By R. Paul Dhillon
SURREY – New record label Dharam Seva Records, founded by veteran musician and Shinda protégé Sundip Singh, aka Kaka Mohanwalia and Gurmit Singh (Billa Mato), begins its journey its inaugural release by none-other than the Music Man Sukshinder Shinda on 4th April (Thursday) with his track “ChojKhalseDeh”.
Kaka Mohanwalia and Billa Mato, who previously plied their trade in Bhangra music industry, plan big things for the new Sikh religious label which has commitments from other big stars to do something positive for society and the Sikh faith.
The LINK recently sat down with Kaka Mohanwalia and Sukshinder Shinda during their visit to Surrey this week to talk more about the project.
Recent both Kaka Mohanwalia and Billa Mato saw the pull of spirituality and dharam take a strong hold in their lives, and in 2012, both were blessed with the supreme gift of Khande de Phahul.
These Singhs understood that by accepting this life-giving spiritual nectar, they were adhering to an active call of duty. As a result they decided to utilise their combined knowledge and experience for the propagation of a higher cause.
The project, has also touched the heart of global Bhangra superstar Jaswinder Singh Bains, otherwise known as ‘Jazzy B’. He will be releasing his dharamic song “Bagi” on the 4th April to promote the film “Sadda Haq”, a courageous film depicting the ‘real’ picture of Punjab during the 80’s and early 90’s genocide. This film was released worldwide on the 5th April but was banned at the last minute in Punjab.
Kaka Mohanwalia last year released “Singh Mareya Ni Mukhney” on the album ‘Jakara’ after becoming disheartened by the low number of quality dharamic music projects in existence. He became concerned that extraordinary dharamic music releases did not receive the promotion, recognition and level of attention, from the Punjabi music loving audiences that they deserved. With this in mind the concept of DharamSeva Records was born. The sevadaars used their connections and skills to set up a fully integrated framework, which now consists of Singers, Song Writers, Music Producers, Video Producers, Social Media, a PR Team and most importantly, a Not for Profit Record Label, which ensures that all profits will be reinvested into creating bigger and better ‘dharamic’ projects.
So far many distinguished artists have committed to the cause including Sukshinder Shinda, Sartinder Sartaj, Aman Hayer, Jaz Dhami, KS Makhan, Tru-Skool, Kulwinder Johal, Kaos Productions, Gupsy Aujla, Raju Dinehwala, Benny Dhaliwal, Getta Zaildar, Mangi Mahal, PBN, Bups Sagoo, DJ Dips, Jassy Jallanderi, Raman Aujla, Bikram Singh, Amit Rai, Inside Man, Meshi Eshara, Manak-E, Madan Maddi, Sunny Hayre, Rana Sahota, Manjit Pappu, Sangra Vibes and legendary percussionist Juggy Rehal. As well as these household names, the label will be bringing back Mandeep Singh (The Specialist) and Baljinder Singh (Bally Rai) who have also received the blessings of Khande de Phahul since leaving the bhangra music industry.
