r&r freewheeling By Hilal NakiBoglu isler The Year of Anjulie hen she first moved to america, Anjulie Persaud didn’t know a soul. She was young, just 19 at the time. “I told metal on the net W The team behind my parents I was going to visit a family friend in The Flaming Skull Montreal,” she says. “And I ended up in New York.” Persaud left behind everything: family, friends, and her hometown (the Toronto suburb of Oakville), for the great un- 60 hours to put together one epi- known. “I moved without a visa or a place to live,” she says. “All I had sode so I’ve been putting out an were some songs that I really believed in.” And she would play them, Music episode about every two months,” wherever people would listen: on the subway, on the street. Anjulie says Ddavidd. While the focus of remembers crashing the lobbies of record companies: invading tall, Podcasts the podcast has predominantly chrome and glass buildings, armed with nothing but her guitar. Of- been rock, most genres of music ten, she wouldn’t make it beyond the door. find a spot if it catches Ddavidd’s It was a tough time – emotionally and financially (she took up Come of fancy. Over the last few episodes, waitressing to help pay the bills) – but for Persaud, quitting was the podcast has featured Indigo never an option. If she could just make it there, in New York, she Age Children, Another Vertigo Rush, could make it… well, you know how that goes. So she stuck it out. Pentagram, Junkyard Groove and Eventually it started paying off. Anjulie caught the attention of a A new wave of Medusa among others. few higher-ups, and things snowballed quickly. podcasters is bring- The Flaming Skull (TFS) pod- These days her songs can be heard regularly on hit shows like cast and POD 666, on the other MTV’s The Hills and the network’s new spinoff, The City, on the ing Indian music to hand, cater exclusively to the repurposed Melrose Place, and on the popular new ABC television the masses, one burgeoning underground metal drama Eastwick. Her video for the track ‘Boom,’ secured an MTV episode at a time scene. Malcolm Soans, who initi- nomination, for Best Breakthrough this year. And while it’s true By Deepti Unni ated TFS in July 2008, explains she lost (to Indie popsters Matt and Kim), it’s still enough to have the stand: “I was just pissed off been recognised. The nomination caps off a great year for her. A at how easily metal bands are year where she’s enjoyed extraordinary success, including a Num- odcasts are old hat for dismissed. I wanted to make sure ber One hit on the Billboard dance charts (again, for ‘Boom’), and the rest of the world now, metal gets heard.” TFS’ weekly performances from coast to coast (she’s shared a stage with Franz P despite the fact that it came podcast, put together by its eight- Ferdinand, N.E.R.D, Common, The Roots, Amerie and Talib Kweli, into being less than five years ago. member crew, features reviews, to name a few). Then, at the end of August, another coup: perform- But given the limited internet ac- interviews, promos, contests and ing live on MTV Canada for the first time. cess and restricted bandwidth news and is proud to be the plat- Her self-titled debut album can now be purchased digitally – and available in India, podcasts are form to provide sneak previews physically at Starbucks across North America. That’s a lot of loca- still a very nascent phenomenon of new Indian metal albums. “We tions (roughly 12,000 at the last count). It is confirmation that An- here, and music podcasts even were the first to preview a single julie has entered the big leagues. more or so. But in the last two off Bhayanak Maut’s album and Most of her album was co-written and produced by Jon Levine, years, a number of operators have that really got us noticed. Our lis- keyboardist with the popular Nineties R&B band the Philosopher initiated and successfully run mu- tener base is growing by the week Kings. Her vibe on the record is both polished and lo-fi; her brand sic podcasts. and we’ve even started a distro of pop fragile, yet seething with an “I’ll-show-you” sort of attitude. Of these podcasts, three are outlet for bands to sell their mer- Comparisons have already been made to fellow Canadian chan- currently active on the indepen- chandise,” beams Soans. POD teuse, Nelly Furtado (the two met for the first time at the 2009 dent and underground music scene 666, run by 13-year old Urvesh VMAs); interesting, as Gerald Eaton and Brian West, also of the of which Sound of the Indian Un- Vasani, was TFS’ closest competi- Philosopher Kings, were the forces behind Nelly Furtado’s first two derground, run by Delhi-based tor, that is, till schoolwork caught albums. Maybe it’s coincidence. Or maybe it is sign of a shared fate. RJ and voiceover artist Ashish up with him. “I thought it’d be Either way, Anjulie seems to be emerging as Canada’s next big Ddavidd (or “Chuddy Buddy Ash- great to use the podcast as an au- pop export. Here in the States, moviegoers can hear her song ‘Big ish” as he’s better known), is the dio blog and my genre of interest Things’ during the opening credits of the Fame remake (starring oldest. “Earlier I’d sung for Them was metal,” says the diminutive Kelsey Grammer and Megan Mullally). There’s also Fefe Dobson’s Clones, Artists Unlimited and Vasani whose podcasts are cen- latest album Joy. Anjulie confirms that she’s written four songs for backed Euphoria for a while, so I tred around listener requests and Dobson, including the up-tempo ‘I Want You,’ featured in the latest was in touch with a lot of people functions more like a radio show. Drew Barrymore film Whip It. on the scene. Given my radio back- But the rueful 13-year-old admits But what about India? Will she visit soon? Yes, she says. “We are ground, it just seemed a logical it’s eating into his school and planning a show in India in the near future.” It will be Persaud’s step,”says Ddavidd. The podcast study time. “The podcast is cur- first time in the country. “I’m dying to go,” she says. “It’s so rich with features songs, interviews, news rently on a break but I’m hoping culture and history and food. I can’t wait.” and views (mostly Ddavidd’s) I’ll be able to give it more time in but it hasn’t committed to a fixed the future. I’m definitely going to Hilal Nakiboglu Isler lives, writes, and teaches in the United States timeline yet. “It takes me around come back with Season 2.” 16 . Rolling Stone, november 2009 R&RPodcast+Col Hilal.indd 15 10/29/09 8:23:49 AM.