Oliver Rajamani

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #131 (August/September 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Oliver Rajamani

Building Bridges

by Annette C. Eshleman

"Music is something very serious. It's something which rings from somewhere inside. No one knows where. It's from a mysterious place. And wherever that comes from is a place of pure beauty and pure joy." So says Austin-based multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Oliver Rajamani.

Rajamani was born and raised in southern India in a region called Tamil Nadu. As a young boy, at the urging of his grandmother, Rajamani won a scholarship to the Kodaikanal International School. There he learned English, studied alongside students from Europe, America, and Australia, and began to develop his knowledge and understanding of music.

Music has been a constant for Rajamani. "I grew up playing percussion," he recalled. "My uncle had a band, and I played in his band. I grew up with a lot of music around me, not just within my family, but in the community." At school he studied classical music, both Western and Indian, and played jazz and rock 'n' roll. While at home, the folk music of India was ever present.

The pressures of school and home extended beyond music to include the culture. Rajamani remembers the intense pressure and expectation to "be American" while at school, at odds with the pressure to "be Indian" while at home. "That was very hard switching back and forth… I'm still doing that today," he asserted. "Coming (to the United States), I had a very hard time.

"When I came here, I thought I had made myself American enough to be here. But then when I got here, people were more interested in who I was from my own culture."

[cover #131]