Host Max Tucci catches up with singer/songwriter Radha Mehta at Sundance 2014!
About:
Radha is a results-oriented executive manager and business owner with over 11 years of in-depth experience in new business development and operations management across diverse industries including civil engineering and construction management, entertainment, information technology, politics, and finance. Radha is also an award-winning singer/songwriter, a frequent performer of the National Anthem at NBA games across the country, and currently serves on the Board of The Recording Academy (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences).
Radha graduated from Duke University with three degrees including Computer Science, Economics, and Marketing & Management, and recently earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Da Vinci eloquently stated what the Renaissance Era stood for, rebirth and cultural innovation between the arts and science. RENAISZANCE, an inspirational and uplifting electronic dance / pop group comprised of brother-sister duo, Ravé Mehta (producer) and Radha Mehta (lead singer) embodies that very spirit in their debut album RISE.
In this twelve song release, Ravé overlays Radha’s angelic wide-ranging vocals and melodies onto a rhythmic canvas of electronic dance and dubsteb.
“I Will Rise” is the first single from the RENAISZANCE debut album RISE and serves as the album’s theme song in honor of Nikola Tesla.
The album RISE is inspired by Ravé Mehta’s graphic novel THE INVENTOR, based on the true story of mystic inventor Nikola Tesla. Recognized as a top seller at its debut in San Diego’s Comic-Con 2012, THE INVENTOR illustrates how Nikola Tesla won the epic AC/DC battle against Thomas Edison during the late 19th century, regarding Tesla as the true Father of Modern Electricity. Although Tesla later died penniless, many of his inventions and ideas continue to live on and are still used in today’s technology, including in the creation of electronic music. In honor of Tesla, Ravé produced RISE as an electronic dance concept album that speaks to THE INVENTOR’s story of LOVE, HOPE and FREEDOM.
In addition to Tesla’s reemergence in the 21st century, “I Will Rise” also plays to the very emotions both Ravé and Radha have felt throughout their lives about never giving up and always believing in oneself, setting a tone of empowerment throughout the album. The songs featured on RISE purely have a life of their own scattered along the three dimensional continuum of love, hope, and freedom. This is where RISE takes the listener on a journey through the duo’s subconscious, skydiving from a childhood surrounded by naysayers only to land firmly on the ground as adults with the determination to charge ahead and eventually fly on their own.
The song “Friend In Me” is an anthem on friendship and unbreakable bonds, while on the other extreme the song “Fake New Real You” is an open letter pushing a loved one away to self-explore. The emotional roller coaster of love rises to its peak in “Can’t Let Go”, dealing in one’s inability to let a loved one go, and falls to its trough in “I Will Always Love You” about a heartfelt way of simply saying ‘we’re just not meant to be together’.
Hope is the theme that resonates most with the duo as evident in most of their songs. Having watched their immigrant parents from India pursue a life-long dream of a better life in the U.S., they explore chasing their own dreams in the songs “American Dream” and “Follow Your Heart”. The tracks “They Can’t Stop Me”, “Did You Ever Think”, and “My Way” spotlight overcoming negativity while pursuing their aspirations. “Touch the Sky” speaks to how unconditional love and freedom combined with responsibility empowers one to continually test and push their own boundaries.
Closing the album is the song “Grace and Glory”. Originally written as a tribute to NASA’s final space shuttle launch, the song celebrates how collectively we can achieve anything we put our hearts and minds to.
