Indian ‘Teardrop’

Audio Trk: Passa Madie - Copyright K. Kearney/W. Alleyne 2006

This piece of music is called ‘Passa Madie‘ it was recorded on a Laptop in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu. We have a few versions of this piece of music but this was the original recording….hence the quality. Passa Madie was the daughter of the Chief of a fishing village. Every morning she would walk past our house after collecting water from the local well, holding the water vessel high up on her shoulder. She would stroll past our garden gazing in at us smiling and laughing, probably thinking what on earth these guys were doing in India. Sometimes Passa Madie and her mother would come and cook fresh fish for us. Passa Madie was one of the most beautiful Tamil women I have ever seen. I later heard that she had died of AIDS, given to her by her husband of an arranged marriage. This music is dedicated to her……..a very sad affair indeed.

I guess it all started in Mamallapuram, South India, but both Will Alleyne and myself had already played together as a Duo for many years. We had planned this for a long time, now that time had come, I remember a phone call with Will where the words "It’s Hammer time" were mentioned….I believe that Divorce, unemployment, depression, bank loans and the CSA had something to do with our decision to finally leave the UK, not a difficult decision to make considering.

Madras in Tamil Nadu, now called Chennai, was our first destination. We had planned to miss the first Monsoon season…..we didn’t, in fact we landed in the middle of it! Humidifiers and temperature meter’s went soaring off the clock and sensitive computer equipment started to cry. Flights were booked, goodbyes were said and off we went. India is another story, an hilarious experience. We really did have a fantastic time creating the complete freedom to write and record whatever came into our heads.

We traveled all over Tamil Nadu and Kerela looking for another crazy experience to write about. Our house in Mamallapuram, which had become a community of European travelers, had started to feel the pressure of having foreigners reside there. Things started to go missing, PC’s and electrical gear started to breakdown etc. We had nothing left to steal and we had played in every venue possible, including South India’s oldest Dance festival. We were the first Foreigners ever to play on that stage. It was quite an experience! But now time to move on! We had spent months in India then all of a sudden new visa’s were required, it was either ‘leave the country’…or erhh…’leave the country’ We had forgotten about the Visa thing, we were having such a great time. Anyway, it was time to leave India, it was getting hot, the monsoon rains were coming soon, and to be honest, India does get on your goat after a while!!

Karma Bonita 'Live' at the Mamallapuram Dance Festival
Will, Kevin, Jascha and Shaz Kabaz…..the original setup of Karma Bonita

Thus, a well deserved break in beautiful Sri Lanka was Imminent, with Sri Lanka being the nearest country, it was our only choice really, apart from dragging all the gear in a train all the way to Nepal…..and ’shift’ sleeping on a Indian train for four days, keeping one eye open and on our gear, was not an option. We packed what we could carry, guitars, Violins and one Laptop and headed off to Madras Airport. We locked all the rest of the stuff up in the house and had a friend stay there acting as security guard. To be honest, we didn’t really know if we would see all our gear again, it was a big chance leaving it in India….we had little choice…….but a lot of faith……a certain requirement when traveling in India. It was great arriving in Colombo, another world away from India…well, it seemed that way at first, they DID have ice cold beer….something incredibly hard to get in India. We had been given an address of a cheap and nasty Hotel in Mount Lavinia, just outside of Colombo, but it was full. A taxi driver said he knew of another cheap place to stay, we went with him; the place seemed ok so we booked in for Two weeks. It took us that long to find out we were living in a brothel…lol. I remember saying to Will one day "Have you noticed that no one booking into this so called Hotel, has any bags with them"?

Afternoon rehearsal. look at the people standing on the top of the rocks!
Afternoon rehearsal for the Dance festival, check out the onlookers on top on the rocks!

We caused quite a storm in Sri Lanka, we got involved with a Colombo night club owner who organized a few gigs for us. This was really great because we had very little money left. We actually played a couple of classy Gigs, one at the National Cricket club, where just by coincidence England were playing Sri Lanka, another gig was at the Hilton Hotel In Colombo, were we found ourselves playing for the extremely rich and boring ‘High Society’ of Colombo. It all went to our heads a bit, not having earned ONE CENT in India and also not really trying too hard to do that. In fact our lives had picked up so much, we decided to stay in Sri Lanka and see what happens. We had jobs, money and we had rented a really nice apartment off a guy named Jude, a Bible bashing Christian Buddhist with a severe attitude. We later found out that he had rented the apartment without the owner, who lived in the states, knowing anything about it. When she finally found out he was renting HER apartment to strangers, he tried his best to evict us, although we had a contract for three months. His secretly turned off the water supply, it was June and 45 degree’s and without water it was unbearable…..I actually ended up fighting with him once after coming home one day and finding all my stuff evicted from my room!

Will and Kevin ‘Live’ at the wedding party in Mamallapuram. We were joined by a plethora of Tabla players who had yet to discover 4/4 timing. It was a excellent concert, and a great laugh!

Things were good for both of us. We were getting paid for playing at various gigs, parties etc. We made friends, mixed it large with the rich and famous of Colombo, and regularly seen staggering out of the Hilton Hotel’s ‘Blue Elephant Disco’ at 5 O’clock in the morning totally pissed out of our heads…lol. Jesus, what a contrast from India! Watching the locals shit in a field next to our house in Mamallapuram…..to working in the Hilton Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka……and eating’ Steak’ everyday, not the done thing in ‘Vegetarian Tamil Nadu’….the cows weren’t so sacred in Sri Lanka…and for the blood thirsty KB members…..that wasn’t really a problem. Life was good at that moment. A couple of months went by….the jobs, money and food disappeared…..things started to take a turn for the worse. We had no ticket home and no money to buy one, we had exhausted all our (?) family/friends resources….to the point that most thought we were taking the p**s. We thought that we would earn enough to pay for tickets home, don’t forget, it wasn’t just us that needed to get back, but also all our recording gear, computers, instruments etc….we had like 250 Kilo’s of equipment in four huge boxes and the only way to get that back to Europe was DHL or FEDEX it….and those who know….it isn’t cheap!!

Afternoon rehearsal.....am I in the right key?

To make matters even worst, war had broken out with the Tamil Tigers in the north of Sri Lanka, It was time to leave Colombo…..we didn’t do wars!! The Airport in Colombo had been attacked, with many people being killed. A state of emergency was called out for on Television by the prime minister. There were soldiers on every street corner and a sense of paranoia I had never experienced. That was it for both of us, enough is enough. We borrowed the money with one last bullshit story (there was only one person who believed the’ we were in a war zone story’) and bought tickets to Milan, Italy, where a good friend of mine had offered us her home to compile and finish the music, as long as we left Sri Lanka…….and went to Italy.

I traveled to Milan alone, Will stayed on in Colombo to organize shipping all the gear back to Europe. It was a long and tiring trip, full of reflection. I don’t think I spoke a word to another passenger. A friend of mine picked me up from Malpensa Airport and drove me to Agra, on the Italian/Swiss border overlooking ‘Lago Majorie’ an absolutely beautiful part of the world. This was to be home for the unforeseeable future. We spent about six months mixing, arranging and re-writing everything we had recorded in India and Sri Lanka.

Will Alleyne

We were missing just one thing……the ‘Voice’ to front the music. We both envisaged a Female singer. I proposed Mattanja as Lead Vocalist and left by train for Holland to talk with her about taking the lead role with Karma Bonita. She agreed and we started work straight away. Will followed on a few months later. The team was now complete. Mattanja, Will and Kevin locked themselves away for another Six Months in an old Farmhouse in South Holland. All three of them worked 24 hours a day at different intervals recording, writing and re-arranging the music. It was a difficult time, money had gone from scarce to completely invisible, and relationships with others were abandoned due to the stress of finally completing this project. In the end and after nearly three years of traveling and recording……..we did finally finish the project…we named it……..Karma Bonita

Kevin Kearney

Share the KarmaThese icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.