If you were anywhere near an Atlanta rock club in the late ’90s and early ’00s, chances are good you saw Shonali Bhowmik singing and playing guitar in Ultrababyfat or collaborating around town with friends in a number of pop, rock or experimental side projects.
“What I’ve always loved about playing music in Atlanta was — and really still is — the community,” Bhowmik, an effervescent singer-songwriter-comedian-actress-filmmaker-lawyer-activist, said by phone during a recent chat with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I have so many friends there and so many good memories of just being a part of it all.”
Credit: Jason Campbell
Credit: Jason Campbell
Though the city is as dear to her as her hometown of Nashville, her home since 2002 has been in New York.
“It’s funny,” she said. “I am a Southern girl with Indian parents, but I feel connected everywhere, not just to the Atlanta scene. That’s why I moved to New York in the first place, to share that connection.”
Relocating to Manhattan a year after the 9/11 tragedy, she said her original goal was to “elevate the spirits of my NYC friends after such a brutal event.”
But the industrious artist also established a multipronged professional career as a lawyer. “Well, let’s say I’m a ‘recovering attorney,’” she said, laughing, when asked to describe her “other side.” She uses her passion for community connections to facilitate workshops and various outreach programs — and she somehow finds time to manage her own record label, Little Lamb Recordings.
It’s all part of a creative drive rooted in her childhood. “I’ve recorded songs on tape recorders for almost as long as I can remember because I’ve always wanted to share whatever message was on my mind at the time,” she said. “I don’t know if was because my parents were professors who immigrated here during the Civil Rights Movement or what, but I’m constantly returning to stories that basically raise voices minimized by the mainstream media outlets. I do try to push myself a bit in that area.”
But Bhowmik’s ninth full-length album wasn’t forced; it was a product of a series of intensely personal struggles and realizations. “After losing my father in 2022, I knew I had to share my music with the world. He’d always encouraged me to take chances and just go for it, so I feel like he was guiding me to do these new songs,” she said. “And, yes, like everyone, I had been paralyzed by the pandemic, by the George Floyd incident and by the world in general. But I have to remember, I’m an extension of him. So these new songs are inspired by his encouragement to ‘get on’ with things — and do it right.”
Armed with a batch of tunes demoed at home on GarageBand, Bhowmik returned to Atlanta last year “to work with my OG friends.” In July 2023, she began sessions with veteran producer-songwriter Dan Dixon at his home studio in Peoplestown. She was joined by her childhood friend, Ultrababyfat co-founder K. Michelle DuBois, and the project quickly expanded to include old pals Darren Dodd, Shannon Wright and Jeff Holt.
Credit: Jason Campbell
Credit: Jason Campbell
The resulting collection, “One Machine at a Time,” is an album that reverberates with all of her major influences, especially ‘70s singer-songwriter folk, ’80s pop-rock and even a few tasteful nods to country music.
“Once I took the songs to Dan’s studio, it all just poured out,” she said. “It was like all the pent-up energy I’d had during the lockdown just overflowed. I’m so proud of what we created from those ideas.”
She’ll celebrate it with an album release show at Star Community Bar on Friday.
Rather than use a band name, such as her ongoing Manhattan-based outfit Tigers and Monkeys, or even label the collection as an Ultrababyfat “reunion” project, she chose to issue the record under her first name.
“Yeah, I could have called it some kind of collective band name, and I do love all the players on it, so that would have worked on a surface level,” she said. “But I feel in the indie rock world, we’re sort of used to basically disguising ourselves or hiding behind a kind of nebulous ‘band name’ thing. It works sometimes and of course I’ve done it, but these songs felt way too personal; I wanted them to be from me. These are my feelings about childhood and love and technology and whatever else I was thinking about. There’s just a lot of myself going on in these tracks.”
The personal touch includes using childhood photos of Bhowmik as the album cover art. “My dad took those photos,” she said proudly. “I feel that was the way he saw me, and since the whole thing is about going back and sort of reexamining things, it made sense to use his vision of me — as a tribute to him.”
One song, “Firefly,” is a direct tribute to her dad, but she said, “His spirit defines the whole album. Even songs like ‘One Machine’ (the album’s cautionary AI-inspired title track) are basically informed by his spirit. The whole record is dedicated to my parents.”
Bhowmik is quick to add that while the current music may be inspired by her family, she’s the ultimate owner of her voice and justifiably proud of her heritage.
“There’s this weird ingrained thinking that artists — especially among female artists ― that we need to sort of ask for permission to be heard,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Excuse me, can I play?’ It’s called unconscious bias, right?
“But I think the way things are going right now, the times are changing so fast, a brown woman like me can really make a noise and be truly heard and accepted. Look around, it’s happening on a major level. I believe we are seeing a major shift in the collective consciousness. I must say, it’s definitely time!”
CONCERT PREVIEW
Shonali Bhowmik’s “One Machine at a Time” album release party
With Sunset Honor Unit and Shalewa Sharpe. 8 p.m. Friday. $15 advance, $20 door. Star Community Bar, 437 Moreland Ave. NE, 404-500-4942, www.starbaratl.bar
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