
Speaker 1: I could never do that as like jazz. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on. I don't know where
Speaker 1: one is. I don't know what's happening. And in in
Speaker 1: the Indian music, there's various scales, not just ours. We
Speaker 1: have one that everybody uses. And in Indian music based
Speaker 1: on the century and based on the instrument, and if
Speaker 1: it's traditional or if it's spiritual music or whatever, there's
Speaker 1: all kinds of notes. There's notes flying all over the place.
Speaker 1: You know, there's notes we don't have. And so that
Speaker 1: was another thing, how is this ever gonna work? And
Speaker 1: I felt humble, and I felt like really insecure, and
Speaker 1: with that mindset, there's no way it will work. And
Speaker 1: I eventually just said, well, hell with all that, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna play. You know, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: I don't have to know what's going on. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna play. And that's when the music started. You know,
Speaker 1: my school, you get a legal pad and you sit
Speaker 1: down and write everything out and how many bars is this?
Speaker 1: And when do I play here? And what what are
Speaker 1: the notes? Uh? Not? In Adian music you can do that,
Speaker 1: but you won't get anywhere the best thing to do
Speaker 1: is just immerse yourself in the middle of it and
Speaker 1: play along with whatever you hear. In my experience, that's
Speaker 1: the way to deal with it. Of course, eventually you'll
Speaker 1: start to understand what's going on as you learn more,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to know what's going on to participated.
Speaker 1: It's so fascinating, especially at a time when you know
Speaker 1: we as a culture, both in the States and in
Speaker 1: the world is at large, feels so divided. It's such
Speaker 1: a powerful statement to think of this, you know, marriage
Speaker 1: of two on the surface, dissimilar sounds, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: so powerful. I'm sure. I know you worked with the
Speaker 1: I think it was a Scottish chamber orchestra in two
Speaker 1: thousand nine, writing a concerto for them. But was this
Speaker 1: your first involvement in the rock and roll world? How
Speaker 1: how was that for you working in this framework? You see, Fortunately,
Speaker 1: sarod and guitar they come from the same family. Sarah
Speaker 1: is a Persian word which means music, Sarod means music,
Speaker 1: and my forefather's they played and it's a it's an
Speaker 1: invention and it's a gift from our family to the world.
Speaker 1: This instrument, inspiration of this whole project is my throdo
Speaker 1: Wolf and his beautiful studio, it's beautiful home and his
Speaker 1: gracious hospitality by his wife Marjorie, and it was such
Speaker 1: a beautiful atmosphere and all the other fellow musicians who
Speaker 1: worked with they come from l A. So our tracks
Speaker 1: you have you have heard them all we shall overcome
Speaker 1: and goddess and healing love. You see another tradition. We
Speaker 1: are taught vocal music also, so we we express ourselves.
Speaker 1: We sink through our instrument. We sink through through that track.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you have had it. Dara ra da dara
Speaker 1: da da da da da da da dada. So as
Speaker 1: Joe said that we there was no agenda, there was
Speaker 1: no planning, what is going to happen, what will happen,
Speaker 1: but will be the outcome. So it's a collaboration, it's
Speaker 1: a contribution of all of all the musicians involved. My
Speaker 1: two sons, Ahman and i Am. They also played different tracks.
Speaker 1: And I would like it's an interesting story. I would
Speaker 1: like I Am to tell however, so did not arrive
Speaker 1: in l A and how the old instrument roles you
Speaker 1: helped us. Well, I mean that's pretty much what happened
Speaker 1: because when we met mister Hold few years back, so
Speaker 1: he owned an instrument, so and that's when we presented
Speaker 1: that road to him. We ended up jamming. So this
Speaker 1: recording happened after a few years and my brother, my
Speaker 1: father and we we go on tour in the US
Speaker 1: and we arrived l A from Vancouver Islands. But our
Speaker 1: bags and our instruments didn't land up. And this was
Speaker 1: the day one of the recording, so you know, we
Speaker 1: we I told Marjorie, I said, you know, our instruments
Speaker 1: are not here. Then we were like, wait, is that
Speaker 1: instrument that's a road still there at home? And it
Speaker 1: was so that Sta came to the rescue of session
Speaker 1: one and it debuts on the seat be as well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was an initiative bump. But then the
Speaker 1: instruments arrived. But that's such a beautiful instrument that's still
Speaker 1: with Mysterwards, it's with him and we used it for
Speaker 1: this for this EP, which which made it so much
Speaker 1: more special. I mean, the whole session seemed to have
Speaker 1: this great sense of experimentation in there that has to
Speaker 1: been that that must be so exciting for for you
Speaker 1: all who have been making music throughout your entire lifetime.
Speaker 1: To feel that rush of doing something fresh and brand
Speaker 1: new for the first time, that must have been a
Speaker 1: really wonderful feeling. Yeah, I I agree. No rule. You know,
Speaker 1: we had to learn as we were going along and
Speaker 1: try stuff out. And like I said, you know, on
Speaker 1: a professional basis, I would have really introverted and been
Speaker 1: afraid only commit myself to playing anything. You know, if
Speaker 1: there was people in the control room watching us, or
Speaker 1: if we're getting paid for it, I would have been
Speaker 1: doing But there's no rules. There were no rules, and everybody,
Speaker 1: you know, we we didn't know what was gonna happen.
Speaker 1: We don't know, there was no rules. Nobody's ever done this.
Speaker 1: So we just went about our business as artists and
Speaker 1: using the command of our instruments that we've achieved and
Speaker 1: threw it all in a big pile of noise that
Speaker 1: turned into music. And it just we all just said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play here, and I'm gonna try this, and
Speaker 1: oh well, if you're doing that, I'm gonna do this,
Speaker 1: and oh well, hey, you guys are doing that, so
Speaker 1: this will work with that and no rules, And that
Speaker 1: was the wonderful thing. And I think that mindset we
Speaker 1: don't have a plan. You know, there's no rules, you
Speaker 1: can't do anything wrong, so just play. And that's how
Speaker 1: it started. And gradually we started to comprehend the way
Speaker 1: it worked the best, and we learned what didn't work.
Speaker 1: And I'm a big believer in knowing what not to do.
Speaker 1: I would say most of my wisdom at my age
Speaker 1: is I know what not to do, and that saves
Speaker 1: a lot of time. So it just happened naturally and
Speaker 1: it came to be, and I think that's beautiful when
Speaker 1: you can be a part of music like that. Music
Speaker 1: is a precious gift of good and music connects the
Speaker 1: only two worlds we have realized, the world of sound
Speaker 1: and world off words, the literature, and through sound, sound
Speaker 1: is very transparent. I mean, if I'm out of tune,
Speaker 1: you will come to know. But through language you can
Speaker 1: become whatever you want to. But language creates barriers. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: we were musicians. We would like to see world united,
Speaker 1: world connected, as I feel very sad to see in
Speaker 1: twenty one century we are still killing each other on
Speaker 1: account of religion or racial problems. And today we are
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of you know, black life matter, and
Speaker 1: so we have great regards for Martin Luther King and
Speaker 1: that's why we played this. We shall overcome, especially in
Speaker 1: this situation after this, during this pandemic, before the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and we have great regards for math Ba Gandhi nation,
Speaker 1: father of nation of India. He became symbol of peace
Speaker 1: and harmony. So unfortunately, you know, education could not create
Speaker 1: compassion and kindness and a human thing. So we need
Speaker 1: more compassionate people. We need more. You know, we are
Speaker 1: very happy that we have President Biden today in our
Speaker 1: life and Vice President Kamla Harris. We have great expectation
Speaker 1: and we hope to invite them and perform for them
Speaker 1: life soon because we're looking forward for life concerts. So
Speaker 1: it's a great honor and pleasure, uh for aman Ay
Speaker 1: and all of us to collaborate with mice thro Joe Wolsh.
Speaker 1: He's very kind, he's very humble, very gracious, so and
Speaker 1: his wife Marjorie. It is entirely because of them we
Speaker 1: could produce this album. Thought if not said, and you
Speaker 1: want to say something, man, would you like to say something? Well,
Speaker 1: when great masters are speaking, it's better to just listen.
Speaker 1: As you know, I see you learn more when you
Speaker 1: hear but it's a pleasure not to be on the
Speaker 1: same platform with my soul wallsh and my father uh
Speaker 1: And it's a it's a sheer, which is a beautiful
Speaker 1: experience of just not the only music, which is of
Speaker 1: human behavior, of seeing the humanity side of such great
Speaker 1: maestros working together and giving people like us, bigness like us,
Speaker 1: an opportunity to be a part of this amazing album.
Speaker 1: It's a very humbling experience for my brother and me.
Speaker 1: We never got into the Soul space thinking we're want
Speaker 1: to be a part of it. You're just there to
Speaker 1: observe maestro's performed And it just so happened that they
Speaker 1: were gracious enough to give us the room or the
Speaker 1: opportunity to be a part of this great project. And also,
Speaker 1: you know, I take a minute of saying that it's
Speaker 1: it's a late colamic album is because this was recorded
Speaker 1: way back before we arrived all these issues of black
Speaker 1: life matters and all that in the world. We never
Speaker 1: knew what we're going into and it was walking into tsunami.
Speaker 1: We never knew were going to be doing that. It
Speaker 1: just so happened that the album was made and the
Speaker 1: name of the album was parmically called prayers, which is
Speaker 1: the need of the hour right now, at this point
Speaker 1: of time, I think we all as as my father
Speaker 1: and my so Waltz said, it's so important. I love
Speaker 1: what he just said. It's so important to know what
Speaker 1: you don't want to do. That is the best thing.
Speaker 1: But but having said that, I'm happy he knew that
Speaker 1: this was good, so he spent time on people. He
Speaker 1: still spent time on my dad, my brother and me,
Speaker 1: and we've come out with this beautiful album. And I
Speaker 1: hope that in the months and the years to come,
Speaker 1: people do understand the whole concept behind the album, that
Speaker 1: it's it's for the it's for the earth healing, and
Speaker 1: to just tell everyone day, we all have the same race,
Speaker 1: and we all have the same sons of the same God,
Speaker 1: and it's just about love and peace. You mentioned the
Speaker 1: healing properties of music. I've been for my own growth
Speaker 1: and search for peace. I've been exploring the physical properties
Speaker 1: of music through soulpeggio frequencies and sound baths about how
Speaker 1: the vibrations can resonate through the body and have healing effects.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you what is it about music
Speaker 1: that makes it such an effective healing tool. You can
Speaker 1: take a group of people that don't agree on anything,
Speaker 1: have different religious beliefs. Uh, normally you wouldn't have anything
Speaker 1: to do with each other and shoot them down and
Speaker 1: play music and none of that matters while you're playing music,
Speaker 1: and everybody goes home happy and recharge. That's a great
Speaker 1: gift besides being a musician. Do you know that and
Speaker 1: now know that you can have acted people that way?
Speaker 1: I think music is spiritual is all I can say
Speaker 1: to get people that don't agree together to do anything
Speaker 1: and they all go home happy. There's something spiritual in that,
Speaker 1: and and we feel it and we know it. And
Speaker 1: that's why I think live music is so important, because
Speaker 1: it really is healing for people. They get to get
Speaker 1: out of their own heads. They get to get out
Speaker 1: of their problems and there their likes and dislikes and
Speaker 1: just listen and sign out and stop their minds, stop
Speaker 1: their brains and just be and breathe, you know. And
Speaker 1: and that's where spiritualism is. Our wish is that this
Speaker 1: music will do that for people. And I think that
Speaker 1: is part of why we all like to play live shows.
Speaker 1: A beautiful answer scientifically, scientifically, it has been proved that
Speaker 1: music is very, very important forever mind and body, forever
Speaker 1: good health. Appealing music tried on the plants. Plants grow
Speaker 1: faster with the peeling music, catch will give more milk
Speaker 1: with the feeling music. So I think this is the
Speaker 1: time we really need healing, feeling music. And as you
Speaker 1: said that in this kind of collaboration, there is some
Speaker 1: universal interference. There is a spirituality. It's a very spiritual,
Speaker 1: it's very and everybody you know gave their the pure
Speaker 1: heart and soul. So it's our humble contribution towards the
Speaker 1: human race. And it's an appeal from us that please
Speaker 1: stop team, stop killing each other and stop this, you know,
Speaker 1: fight for the racial problems. Just to realize the value
Speaker 1: of peace and harmony and think about the future of
Speaker 1: your children, because children of the world should achieve everything,
Speaker 1: what they want in their life, what they desire in
Speaker 1: their life, and music is a therapy. The entire medical
Speaker 1: world they have realized they are treating difficult, you know,
Speaker 1: complicated patients with the music. So we are looking forward
Speaker 1: for our next collaboration and to visit the beautiful home
Speaker 1: of Mr by maestrodo Worlds and Margary and create something
Speaker 1: more appealing more healing for the world. You performed at
Speaker 1: the fourth annual vets A concert this year, which was
Speaker 1: a virtual event. Do you have any any concrete plans
Speaker 1: for any other concerts together in the in the months
Speaker 1: to come. We are we are know. We just discussed
Speaker 1: with Joe that people are looking forward to once again
Speaker 1: participate on the fifteenth of November day. Yeah, but they're
Speaker 1: going to be in the US, so I've invited them
Speaker 1: to come to the vets Sage Shoe will be in Columbus,
Speaker 1: Ohio this year, and you know, we're not there yet,
Speaker 1: but it would be wonderful to surround ourselves with musicians
Speaker 1: with the same concept as we have and play in
Speaker 1: front of people, play live, and see where that goes.
Speaker 1: Because we know that it works. It would be real
Speaker 1: fun to make an orchestra and go play. Uh, I
Speaker 1: don't know what to call it, East West music. I
Speaker 1: guess how has the last year been for you? Have
Speaker 1: you been holding up without being able to tour and
Speaker 1: get out there? Oh? Yeah, I mean it was rough.
Speaker 1: It was rough for everybody. I mean for years thought,
Speaker 1: oh man, I'm just doing this and doing that and
Speaker 1: doing this and doing that, and I'm on the road
Speaker 1: and and I'm rehearsing and I'd love to just have
Speaker 1: nothing to do for a while. We'll careful what you
Speaker 1: pray for. Yeah, you got three months into it when
Speaker 1: it was time to go on the road and everything,
Speaker 1: and there wasn't that not possible. I wasn't a rock
Speaker 1: star anymore, you know. I was just Joe and he's
Speaker 1: pretty boring actually, so I had to get to know me.
Speaker 1: I was well, I was. It was strange, but it
Speaker 1: was good. It good. I think the whole world got
Speaker 1: a chance to shop and reflect and look at it
Speaker 1: the big picture. And I hope we use that part
Speaker 1: of the experience intelligently when the world opens back up,
Speaker 1: because there's some stuff I looked at. I didn't like
Speaker 1: some stuff about me. I didn't like some stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: that needed fixing and and like that in the world
Speaker 1: around me. And I think maybe the world might be
Speaker 1: a better place for all of that, besides all the
Speaker 1: the loss and misery. That's a good silver lining if
Speaker 1: you can say that there has been one in the
Speaker 1: last year and a half, ourselves better in making the
Speaker 1: world better. I think that is a beautiful message and
Speaker 1: a beautiful note to end on. Thank you all so
Speaker 1: much for your music and your time today and for
Speaker 1: all you do. Thank you so much. It's been such
Speaker 1: a joy and a pleasure talking to you. Nice one. You,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you. We hope you enjoyed
Speaker 1: this episode of Inside the Studio, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more episodes of Inside the Studio or
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