What an exciting couple of weeks it has been here at My Best Friend Central! On July 12, 2024, the band Maithree (led by my mother Nirmala Rajasekar) and I released our new single MY BEST FRIEND on all platforms – including a music video filmed in the woods!
MY BEST FRIEND is probably not what you would imagine when you think of the word "single." It's at least a double. No joke, the work began in 2018 – and we had 2 solid years of editing alone. We had hours of material we whittled into 5 minutes and 16 seconds. This has been a monumental labor of love, dedicated to all of the best friends out there who stand by us, celebrate us, and love us throughout the journey.
MY BEST FRIEND was truly created as a back-and-forth conversation. Artists who've worked with me before or listeners who've followed my process will know that I have long advocated for co-creation by performers and composers. In that spirit, MY BEST FRIEND is the most co-creating I've done.
I began sketching and dreaming in 2018 while living in the UK; the central motif of the piece was one of the first things I wrote after unpacking my bags (at the same time as the release of Maithree's 2018 album, incidentally). I didn't know when I would next be back in Minnesota to test it out with these giant artists, so I tried to shove it aside, but the riff would not leave me alone; it continued to pop into my head over the next three years. I knew I had to write this music, for them, at the right time.
So in 2021, sometime around the time of first vaccinations, I applied for support from the amazing Minnesota State Arts Board to workshop my ideas with these artists, remotely and eventually in person. To give you a sense of what I brought to the players, here are snippets from that "score" of the piece:
From MY BEST FRIEND's "score"
It's... probably not what you would think of for the word "score." These are prompts, suggestions – not instructions.
But we had a great time playing with these prompts as starting points to make something new each time. At our world premiere on April 3, 2022 in Lakeville, Minnesota, it was a sprawling 9 or 10 minutes. In rehearsal, it was actually 23. When we played it again at the Ordway in February 2024, it was a tight 3 minutes. Each time we played it, we tried new structures, new forms, and of course, new ideas. The more we worked on it, the more it became clear to me that at its core, MY BEST FRIEND is an invitation – not a prescription.
After the premiere in April 2022, we went into the studio to lay something down. We recorded for HOURS on this track. More and more cool ideas emerged as the players jammed. We did not record with click – the beat sprawled, in whichever directions we desired it. I had the great joy of joining the performers on keyboard and vocals, rather than sitting in my usual "composer" place in the booth. I hadn't originally intended to perform the tune. But the other players called me in, luring me softly with their song.
I took the session stems with me after that day. As I traveled and worked in other places, I dreamed. Sitting in France, traveling in India – wherever I was, I had my headphones on and the session playing on loop. Slowly, slowly, I started to reimagine the piece - re-see it, really. Instead of forcing the clay to be a certain shape, I let the clay tell me what it wanted to be. And something unique began to emerge.
I did all of this dreaming in between other projects and commissions: some of them massive in size, but always returning to this touchstone, this passion project. With the help of more funding (this time a 2023 grant from the revamped Creative Support for Individuals Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board), I worked with engineer and co-producer Steve Kaul to gleefully slash an entire middle section from my original composition and again form something new with the piece. I met with students and music appreciators from the community about what they were hearing in the track, what stories they were imagining, and what kind of representation mattered to them. I collaborated with filmmaker Jon Reynolds to build our music video in the woods.* I designed cover art, other media. I made a lesson plan for those students and music appreciators about how to appreciate the other's genre. And MY BEST FRIEND was born.
*Fun facts: we sat on weeds and twigs, and we spent the day with a family of great-horned owls. It was incredible. I urge you to check out Silverwood Park in St. Anthony, MN when life permits.
MY BEST FRIEND might be out in the world now, but its story continues. We've been partnering with amazing dancers of different backgrounds to interpret the music as they hear it. The results have been mind-blowing! You can follow along on Instagram or YouTube.
By the way, get in touch if you want to be part of this movement of movement – the piece is reborn yet again each time a dancer takes it on.
MY BEST FRIEND is available everywhere in the world where there's internet. It's on Bandcamp (where you can also read how I chose the title), Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and a whole host of services out there in the world.
And more is yet to come! MERCHANDISE is already available in Minnesota and will be dropping online SOON. Below are some previews. Send a note if you'd like to know more :)
Your regular neighborhood "best friend,"
Shruthi
Shruthi Rajasekar is a fiscal year 2021 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant and a fiscal year 2023 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
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