I’ve tried many times to write a post about my running life, but I couldn’t bring myself to actually put the words on here. Instead, here are five songs that I have a special connection to, especially while running, songs that guide the rhythm of my movement, songs that change the mood of the whole experience. There are more, but I don’t want to bore you.
Aaj by Bloodywood
I was “in the top 1% of Bloodywood listeners” in 2022 according to Spotify. They’re a super energetic Indian “folk metal” (that’s what they call themselves) band and this song made it onto my running playlist because of its relentless optimism.
The energy ebbs and flows as my feet try to keep up with the rhythm and the energy of the song. If I’m tired, I allow myself to walk a bit during the melodious vocal break at 3:50. After the break, the beat of the song and my movement both build up wonderfully again.
Once, I was going downhill on a road while Aaj was playing. If you listen to the song closely, you’ll notice there’s a quick pause at 2:43 before the chorus kicks in again. When the pause hit, I jumped into the air and landed exactly as the chorus exploded in a wonderful burst of energy, and I found myself dancing to the blast beats and inspirational words that followed. It was a lovely moment, so far known only to me and the taxi driver that honked at me. Now you know too.
Pace: 4:20-4:40/km.
Feeling: Energy! Fast! Chal padhe… aaaaajjjj! Sab bhula ke, sar uthake jab tak dhadkano mein rehti hai jaan!
Waitin’ all night - Rudimental and Ella Eyre
This was the song that made me run in sync with the beat. For the last three years since I heard it for the first time, I’ve had a rule. If this song comes up while I’m running, I have two choices: either I skip the song, or I commit to running the whole song without losing the beat. Like Aaj, there’s a little break in between where I let myself run slowly or even walk for a bit, but when the drums are on, I have to be on.
The rule has led to extremely intense moments while running, especially while on trails. When I’m running at my usual relaxed pace, I’m watching carefully to not get injured as I navigate the rocks and trees and what not. But if this song is playing, the trail is going by too fast for me to pay close attention. The crazy thing is that my instinct does just fine and I’m zipping by on all these rocks that on normal days seem so scary!
The video is inspiring and lovely too. If you don’t smile by the end, I will buy you a beverage of your choice when we meet!
When the song picks up its energy after the 20 second break at 3:25, it feels lovely every time to get back into the rhythm while I imagine the hero getting back on his bike in the video. There are more than a few times that I’ve caught myself fist-bumping the air as the song ends.
Pace: 4:20 - 4:30/km.
Feeling: Inspired. Anybody can do anything!
Ego Death by Polyphia and Steve Vai
When I first heard this song, I was awestruck. First at the guitar prowess of the members of Polyphia, and then at the cute beat that the drummer plays. But when Steve Vai came onto the terrace to play his part, it felt like everything before was played by children. He didn’t need to do fancy stuff on the guitar, he bent the music to his will and feel. I thought to myself, “Now that’s a mature musician. The Polyphia guys have a long way to go before all their technical gymnastics become one with their feelings.”
However, I read online that they actually rearranged Steve Vai’s parts to make it sound like what they imagined. So…maybe they were the real masters all along!
Anyway, you should hear the whole song. Steve Vai comes in at 3:16, and the song kicks into a higher gear of awesomeness. At 4:14, he does this magic “chik chik chik chik” (sorry, maybe if I was a writer, I could have described that better) and my run becomes more enjoyable every time. If it’s a rocky trail, I rearrange my footfalls to match little random moments in the beat — it’s good fun. The song has a nice trumpet outro, which tells me that I have to start thinking about how to run with the next song.
Pace: A little faster than however fast I was running before the song came on.
Feeling: Music is wonderful.
Jungle by Indian Ocean and George Brooks
Indian Ocean has been one of my favourite bands since I heard Kandisa back in college. I think they’ve mixed Indian percussion and drums better than anyone else in the world. I’ve drummed along to so many of their songs - my band even played “Bandeh” live on a college radio station in the US!
Their new album Tu Hai, is magnificent…no other word comes close to describing it. If I have to be completely true to the point of this post, I’ll have to include every song here. On so many runs, I’ve just played the whole album on repeat. Some songs (like Jungle and Iss Than Dhan) have a beat that matches my feet, and others (like Rebirth) just make me smile and look around at all the nature on the trails.
Once ( I swear I’m not making this up), this album was playing on my headphones and I was running towards my favourite trail and I ran into the band! I guess they were visiting Dharamkot for a few days before heading to Bir to play a concert there.
I recognized the drummer, but in that starstruck moment, I asked him he was the guitarist of Indian Ocean (still makes no sense to me). After this faux pas, instead of telling him about how inspiring he has been to my drumming journey, or of the countless hours I’ve spent drumming to their songs, or even that I was listening to their new album at that very moment, I said, “I won’t bother you any more, looks like you’re busy” (they were plucking random leaves on the trail), and continued running.
Pace: Relaxed.
Feeling: Depends on the song, but mostly paying attention to the musical things that these guys do in all their songs.
Yakjehti Mein by Ali Sethi and Nicolas Jaar
As the YouTube video description says, this was performed in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and these days, this is what I think of I play this.
I am grateful that this collaboration happened. A poem of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the voice of Ali Sethi, and the crazy creative beats of Nicolas Jaar. It’s not a running song, but I still play it while running, just so I don’t stop listening to it.
Pace: Relaxed.
Feeling: There should be no war in the world
Chakra by Fakear
Oh boy, what a song. It was my second most played song in 2022 (after Aaj!).
This is a song that makes me forget that I’m running. I look at the leaves shaking in the wind. I feel the sunlight on my face. I feel the leaves under my feet. I look at monkeys and goats and kids and people and I smile because the world is so beautiful.
Pace: who cares.
Feeling: Love.
A TIL moment with each song listened and the feel behind that! Lovely read as always.
Ps: thank you for the embeds, as it enabled me to listen
Today is 11th March. This post came out on 18 February.
Okay bye.