Run Monday Run restores ‘musical heritage’ with WAZA

Morung Express News

Formerly known as METET, Run Monday Run was formed in 2018, and is perhaps the first and only Folktronica band in the Nagaland music scene. The band members comprises of Metet Jamir on the vocals, Akum Aier as bassist, Vitz Zhimo as the producer and Kosapong Lusang as the guitarist. 

With the music scene in Nagaland mostly centering on Rock, Indie, Pop etc, Run Monday Run offers a fresh perspective.

“The significance of Folktronica is that just like the name suggests, it makes an effort to blend two very distinct, disparate forms of music making and two totally different sonic pallets. By blending these two, we are able to preserve our roots along with electronic synthetic element which brings the modern vibe to the listener,” says the band. 

The 80s aesthetics has been a major influence for the band which they attempt to bring back with their debut single WAZA released on August 1. WAZA presents a folk song sung in Mongsen (Ao) language, a traditional song sung by young boys and girls at Morung also called Aruju to serenade each other. Both boys and girls are reflected as ‘Waza’ (meaning bird) in the song. 

It took two months of research for the band to create WAZA which included collecting the materials and samples of different Naga tribe's chants, meeting elderly people to interpret the meaning of the lyrics. 

“After collecting the materials, we tried changing the tunes but without deviating from the lyrics and that's how we produced WAZA,” says the band. In a current trend where young listeners are offered myriad forms of new music and genres, the band's experiment on a complex terrain to make one's traditional heritage relevant to young listeners has not gone to waste. 

The folktronica band is already working on their next music projects which they plan to release very soon. 

“We have some few songs on our sleeves and we will be releasing very soon, so continue to love and support us,” informs the band.

WAZA vibe catches the pulse of listeners 

Regardless of the language barrier, WAZA received an overwhelming support from listeners in Nagaland and beyond which the folktronica band considers a ‘huge achievement’ as experimental musicians. In just a week of its release, WAZA received 9.5K viewers on YouTube. 

Listeners commented on the refreshing new music, and considered the song a successful restoration of one’s musical heritage. 

Commenting on the YouTube channel of Run Monday Run, Nyanbemo Lotha Naga says that there are a lot of positive takes from this song. “Composing and singing in English is more universal but our culture gets compromised to a great extent and this kind of music revive an interest in us to look deeper into our culture and at the same invite fellow other tribes to enjoy our cultural heritage,” he said. 

Appreciating the voice as “so original,” Nyanbemo said, “what I have observed is that most people use technology to their advantage in recording and end up embarrassing themselves in live performance(s) but this song is uniquely original and you can just smell the AOness in the voice...”

He adds that “nothing beats authentic and original songs” and expressed hope that “finally I am happy and expect you to be happy as well because my faith in our generation to save our generation and the future generation from cultural extinction has been restored...”

Ikugumbe Iralu appreciating the song said, “Promoting culture and tradition with one of the most trending genre of music.”

“I’m mesmerized by such a soulful and dreamy voice. This song has an otherworldly feel to it; it's hauntingly beautiful,” says Lemmy Imsong.