Swami (band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the band. For the Hindu honorific, see Swami.


Swami at the MTV Style Awards
Origin	Birmingham, England
Country	United Kingdom
Years active	1998–
Genres	Rap/Rock/Bhangra
Labels	Nation Records (to 2004) Envy/Roma Music (2004, Britain) Sony BMG India (current, India)
Members	Diamond "DJ Swami" Duggal (lead vocals/guitar) Sups (vocals) S-Endz (vocals) Baba Stormz (bass guitar) Rocky Singh (drums)
Past members	Tarsame 'Speed' Jarnail (vocals) Kamaljit 'Kamo' Bura (percussion) Simon 'Subs' Duggal (drums and production)
Website(s)	www.swamimusic.com www.myspace.com/swamimusic

Swami is a critically-acclaimed ^[1] Asian rap/rock/bhangra band from Birmingham, England. It is also the pseudonym of the band's lead performer, DJ Swami (real name Diamond Duggal), who founded the band with his brother Subs (real name Simon Duggal). Though 'Swami' traditionally refers to a Hindu teacher, the name is an abbreviation of the English phrase 'So Who Am I?'. The band has made it clear through interviews that Swami is a band in the traditional sense, and not a looser collective as is the case with many R&B groups. ^[2]

1 History
2 Discography
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

Swami's debut dance album Desi Nu Skool Beatz was initially released on Simon & Diamond Duggal's own Sub Dub label in 1998. After Sub Dub folded the album was picked up by Nation Records. Described as "blinding" by the Birmingham Post,^[3] the album received some international recognition when the opening track Mehbooba appeared in the 2004 Olsen twins movie New York Minute ^[4]. Nu Skool Beatz was followed by the 2002 album Bhangradotcom, which was less dance-oriented.^[5]

However, their big break came with the release of their third album DesiRock, which became popular across the entire British Asian music scene. By this time Diamond was the only original member remaining and had recruited his cousin S-endz as the lead vocalist of the band. The title track DesiRock was voted as a BBC Radio 1 favorite, which led to the band doing a Maida Vale session in the summer of 2005, and appeared in the 2006 Fifa World Cup Germany edition of Electronic Arts' FIFA series of video games ^[6]. In the same year Swami won the Media Storm Best Producer award at the UK Asian Music Awards, as well as being nominated for Best Track (DesiRock) and Best Group. ^[7]^[8]

In late 2005, the band signed a deal with Sony BMG to release DesiRock in India as Swami with a slightly modified tracklisting, and embarked on a successful promotional tour of India which included a high-profile performance at the MTV Style Awards. The Hindu credited Swami with bringing British bhangra back to prominence in Indian clubs.^[9]

Swami are currently working on their next album, as yet unnamed. It was scheduled to be released in the spring of 2006^[6]^[2]; as of October 2006, the album remains unreleased, but news updates continued to be posted on Swami's official website and MySpace page throughout the spring and early summer of 2006. On 15th February 2006, a 1-minute clip of one song, Afraid, was premiered on Swami's MySpace page, followed by a brief glimpse of the song's 'bhangra-fied mix' on the UK TV Show 'Desi DNA' on 1st March. Afraid premiered on Bobby Friction & Nihal's BBC Radio 1 show on 24th May 2006, and was released in full onto the MySpace page.

On 10th June 2006, a clip of another new track entitled No Apologies was premiered on Swami's MySpace page, along with news that the new album will be a multi format album, with 'R' (rock) mixes that showcase the band's alt-rock live sound, and 'D' (desi) mixes, which will be more club and bhangra orientated. It was also announced that some of the new Swami material will be made available for legal download on iTunes in July 2006. ^[10] The two new songs heard at this point - Afraid and No Apologies - are both the rock mixes of the songs.