Resident Alien
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RESIDENT ALIEN Musical genres, melodies and beat-cycles morph, as Ali Sethi and Sunny Jain explore the idea of migration. In a nation of immigrants, where its system describes human beings as a “resident alien” or “illegal alien”, Ali and Sunny assert the very real and beautiful threads of migration, from the origins and synthesis of language, to exile, to political and religious freedom. The band includes Ali Sethi on vocals, Sunny Jain on drumset/dhol, Grey Mcmurray on guitar and Shoko Nagai on keyboards. Some people look for a beautiful place, others make a place beautiful. - Hazrat Inayat Khan Ali Sethi is a Pakistani singer, musician, writer, and columnist. Sethi was globally recognized for writing the book, The Wish Maker. The book was short-listed for DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize Award. Sethi has written several columns for New York Times, The New Yorker, The Caravan, and The Friday Times. 2013, he began focusing on his music career and made his film debut as a playback singer in The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013) and released a cover single "Mohabbat Karne Waley.” Later, he released four cover singles and debuted as a featured artist in the eight season of Pakistani music reality show, Coke Studio. In 2016, Sethi released his first original single "Mahi Mera", which was critical acclaimed. He received his first Lux Style Aware nomination as a Best Playback Singer – Male at 15th Lux Style Awards, and was nominated for Best Play Singer – Male at 2nd ARY Film Awards, both for "Aah Ko Chayie." He also received a Hum Award nomination for Best Music Single category. Sunny Jain is the founder and dhol player for the pioneering Bhangra fusion band, Red Baraat, with performances at the White House (Obama), TED Talks, London Paralympics Closing Ceremony, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Austin City Limits and Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festivals. He was the drum set player for the acclaimed Pakistani Sufi-rock band, Junoon, from 2006-2011 with performances at the Nobel Peace Prize concert and United Nations General Assembly. Jain has also performed with artists such as Marc Cary, Samir Chatterjee, Kyle Eastwood, Peter Gabriel, Vijay Iyer, Norah Jones, Kailash Kher, Karsh Kale, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and Himanshu Suri (Das Racist/Swet Shop Boys). He is the recipient of awards from National Public Radio, Aaron Copland Music Fund, Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, globalFEST and the Arts International Award in both 2005 and 2003, and the 2017 DownBeat Critics Poll winner for “Rising Star Percussionist.” Jain’s pursuit has always centered on improvisation and community. “Taking risks and pushing the boundaries allows us to hit upon new ways of understanding and relating to the world. We are storytellers reflecting in our art the society we live in, and we are also simple creatures that desire community. If we can unite people of all backgrounds to partake in the exuberance of life through the universal language of music, regardless of any differences, then life is that much sweeter.” .