India Soundpad
At The Great Escape
Interview with Swarathma

India, for this writer, has never been a country associated with having a burgeoning music scene, other than the obvious association with its film industry via the billion-dollar empire that Bollywood rests on.  True there is an element of ignorance my part, but the reality is whatever music scenes are in existence in India, the UK and Europe have never really been privy to it, nor have they had access to it.  Until now. 

With the British Council and the University of Westminster Faculty Music label at the helm and renowned veteran producer John Leckie working in collaboration, an ambitious project to change this perception was initiated in 2008. Christened ‘India Soundpad’, this project marked their mutual aim to generate a dialogue between the emerging alternative music scenes in India and The UK by bringing the 2 industries together in constructive and professional conversation whilst celebrating everything they both have to offer. 

Acting as both project producer and ambassador for Indian new music, Leckie travelled to India to hold auditions to find the right bands local to Mumbai to be involved in the Soundpad concept.  And for the successful bands it would culminate in the opportunity to record at one of India’s most prestigious studios, Yash Raj, for the purposes of releasing the first India Soundpad album in India and the UK.  Furthermore the successful bands would travel to England to embark on a national tour organized by the Barfly Group as well as a high profile showcase over the course of this years Great Escape conference in Brighton.

Perhaps one of the most ground breaking aspects of what has been such a successful meeting of both minds and nations, is how of the 4 bands that were selected to become India Soundpad, each one draws on very diverse influences.  There is a distinctive Indian sound across Soundpad, but each individually convey their own take on sounds that fall largely to contemporary western music.  Listening to each track on the album, of which each band had the chance to record 2, you find you have been plunged into sounds encompassing everything from pop, grunge, rock and indie, but with each allowed it’s own specific stamp.  And moreover with the involvement of a producer with the caliber of cv like the one Leckie possesses having been formerly involved with high profile artists such as The Fall, Radiohead and Pink Floyd, he has provided just enough polish on production to effectively allow the original sounds and traditional Indian flair to remain.

And for the 4 bands involved, plucking them from relative obscurity at home and introducing their music to a far broader cross section of music has been a monumental opportunity and one that dreams are made of.  Not to mention the full rock star treatment that has ensued, a chance to get lost in London and bookings to play some of the most sought after stages on the live music scene in the UK.

The highly successful nationwide tour and fully supported album release has given the India Soundpad concept the publicity and notoriety it deserves.  And through this, all involved are hopeful that a step in the right direction has been made as far as highlighting the growing alternative music scene in India.  Moreover they are hopeful that as the Indian music industry evolves and breaks free of the stranglehold of Bollywood, projects like this will encourage their nation to look to different kinds of music.  And that is surely part and parcel of India Soundpad as a project and what The British Council, Faculty Music and John Leckie himself were out to demonstrate when the project was mooted.

India Soundpad : An Introduction to the Bands

Delhi based Indigo Children mix catchy pop hooks with grunge guitars and belting choruses which have already given the 3 piece a big reputation for their energy, strong original material and great live performances.

Medusa draw influences from a number of bands from a number of scenes and incorporating Indian instruments such as the sitar into their music alongside electronic elements puts a distinct spin on their Mumbai sound.

Indian folk band Swarathma combine traditional Hindi music with a diverse variety of influences to create a sound entirely unique to them. The six-piece are fond of collaborating with musicians from different cultures and have recently signed to a major label that recognised their talent.

Advaita borrow their name from the ancient Indian philosophy of Non-Duality, they are an 8-piece band who blend different styles and moods from various cultures into something truly original. With Western influences including Pink Floyd and The Chemical Brothers, Advaita stay true to their roots by also using tabla rhythms in their music.

So as we celebrated all that is exciting about the undercurrent of new music in India during the Great Escape on Brighton’s infamous pier, we spoke with Vasu Dixit (vocals & rhythm guitar) and Jishnu Dasgupta (bass & BV) Of Swarathma, to get their thoughts on the project they were picked to be a part of, their musical inspirations and how they feel new music in India could be moving out from the fringes and become a dominant force all on it’s own.

4TR: The India Soundpad project involved John Leckie as producer and subsequently an ambassador for Indian music.  Given Leckie’s legendary status as a producer, how did you find the experience of working with him?
Jishnu Dasgupta: To start with it took us a while to understand what the role of a producer was because in the Indian context a producer is the person who funds a film.  The music industry does not have producers at all in India because it is dominated by  Bollywood, so there isn’t an independent culture of bands doing their own music as there is in the West; but once we understood the role and realised what John brought along with him through the richness of his experience and the vast amount of talent he has it was an incredible experience for us.  He understands what the band is trying to do and make sure that they do it and don’t get it wrong at any point in their efforts.  So we spent 3 wonderful days with John in the best studio in India where we recorded 2 songs, which are now on the Soundpad album.

4TR: And alongside Swarathma they have chosen 3 other bands that represent a very varied cross section of musical styles in India.
JD: Yes exactly, it’s a compilation of the new, emerging Indian sound across genres.  We are sort of contemporary Indian folk mixed with rock and other things, there is Advaita who are pure classical fusion, Medusa who are doing electronica and Indigo Children who are indie rockers with a bit of a punk alternative style.
Vasu Dixit: I would say this whole project was a risk in the sense that all 4 bands have never been heard of; we are not famous bands and as musicians we are not so grown as musicians, so it was definitely a risk.  They could easily have gone to the best bands in India and said this is what Indian music is all about, but they didn’t and so it’s a good thing for young bands like us to come here and showcase what young Indian music is all about.  I am sure this is going to help and encourage a lot of people back home because we are showing them there is some future in this music.
JD: It’s a dream you know, we are sitting in the middle of the sea on Brighton Pier at one of Britain’s largest new music festivals, and are getting to showcase our stuff to people who probably would never have heard of us otherwise.  It just goes to show that music really has no boundaries at all.  The way that people just sang along to our songs in a language they did not know just shows that there is a universal appeal that transcends all the walls, the borders and the boundaries that man tries to draw within fellow humans.

4TR: You mentioned the language barrier, so obviously you have to convey the meaning of your songs through the music more than the lyrics to get people to understand particularly.
VD: Yeah that’s the whole challenge for us.  Even in the past there have been a lot of musicians or bands who are quite famous in India because of what they used to say, not because of the language.  Language was never a barrier to them, so your music becomes the language; there is no bigger language than music.  You saw today at least 50 people who were smiling and if we can connect through that smile at one point of time I think that’s the great thing that music can do.    

4TR: And what about back home, do you have a big following there and what do they think about everything that’s been happening with India Soundpad?
VD: Well it’s growing definitely but we are not a huge band back home yet, but there have been a lot of people who have been very encouraging about the music we are playing.  India has very many ethnic states, you can travel 500 miles and you are in a completely different zone you know, a completely different place where the people talk differently, eat differently and dress differently.  India is almost like a micro-cosm of the world because there are so many varying kinds of cultures, but wherever we have gone to play we have managed to reach out and connect in a manner that transcends any barrier of language, race or nationality, so we are getting there.

4TR: You have been playing and writing music together for some time, so was John able to point you in any new directions or get you to try new things, or was it a kind of meeting of minds where he just understood exactly what you wanted to do on the album?
VD: He understood that we are more of a live band and are more comfortable playing on stage rather than in a studio.  I mean the studio is a different ballgame than doing it live because live you just have one go, whereas in the studio everything is done like ten times, so all your mistakes or your good things are multiplied by 10 times so you have to be extra careful.  So John said I don’t want you to play like you’re in a studio, you play your best live show and that’s all I want because he understood what is the strong point of our band.  He wanted to take the liveliness and the energy of that and so he did.  He made us play the song in full some 6 or 7 times and then I don’t know what he did overnight but the next day he gave us the finished song.

4TR: So are you happy with the songs you recorded for the Soundpad album?
VD: Definitely we are very happy with what we have done.  But the biggest thing about this project for us is that we came here to the UK.  They could have just finished the project with the album and distributed it in the UK, but they didn’t, they got us onto this festival and arranged a tour.
JD: Do you see that bus over there? [Points to a huge tour bus on the sea front] We are on that beautiful tour bus and we have never been on a bus like that before.  It’s the way bands work here but that’s not how it works back home and that’s the rock and roll dream isn’t it!
VD: And for us it’s a great experience we will keep for life.
JD: It’s also a sort of live music boot camp because there’s like 300 other bands and everyone has to be on time to sound check and stuff so its about learning to work with different situations.   I also think more than making fans as such or listeners we are here to make friends or connect in a way that goes beyond the music.

4TR: And how does the writing process function in the band seeing as there are 6 of you?
VD: Usually I will compose a tune, the main chorus or the melody and then I present it to the band and everybody gives their opinion, then we start writing what the song should be about.  So it’s the music first, then the thought and then the lyrics fall in.  Most of the time we don’t sit and write the lyrics, it just flows from inside.  For us because there are 6 of us who have very different musical backgrounds we come together and everyone says this is the background I have so let me see what I can contribute to the band.  We exchange ideas and then we have to minus a few things and then we have to add new stuff that we learn
JD: We always try to step out of the comfort zone because that is important.

4TR: And in that case do your ideas ever clash?
JD: [Laughing] all the time it wouldn’t really work if it didn’t really clash.
VD: Its like marriage isn’t it, in marriage you cant have a smooth rosy life all the time, every couple has a fight so every band will have some clashes in between as well.
JD: I don’t think it would be that much fun or as appealing or exciting if we didn’t all have opinions and clash sometimes.   But  realistically song-writing is a very important because it’s not possible for us to write a song that is not about something real.  We write about issues and we like to write about the way the issues make us feel.  There is a song called ‘All The Leaves’ which is about many things but mostly its about the feeling you have when you go back to your childhood playgrounds or something and you realise that so called development has taken away some part of your childhood.  It basically says that if your roots aren’t strong enough then the first gust of breeze will blow away the leaves on the trees that you are.  The leaves are metaphorically the next generations and how generation after generation people feel less and less connected with who they really are and the confusion about where you belong.  We have another which is about the river that flows between 2 streets back home.  There has been a dispute over its waters for over 200 years and there's been bloodshed and riots and much of it has been politically instigated.  So the song is the voice of the river and it’s a lament of a mother who realises that her children have forgotten their brothers.  So song-writing is a key part of what we are about, but song-writing in the meaning not of the structure or the music.

4TR: And have you had the chance to check out any other bands playing The Great Escape so far?
VD: [Laughing] Yeah we did, even before we started playing we went to the pub and watched some bands.
JD: We saw Rob the Rich, Amazing Baby and I loved that show, then there was Rosie and the Goldbug who are very good and Tommy Tokyo from Norway.
VD: [Laughing] we will get to see some more tomorrow as we have a day off.

4TR: And after this weekend at the Great Escape, the tour kicks off around the UK.  But after the tour is finished what happens next for you?
VD: Well the coming next 2 months are slightly off season because its going to rain back home and in rainy season not many shows happen, so we are going to take the time off to work on our first music video and new material.  We have to take writing new stuff more seriously now because we know we will have more opportunities and a lot more shows to come, so in a way we have to work harder.

4TR: So your lyrical contexts are very much built around your culture and the things happening around you that you are aware of.
VD: Yes, I mean if you have to write a song about say communal riots, you don’t have to be part of it its just as an artist how sensitive you are towards it. That’s what an artist has to do as like the presentation of his society.

4TR: Over the last year from a creative aspect India has now been represented in the UK through the music industry and through film with the success of Slumdog Millionaire. Has that been a great incentive for people to get more creatively involved in the cultural side of life back at home?
JD: Yes definitely, it just shows that people are opening the doors of their hearts and minds.  If you are open to my culture then I am open to your culture, so if I can take back something from here and if you can take something that’s what the whole experience is about.  It’s not about sitting at home and closing the doors and thinking I am best, just me and my i-pod [laughs].
VD: I don’t say that Indian culture is the best for example, everyone is good on their own grounds, but what is good is if you are open to another culture and can exchange your ideas and your thoughts. But music is just one medium.
JD: I remember when we went to a music conference in India where there was a musicologist who said that great ideas are not born out of one persons mind, great ideas become great ideas when they get exchanged and can bounce of each other.  That’s true for music and for everything else.  Some of the greatest musical pieces have been made from exchanging different ideas and that the same for all creative ideas, so I guess ultimately we would like to be remembered as having some part in that process.

To find out more about India Soundpad and all that have been involved, check out these links...

www.indiasoundpad.com

www.myspace.com/soundpad

www.facultymusic.com

www.swarathma.com

www.advaitaonline.net

www.myspace.com/hellomedusa

www.myspace.com/indigochildrenmusic

Words: Francesca Strange

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