Bengaluru, Nov 29 (Agency) India’s Ricky Kej, who had won the Grammy in 2015, has been nominated for the upcoming Grammy Award. “Extremely grateful and humbled that our album ‘Divine Tides’ with rock-legend Stewart Copeland (The Police) has been nominated for the upcoming Grammy Awards. It feels amazing to be nominated again after my last Grammy win in 2015 for my album ‘Winds of Samsara’,” he told UNI. The winners will be announced on January 31 next year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in a ceremony to be held in Los Angeles, Ricky said. Speaking about the album, the Indian maestro said it was written during the Covoid pandemic and depicts human beings as a part of nature, not disconnected from it, which many documentaries showcase so.
The album lays emphasis on the resilience of human species and has eight music videos that have been filmed across Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, including Chennai. One of the songs was shot in Spain’s rainforests, he said. Filmmaker Raghul also has contributed one of the songs for the album. He travelled across India during the pandemic and filmed the beauty in the small and seemingly insignificant moments. Stewart is an ace American composer who served as drummer for the rock band, The Police. he is eyeing the Best New Age Album title at the upcoming gala. Asked the reason for collaborating with Stewart, Ricky said he liked Stewart’s poetic drumming style, which enhances a band’s essence, but rarely gets noticed. And for Divine Tides, Stewart used many ethnic instruments, though he bever employed them in projects, except gathering and storing them. Instruments such as crotale, tongue drum, and timpani drum, among others, were used in the album, which enhanced the music that is mesmerising, he said.