Originally written for FourFaces in September, 2023
All photos personally shared with FourFaces by Seven Eyes
In the year 2015, a video of Tanya Wells, sitting in a cosy, dimly-lit room crooning Mehdi Hassan’s Dunya Kisi Ke Pyar Mein, went viral in Pakistan. For some, she was fascinating for the colour of her skin – a fascination you can hold but briefly, like a fleeting appreciation, as you scroll down your timeline to more interesting things. But for those who dug deeper into this artist’s work and history, there was a treasure of details to unpack.
Today, Tanya is no longer just a solo artist. She and Paulo Vinicius have come together to form the band Seven Eyes. Paulo is a classical guitarist who grew up in Brazil, where – parallel to his regular education – he enrolled into a music conservatory at the age of 11. After attending university in Brazil, Paulo went on to study music at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, Germany and at Musik-Akademie in Basel, Switzerland. He and Tanya are married and have a beautiful daughter, Idalia.
They join me one evening on Google Meet from London after a successful show in Munich, where they played to an animated audience in an event organized by FourFaces, and sponsored by Horbach Expats. Their next stop is across the Atlantic. They are playing at a fundraising gala organized by The Citizens Foundation, Canada. They patiently wait as I fumble out my questions in a scramble of disconnected phrases, and then answer in depth. Occasionally, one of them gets up to go check on their little toddler.
Tanya Wells is not someone naïvely approaching classical music for amusement. “My pursuit of music has always been holistic”, she recalls. “It’s actually about well-being, because music does have such healing powers. In terms of performing and manifesting the knowledge that I learnt, it’s always been a very natural process. I have never sought to be a perfectionist as a performer. It’s really about being pure to one’s emotions, to the song, and the message of the song.”
While Tanya brings her voice to Seven Eyes, Paulo brings the music – often very carefully adding percussions in addition to the chords and notes. “Percussions are ever present in my memory and how I grew up. It’s very natural for me to think about rhythm when I am playing,” he says about playing percussive guitar. “She’s the lead vocalist, and I am all the rest,” he laughs, “I need to fill up a nice arrangement to sound rich.”
“We have always had a very strong drive to create. There are so many different aspects that we are working on in our creative field that we just keep the wheels moving, we are always busy with some project. We are used to that and we enjoy that.”
I ask them about the transition from pursuing music as a passion, to taking it up as a career. Is it seamless? “It is definitely a balancing act”, Tanya admits. So, what helps them keep it going? “We have always had a very strong drive to create. There are so many different aspects that we are working on in our creative field that we just keep the wheels moving, we are always busy with some project. We are used to that and we enjoy that,” she adds with a smile.
One needn’t look much further than their Instagrams to verify this claim. Seven Eyes is in a constant process of creating original and recreating classic music, performing at live events, putting together online concerts and teaching. The band has its own music academy where they offer courses in music skills, techniques and ideas. It’s not something you can take for granted, but to both Paulo and Tanya, the drive to teach comes very naturally. “I think teaching is a consequence of dedicating yourself to something. As you play, you can inspire someone to play as well” says Paulo intuitively, before adding “Both my parents are teachers so it is very natural for me to pass on what I learn.” For Tanya, the journey from learning to teaching has been self-fulfilling. “Raag and the nuances of raag have an impact on well-being,” she says, echoing the inspiration behind their courses, “When one sings devotional music, you transcend the ego and become one with the Self – an instrument of the Divine. And it is through music that you establish that connection, that union with God. Students are very excited by the experience of using your voice to touch something so deep in your spirit.”
Retaining one’s individuality after entering a union is a tough call. Tanya and Paulo seem to be doing very well on this account. Their ventures as a band have not eclipsed their independent pursuits and personas, and they continue to learn and grow as individuals. Does all of that come effortlessly? “You’ve caught us out,” Tanya laughs, “This is one of the biggest conundrums we’re currently trying to manage. We’ve been trying to negotiate how we can manage the original music with the popular requests that we get. I think the way we’re going to do this is to keep Seven Eyes as original music and use our respective artist names for the covers.” The key is to stay focused. “We do have our individual expression as artists. Even though we have Seven Eyes as our main project, we also like to express ourselves in different ways. Paulo might put out a guitar album and I might put out an album of ghazals or devotional music.” Occasionally, the three identities come together in a single project. For Paulo, this is their way of creating original music, without denying their influences. “We put out a Man Kunto Maula cover as Seven Eyes, and an original song ‘Return’ [from the album Senses] that we recorded with Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan in Lahore,” he says.
“This is one of the biggest conundrums we’re currently trying to manage. We’ve been trying to negotiate how we can manage the original music with the popular requests that we get.“
In an age where programmed beats are increasingly used to create music, and electronic sounds are considered a more expedient alternative to classical instruments, what future do they see for classical music? “There is no shortcut towards a craft”, Tanya believes. “If you want to excel at a craft, your muscles need to memorize the movement. And no electronic sound can replace that skill. We’re not against electronic music. We actually put in a lot of new sounds and plug-ins to enrich the music, but it has to have a meaning. If you just use a beat for a beat’s sake, then music becomes dated very quickly and it sounds like everything else.” Paulo adds: “Electronic sounds cannot transmit the sentiment and the emotion that we as human beings and trained musicians can. Classical music is low in the business but it is being silently recreated. Like any other artist, we need to be creative enough to understand and adapt so we can reach people’s hearts.”
I cannot resist asking Tanya about her wardrobe. Dressed very often in layers, her collection – as seen in photos from her tours – boasts an enviable variety of rich colours, cuts and patterns. Initially brushing it off as a scramble, she goes on to recollect how her outfits are a mix of clothes they have bought, and those they have received as gifts from family and the friends they make abroad, “We’ve been quite lucky. A lot of the clothes I received for performing have been from my uncles and from my father who was working in the Middle East and would come back with some beautiful local attires. And when we travel, we both get inspired by and like to wear the local dress because you’re entering that world and it’s nice to assimilate well.”
So what’s next for Seven Eyes? They’ve got some exciting projects lined up. A number of their original songs will be featured in an upcoming album of a Western classical cellist whom they were working with in London; they are planning more online courses through the Seven Eyes Music Academy, in addition to working on the band’s original album. And there is one project that Tanya has wanted to work on for many years. “I am working with students from my teacher Pandit Prabhakar Dhakde Guruji to release a ghazal album,” she says, “It will include some of his original compositions as well as devotional songs from the Indian subcontinent.”
One can imagine them drifting through all these milestones to the tune of Tanya’s favourite raags and Paulo’s favourite guitar pieces – aloft the Himalayas, afloat the Atlantic, singing in the quiet of a meadow at the foot of the rolling hills in Switzerland, or meditating to the music of any of the majestic waterfalls in Brazil.
We wish them good luck.
REFLECTIONS 
Leave a comment