June 6, 2018 The Skanner Page 7
Arts & Entertainment
Jersey-Raised Rocker Ranjit Arapurakal Takes Alt-Right cont’d from pg 6
a Pause for the Cause
By Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
orn in his moth-
er’s hometown of
Trivandrum, India,
the terra cotta-col-
ored capital of Kerala,
Ranjit Arapurakal spent
his infancy in Vienna
and Frankfurt before be-
ing raised in New Jersey
from the age of 4. Today,
the versatile vocalist,
composer, multi-instru-
mentalist and music ed-
ucator is based in Goa,
India, and is currently on
an extended tour across
Russia.
The Jersey boy start-
ed playing rock music
in high school and nev-
er stopped, except for
slowing down a bit to
earn a bachelor’s degree
in Literature with hon-
ors at Rutgers Universi-
ty. After graduating, he
migrated to NYC where
he honed his stagecraft,
while working as a jazz
singer, session musician,
bartender, open mic
host, dance accompanist
for Alvin Ailey, Juilliard
and several other lead-
ing dance academies, and
as a music teacher for in-
fants and their parents.
Visit Ranjit’s recent-
ly-launched
Patreon
page at www.patreon.
com/RanjitArapurakal/
overview to help enable
folks all over the world to
follow and support “Ran-
jit Arapurakal’s World
Peace Tour.”
B
Kam Williams: Hi Ran-
jit, thanks for the inter-
view.
Ranjit
Arapurakal:
It’s my pleasure. Kam.
Thanks for reaching out.
KW: When did you de-
velop an interest in mu-
sic?
RA: I started singing in
the church choir when
I was 7 years-old, and I
enjoyed it from the start.
But I was drawn to the
mysteries of sound even
before that. There was a
And they showed up in
droves, not bothering to
hide their faces as they
entered the venue, al-
though there’s footage
of one snarling, “Don’t
record me, [N-word!]” at
a Black counter-demon-
strator with a camera.
But from footage shot
at that rally in Dickson,
Tennessee, you could
already see trouble was
brewing. For, there’s a
chilling video clip of a
lot of music in the house.
KW: How would you
describe yourself, musi-
cally?
RA: As a psychedelic
singer/songwriter. But it
changes all the time. As
a multi-instrumentalist,
I get to play with many
different musicians in
many settings. My com-
fort zones include Funk,
Groove, Soul, Reggae
and Rock & Roll. And I’m
delving into Psychedelic
Rock and live Techno at
the moment.
KW: Do you prefer
playing solo or with a
group?
RA: I don’t have a pref-
erence. Both have their
own unique charms
as well as limitations.
When you can commu-
nicate with other musi-
cians the same way you
can communicate with
yourself, you get the best
of both worlds.
KW: I enjoyed listen-
ing to a lot of your songs,
especially
“Lonavala,”
“That’s My Name” and
“Since the Start.” What
is the source of your in-
spiration when creating
a tune?
RA: The songs usually
just bubble up from my
subconscious or inner
voice or paramatma.
Some songs are about
love and some are about
the environment, from
fracking to the Dakota
Access Pipeline. I also
have a penchant for
post-apocalyptic
love
songs, as a genre.
KW: You hail from
New Jersey, but perform
in India and elsewhere
around the world. Where
do you like playing the
most?
RA: I have been based
in Goa, on India’s west
coast, for the last three
years. The music scene
there, as well as the audi-
ences and the beautiful
nature, are what made
“
Ranjit Arapurakal
me stretch out what was
originally meant to be a
two-week holiday.
KW: You play both
guitar and piano. What
is your favorite instru-
ment?
RA: My favorite instru-
ment is the human voice.
It’s easy to transport and
can touch, directly, the
soul of any listener.
KW: Who are some of
your musical influences?
RA: Lenny Kravitz, The
Doors, Blues Traveler,
Caetano Veloso, Michael
Jackson, James Brown,
Fela Kuti, Ella Fitzger-
ald, Stevie Wonder, Cho-
pin, Fauré, Monteverdi,
Frank Sinatra, The Band,
The Beatles, Antonio
Carlos Jobim, Santana,
Terrence Trent D’Arby,
Bob Marley and the Wail-
ers, Gil Scott Heron, Mo-
torhead, The Cure, Tom
Petty, Jeff Lynne, Phish,
and Dave Mathews Band,
to name a few.
KW: What was the last
song you listened to?
RA: It’s been ages since
I listened to a song. I was
recently exposed to some
Russian minimal techno,
but these are not songs;
more like moody sound-
scapes.
KW: What is your ear-
liest childhood memory?
RA: I remember my
nursery school at All
Saints Church in Prince-
ton, NJ. Mrs. Weatherall
had a pair of gray rabbits
in a cage in the garden.
And apple juice and gra-
ham crackers. It was par-
adise!
KW: What is your fa-
vorite dish to cook?
RA: Most recently, car-
rot-ginger soup.
KW: When you look in
the mirror, what do you
see?
RA: I see a guy who’s
ready for showtime!
KW: What’s the cra-
ziest thing you’ve ever
done?
RA: Aside from being
born yet again on this
plane of reality? Nothing.
KW: If you could have
one wish instantly grant-
ont Jenkins, an African
American veteran of
the U.S. military who
fervently believes that
“evil flourishes when
good people do noth-
ing.”
For decades, Daryle
has dedicated his life
to monitoring people
like Spencer, if only to
inform their bosses and
neighbors how they
spend their free time.
You might be think-
The new President had
sent out a signal that it’s
perfectly fine to be a racist
neo-Nazi revving his
engine as if he wanted
to hit some protesters
standing in the street.
“You’re not running
anyone over!” a female
marcher yelled at him.
This was just a month
before the Charlottes-
ville rally where Heath-
er Heyer was struck
and killed by a car driv-
en by one of these hate-
filled creeps.
Directed by Adam
Bhala
Lough,
Alt-
Right: Age of Rage is an
eye-opening documen-
tary chronicling the re-
cent rise of the white su-
premacist movement in
the age of Trump. This
fascinating film fea-
tures interviews with
both neo-Nazis and the
intrepid activists deter-
mined to expose them.
Specifically, the di-
rector opted to focus
most closely on Richard
Spencer, the advocate
of Black genocide who
coined the term “alt-
right,” and Daryle Lam-
ing, “Hey, why not just
ignore these neo-Nazis,
and maybe nobody will
know about them in the
absence of any media
attention?” That tac-
tic might have worked
prior to the digital age,
when recruitment is
rampant over the inter-
net.
The picture culmi-
nates with the confron-
tation in Charlottesville
where all hell broke
loose when the police
inexplicably
allowed
armed White suprem-
acists chanting “Jews
will not replace us!” and
other vile slogans to
surround anti-Fascists
in an area of Emancipa-
tion Park set aside for
a counter-demonstra-
tion. Overall, a sober-
ing expose’ proving the
President wrong when
he suggests that there
are both good and bad
Nazis.
Excellent HHHH
Unrated
Kam Williams
Movie Previews at
Award
winning
movie cri
tic
See INTERVIEW on page 11
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