One evening in 2009, Brandon Colaco walked into a live music gig in Bengaluru expecting nothing more than a good night out. Instead, he left captivated by the deep, resonant drone of an instrument he had never seen before—the didgeridoo. That chance encounter changed his life. Today, the former engineer is among India’s few dedicated didgeridoo artistes. He is working to popularise the ancient Australian wind instrument through performances, instrument-making, and teaching.
Unable to find a didgeridoo in India, Colaco built his first one from a PVC pipe and spent four years practising after work. “The didgeridoo is centred upon intuition and muscle memory. Every player has their own unique style of playing it,” says Colaco. Played using circular breathing, the instrument requires players to inhale and exhale almost simultaneously.
For the past three years, Colaco has taken up the didgeridoo full-time, to play at concerts, wellness retreats, theatre productions, Lakmé Fashion Week and in collaboration with Carnatic musicians. His students, aged between five and 75, are from backgrounds as varied as wildlife conservation, martial arts and theatre. In 2024, Colaco and another player from Mumbai launched an Indian didgeridoo community. “Today, we host free community events on Sunday mornings where 30 to 40 didgeridoos unite to produce a resonant buzzing sound,” says Colaco, who is now preparing for a show on August 8 in Bengaluru. The group includes several women performers despite traditional Aboriginal beliefs that discourage women from playing. It helps it is India, and not the Australian outback.
“The reception of listeners to the didgeridoo has become positive since 2009 since people today are more experimental. But it is still seen as a ‘hippie’ instrument. This attitude is exactly what I am trying to change,” Colaco says; he toured Mexico and Europe in 2025. His next plan is to visit Australia, the birthplace of the didgeridoo. “Being an independent artiste, it is very hard to be playing an unusual instrument in a country where people don’t see much commercial scope in it,” he says. “But every new listener changes that a little.”
