Singer/songwriter Aditya Jassi, to paraphrase singer/actor Al Jolson, is sitting on top of the world with a rainbow ‘round his shoulder. There is legitimate reason for the ecstasy. Jassi’s debut album 7 has just been released on Universal Music and the video for the lead single Tu Kaun Hai premiered on MTV last week. A far cry from the days when Aditya walked from Lokhandwala to Bandra to record ad jingles, with a packet of chana-jor-garam tucked into his back pocket for lunch. “It could have been the easiest job in the world for me to flow with whatever trends demanded at that point in time,” recounts Jassi, remembering the down-on-his-luck grind of some five years ago. “But I was very clear that if I would put an album out, it would be what I wanted to put out.” Redemption arrived, ironically, in the form of a karaoke competition. “I made it to the finals of a contest and was performing at Opus in Bangalore,” recalls Aditya. “One of the judges was the Managing Director of Universal Music. Although I wasn’t at my best, I sang for five straight hours at the after party.” One thing led to another and soon Jassi had signed a deal with Universal and is now basking in the afterglow of his debut album. “It has taken me 17 years to get to this point,” he says. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
If Aditya is a solo singer/songwriter, Advaita, a seven-member ensemble, is at the other end of the musical spectrum. However, their journey has tracked identical paths. “I remember during the earliest days, we were booked to play at Dhanaulti,” says Abhishek Mathur, lead guitarist of the band. “We reached there and realised we had to fend for ourselves, including climbing up a path which took us 45 minutes to cover because of the heavy gear with us.” Today, Advaita is a band which took home the Best Rock Album trophy at the Global Indian Music Awards last year; is empanelled with ICCR; plays gigs all across the world and found itself nominated in the Best Indie Band category at the recently concluded MTV Video Music Awards.
It is not about specifics like Aditya or Advaita either. The sheer diversity and artistic finesse of the bands and artistes that make up the scene is compelling enough to attest that there is nothing flash-in-the-pan about the surge of independent music in India. Folk rocker Raghu Dixit is invited to perform at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations; the Ska Vengers earn themselves a pass to play for inmates at Tihar; heavy hitters Demonic Resurrection are cited by Metal Hammer magazine as one of the key reasons why Bloodstock, one of the largest extreme metal festivals in the UK, will rock; blues architects Soulmate gets the legendary Carlos Santana to jam with; Hari & Sukhmani go to town with their juxtaposition of Punjabi folk and electronic beats; the Reggae Rajahs tap into a vein rarely explored by artists based in India; the Bay Beat Collective performs at the Outlook Festival, the largest celebrations of bass-heavy music in Europe and Adil and Vasundhara routinely work with artists from Turkey, Spain, Bulgaria and Brunei.
Times, to quote Bob Dylan, are a-changing. Characterised by change, sign-posted by revolutions and forever surging forward in its quest to discover new horizons, the world of music is, by its very nature, cyclical. It’s an ambit where the Next Big Thing must inevitably yield to a newer rush, the exigency of permanently shifting patterns. Therefore, if the independent music scene in India, inspite of its talent pool rippling with the concentric creativity of some extraordinary craftsmen, existed in a microcosm during the last five decades, it finds itself in a state approaching omnipresence these days.
Take, for instance, the television commercial for Nokia Lumia. Extolling the virtues of the mobile phone in the ad are Gaurav Malaker, of Delhi-based electro outfit B.L.O.T (Basic Love of Things), Dev Bhatia of artist representation and concert promotion agency Unmute and electronic dance music artist Kohra. Now when was the last time anyone saw that happen? While it is true that none of these artists have been credited in their musical avatars in the commercial, but the fact that they are there, talking about a spanking new offering from a global giant, cannot be denied.
“Popular music is always the result of the environment that shapes it,” says Tapan Raj, one half of MIDIval Punditz, the first Indian electronic act to be signed on to an international label. “Punk music was a simultaneous reaction against the stadium rock bands and the government policies of its time. In India, it was an entirely different story because there were no options for bands back then to be in front of their audience.”
Vineet Singh Hukhmani, Managing Director and CEO of Radio One, concurs. “Radio has always played an important role in the rise and popularity of any genre of music,” he says. “There was a time when there was a huge connect between All India Radio and music from the movies. That was why independent music couldn’t really emerge from a very tight, close-knit circle. Look at the huge change that has happened in the last few years.”
To underscore his point, Hukhmani narrates an incident which measures out the distance that counter culture music has travelled in India. “In the first week of April, Radio One decided that we would dedicate two full days to a programming list that comprised totally of Indian independent music,” he recounts. “There was no other music on the station except for the songs created by Indian bands. The response from listeners was overwhelming. It was something that was simply unfeasible, even a couple of years ago”.
The fact that music created away from the monolith that is Bollywood has arrived at a place completely unrecognisable from the point of its origin cannot be denied. A cursory glance at the year that went by would show that not only did major music festivals such as Sunburn and the NH7 Weekender acquire a giant national footprint, there was a perceptible mushrooming of musical gatherings in non-metro cities like Naukuchiatal and Udagamandalam. “There has been an exponential change in the number of festivals and the number of bands playing at these festivals,” explains Vijay Nair, CEO of Only Much Louder, which not only organises the NH7 Weekender but also brings Grade A recording artists to the country.
And it is not only music festivals where the sea change is apparent. The high quotient of indie bands in television shows like The Dewarists and Coke Studio is proof enough of the fact that independent music is now ready to invade living rooms across the country. This is bolstered by the fact that there are venues like blueFROG where live music is not an afterthought once the intense deliberation on food and drinks is over. These are venues where music is the axis and everything else revolves around it. “Till now we have not had a huge culture of going out and listening to music,” says Dhruv Ghanekar, musician, composer and founding partner at blueFROG. “Fact is that while you can listen to all the music and watch all the videos, nothing compares to actually watching a band live. While we still do not have enough venues across the country where bands get to establish a connection with their audience, I think there has been a huge change and venues like blueFROG have made it possible for bands to find their own voice.”
All of which brings us to the pivotal catalyst of the changing music environment we witness today. “This is a period that has been significant because the ability to create a recording of a song has become a lot easier,” says Hukhmani. “The increase in the number of shows combined with the digital advantage has done away with the need to play covers. Bands compose their own songs, disseminate them easily, they are more exposed to what is happening in the world and are proud of playing their songs. The audience, just as savvy, is happy to accept this originality.”
Increasingly, Indian rock and roll has broken free of the shackles of what was pretty much a one-dimensional approach limited to executing spot-on covers of whatever happened to be big in the West. But now, in the middle of the best Metallica Xerox and the most fabulous Nirvana duplicate, there are voices that are truly one of a kind and uniquely Indian. Like Raghu Dixit. A former Bharatnatyam dancer, the Mysore-born Raghu did not even touch the guitar till age 19. However, once he did, Dixit crafted one of the single biggest original sounds to have emerged from the country. Combining the rousing strains of Indian folk with a rock and roll feel and peppering them with touches of blues, reggae, Latin, bhangra and sufi, Raghu’s potent blend of genres has created huge waves at home and abroad. “He has definitely pushed the envelope”, says Nair. “Raghu has taken what Indian Ocean and bands like Avial have been doing for some time to the next level.” That is the reason why the Raghu Dixit Project is a regular at any music festival and his passport is extremely well stamped with all the gigs that he does abroad.
Joining Raghu on the folk trail are Hari and Sukhmani who, following their stint on the experimental stages of Coke Studio, are finally poised on the verge of the kind of mainstream recognition that their exciting cross-pollination of genres surely deserves. It was a chance meeting in Chandigarh, and before you could say serendipity, Sukhmani Malik, a classically trained vocalist of the Rampur Gharana, had met Hari Singh, a chap who, among other things, had become an extremely proficient DJ during his days in Manchester as a student. Bonding over a shared passion for giving folk music a contemporary twist, Hari and Sukhmani have forged a musical identity which combines the ultra contemporary edge of electronic music with the rootsy flavour of Punjabi folk. “Indian Lounge,” exclaims Sukhmani, “is what we call this fusion of electronica, sufi, classical music and Punjabi folk. It was something that hadn’t been attempted before.” Rapturous receptions at gigs and sold-out shows abroad would amply attest that Hari and Sukhmani are on to a rather good thing.
At the cost of wandering about on a tangent, it could only be a long-cherished dream if Carlos Santana were to appear unannounced during the middle of your set and proceed to play along. Shillong’s Soulmate lived this dream while opening for Santana at the F1 Rocks concert at the Galgotia University campus in Noida last year. “We were in the middle of a song,” recalls Soulmate’s Rudy Wallang, arguably one of the finest guitar players India has produced. “I glanced to my right and saw Santana in his ‘guitar/amp room’ by the side of the stage, with his guitar tech, and he had a guitar strapped on. I thought Santana was tuning up or something. Then he gesticulated to me, as if to say ‘Can I join you?’ I was stunned for a second or two then I waved him in! Tips (Tipriti Kharbangar, vocalist) was still engrossed in the song, eyes closed. I went: ‘Tips! Tips! Carlos is here!’ with tears in my eyes!”
Soulmate is India’s finest blues aggregations, an outfit that ideally should claim all the credit for bringing blues into mainstream reckoning. Making it a habit of wowing audiences across the world, Soulmate has played abroad, in addition to sharing the stage with blues legends Buddy Guy and Taj Mahal.
Not that the Delhi based Adil and Vasundhara are any slouches when it comes to hanging out with legends. Ensconced deep inside Yashraj Studios in Mumbai for the recording of their album Ampersand, you could have knocked the duo down with a feather when Louiz Banks strolled in to play on a couple of songs that were being recorded. Banks inspires nothing but reverence anywhere he goes and his presence on Ampersand is testimony to the quality of music Adil & Vasundhara are creating. Hukhmani puts it in perspective. “If you look up the Hindi word for ‘entertainment’, it is manoranjan,” he says. “The ‘man’ is for ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’ and the ‘ranjan’ denotes the time when you experience joy or bliss. The music that Adil & Vasundhara create is in the same vein. It is a moment of bliss.”
A state of complete joy would certainly make the soul dance and that is the reason why it’s brilliant that the Ska Vengers are at hand to supply the soundtrack. At a time when dance music has become synonymous with electronica, the Ska Vengers play delightfully giddy ska, the dance music of the Caribbean and combine it with a lyrical agenda that touches on themes closer home. It is an indescribably uplifting experience and it found the Ska Vengers nominated for two coveted trophies – Best Indie Band and Best Indie Video – at the MTV Video Music Awards. “Live dance music is still a bit underrepresented in India”, says keyboard player Stefan Kaye. “We are putting in all our efforts to put it up on the map.”
These are exciting times for the independent music scene in India. Long languishing on the periphery of the entertainment universe, it finds itself in a moment of cohesive action where musicians, promoters, radio channels, sponsors and audiences are all focussing their energies into making an honest, original and exciting musical statement the high point of a genuine, perceptible movement. That effort is bolstered by the fact that some of the biggest names in music across the world and irrespective of genres, actively seek out Indian audiences. It is no longer a pipe dream to watch Guns ‘N’ Roses, Korn, Tiesto, Armin Van Burren or Slayer play at a gig in your immediate neighbourhood. “The whole machinery of marketing music has changed,” says Bobby Duggal, A&R Advisor for Mooz Entertainment. Now that can only mean one thing – the levee is about to break and the good times about to roll.
Just a year shy of celebrating six decades on the planet, Luis Remo de Maria Bernardo Fernandes is certainly a man who has seen every route that the independent music scene in India has traversed. A multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, Remo was the man that Pepsi looked to as a perfect endorsee when the cola corporation entered the Indian market in the early Nineties. Awarded the Padma Shri in 2007, Remo is one of India’s biggest rock stars.
Not that the booming baritone of Gary Lawyer is far behind. Arriving in India after singing at showcase theatres and nightclubs in New York during the Eighties, Lawyer quickly made his presence felt with a jingle for Bajaj Sunny which won the New York Festivals Finalists award. A consummate performer with four well-received albums to his credit, Lawyer has made playing packed houses a habit.
Conventional wisdom would have us believe that bonafide rock stars don’t come draped in Kanjeevaram sarees. Conventional wisdom would be wrong because not only has Usha Uthup rocked countless stages in that avatar, she is living embodiment of what an Indian rock diva ought to be.
Any discussion about legends that the counter culture movement in India has produced would be incomplete without Louiz Banks. Born in Darjeeling as Dambar Bahadur Budaprithi, Banks’ father changed his son’s name to Louiz in homage to the legendary jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong. Banks is a pre-eminent figure in jazz, nominated for a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category in 2008 for his album, Miles From India. The double whammy came when fusion rock guru John McLaughlin’s album Floating Point was also nominated in the same category. Louis Banks was the featured keyboard player on McLaughlin’s album.