FutureDesi IndieSounds
2019 NH7 Weekender in Pune. Photo: Karan Madhok
What will be the dominant sound of Indian Indie Music in the 20s? Karan Madhok spoke to a number of established and up-and-coming artists to predict our sonic future.
Somewhere in the heart of the spacious, sprawling Mahalaxmi Lawn near Pune’s airport area, I hoped to imagine a magical middle ground. Across the 80,000-something square feet of land, of six stages, of a Ferris wheel and food trucks and outdoor bars, in the cacophony of thousands of revelling music-lovers, this magical space would be where the sonic vortex combined. Where, if you schedule it right, if you pay enough attention, squint hard enough, you might be able to hear a beautiful blend of sounds of every direction: metal from one end, acoustic pop from the other, rap from the third. Where the cacophony combines to transcends into something new.
Nope—I couldn’t find this place.
The area was simply too large, the stages too far apart, the auxiliary sounds too distracting, and schedules of sixty-something musical acts that performed at the recent music/comedy festival in Pune too hard to sync.
But occasionally, in the middle passage between one stage to the other, I could hear a light fusion. Sometimes electronic, something Hindustani; something English and something Hindi; something with a hard guitar riff and something with a smooth jazzy voice. Together, through the course of the weekend in early December, the ‘somethings’ added up to give a faint, incomplete, and yet intriguing idea of India’s independent music scene.
This was my first time at the festival, which, over the decade has become successful like many others in curating and pushing what we call ‘independent’ or ‘alternative’ artists from India. Big names and new names, from Hariharan and Wadalis to Sid Sriram and Midival Punditz were among the headliners. Although most such music festivals were conceived out of a need to showcase India’s burgeoning rock scene, they have evolved to becoming much more: embracing more genres to the ‘indie sound’.
‘Independent’ usually implies independent of a major label, but this is not always the case. The ‘indie’ sound is usually that which is alternative to India’s mainstream, a self-discovery of production. ‘Alternative’ is the side-gullie to the mainstream sound, of artists creating something new and different and on their own inspirations rather than following the trends that usually populate India’s chart-toppers, of Bollywood soundtracks, of ‘filmy’ music. Often, it is separated from the traditional Indian Classical, too.
Kavya x Chaz. Photo: Karan Madhok
Indie has been described as a whole genre in itself, and diving deeper, it unfurls into a plethora of different sub-genres, and sub-genres of those sub-genres. In modern history, it has been alive for as long as mainstream Indian music has been alive, and evolved with each iteration of technology and communication: radio, cable television, and most crucially, the internet.
The technological boom in music was the open secret for most of the gathered acts in Pune. Sounds synthesised and fused with the help of electronics bled seamlessly into acts that featured traditional live instrumentation. Melodic human voices aided with new-wave production, drum-and-bass with hard guitars, the present with the future.
We are now a calendar flip away from the 2020s, a symbolic step into the future where there will fewer physical calendars to flip, and more experimentation into new musical sounds and content coming out of the country.
So, what might be the dominant sound of Indian indie music in the 20s? I spoke to a number of established and up-and-coming artists to predict our sonic future.
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Inspired by moody blues, waltz, and rock, Delhi-based Run It’s The Kid released the debut, self-titled album in 2016 to universal acclaim and adoration in the indie scene. Run… built upon their popular live performances, made a major foothold in the industry, and by the time of their album release, had become an inspiration for other musicians.
They were part of the generation of bands or singer-songwriters that focused on soft, atmospheric rock, often featuring beautiful ballads, with poetic lyrics, usually sung in English. It was the generation that also spawned the likes of Prateek Kuhad, Parekh & Singh, and Peter Cat Recording Co.
Run… has been on a break after their debut, but their sound, or inspirations of them, have clearly been echoing around music festivals since. This year, two of their members—percussionist Bhairav Gupta and guitar-keyboardist Dhruv Bhola—joined Goa-based singer-songwriter Ditty (Aditi Veena) to perform a set in Pune, marrying their own influences with Veena’s folkish, self-described “bedroom sound”.
All around him, Gupta could see the intermingle of live and electronic acts grow into their own, yet-untitled, ethereal new genres.
“There’s basically a heavier influence of electronic aspects from other electronic genres and subgenres that are slowly creeping into live performances,” Gupta said. “Even just using samples or sampling machines and incorporating drum machines and stuff.”
“I feel like this is a really crucial decade,” said Veena. “Not just for artists, but for all of humanity. With all the changes in the climate around the world, serious changes are also gonna happen in the economy. On how we produce and use things, what we consume. Everything is gonna go under this big transformation. And I feel that art is going to be influenced.”
“This doesn’t always mean that there is necessarily fewer live instrumentation: there are some full bands, or a trip or a quartet or bigger, who are playing an electronic sound. And also, vice versa: there are small duos or trios who are only using electronically synthesised sounds and samples [the reuse of a portion of one recording in another recording] to make it sound live. There’s a massive crisscross. But just the fact of technology constantly improving – making more things easier and more available for a larger crowd, this will always play a part in what’s coming out next.”
Bhola reflected on how the scene has evolved since he started on his solo and group professional careers.
“Since we started playing, there have been so many changes in the scene,” he said. “It’s never been that the entire ‘indie industry’ will have one sound. Every time a new element gets incorporated. Every genre created a subgenre using that new influence, and making multiple different sounds.”
“Currently, the only thing that is steering in a particular direction is the electronic aspect in the live sound,” Bhola added. “That could be different for blues musician, that could be different for hip-hop producers, or a singer-songwriter, or a poet.”
“These are a lot of different art forms fusing to create a new art form altogether.”
One of the bands that have recently employed synthesisers and samplers to create a unique Indian-punk-electronic-rock hybrid is Fopchu. The primarily three-man outfit officially formed two years ago, led by a couple of musical friends who had been playing together for the better half of this decade. Proudly hat-ke (different) in their music, claim to have seen a certain ‘lean’ that the Indian-indie sound has taken in recent years.
Siddhant ‘Sid’ Subramanian, Fopchu’s synth and bass player, joked that the sound of the next decade in India would be “people stepping on crunchy leaves… or K-Pop.” Then he added. “I guess it’s gonna be something way more electronic.”
“Everyone wants to sound like someone,” said Subramanian. “And especially try to rip off a lot of stuff from the West. But that’s the sound of India in some way—everyone is influenced by that stuff.”
Bhola of Run… and Ditty also believed in the influencing power of the dominant sound. “It’ll always be like that,” he said. “Someone makes something with a particular sound or genre. Other people try to emulate and use it in their own way. People tend to follow trends. Hip-hop is a big thing right now. Bedroom Bop, too, which is music people can write and record in their rooms, and it has a personal vibe to it.”
“I feel,” Bhola added, “in electronic music, Lifafa is one artist who is going to influence a lot of future producers.”
L-to-R: Dhruv Bhola, Aditi ‘Ditty’ Veena, Bhairav Gupta. Photo: Karan Madhok
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‘Lifafa’ is the stage name of the new musical act by Suryakant Sawhney. The former film-student found his musical direction with the Delhi jazz-rock inspired by Peter Cat Recording Co. Then, Sawhney moved from guitar-inspired, more western sounds with Peter Cat to the fusion of Indian classical and electronics in the tinge of Lifafa.
His first album Jaago, released earlier this year, was instantly beloved for its marriage of Indian inspirations and future-leaning musical technology. His Pune set collected some of the biggest crowds of the weekend, impressing fans and fellow musicians alike. Artists like him and Ritviz—one of the leading faces of the indie electronic scene in the country—are being celebrated for pushing forward the synthesis of classical Hindustani sounds with EDM.
After a brief harmonium introduction, the first lyrics we hear from Lifafa (Sawnhey) on Jaago’s titular opening track, “Jaago”, are haunting, beautiful, and challenging, all wrapped up in the same package:
Doob raha hai yeh desh yahaan / Aaj saath nahin zubaan / Jee lo yeh zindagi / Ya chodo yeh jawaani / Jaago / Jaago / Jaago / Jaago
This nation is drowning here / There is no voice today / Live this life / Or leave this youth / Wake up / Wake up / Wake up / Wake up
Sawhney is one of many artists making a conscious decision to have deeper lyrical matter in their work, to turn poetry into music. For indie Indian artists, this is another level of excellence, a fork in the road where they get to decide if they should sing (or rap) in English or a regional tongue, make their music introspective or looking outwards, make it political, or fun, or sad or happy.
Sanchal Malhar, the vocalist and guitarist of rock band Superfuzz, married his lyrical depth with Fopchu’s funk at the festival in Pune.
“We’re trying to have a serious take on song-writing,” said Malhar. “A conscious effort on what we’re trying to write. It’s a fresh package, because not a lot of pure song-writing has been done with that kind of ambient treatment… Our music can be light-hearted and peppy, but what I like about Fopchu is that it’s also got substantial lyrical matter, which can be quite rare these days.”
But the one, even greater rarity in song-writing in India has been protest music, or writing about political matters. Would that be a trend for the future?
“It doesn’t make a festival crowd rock,” Subramanian said.
To create a new funnel for communicating political issues, collectives like ‘Aisi Taisi Democracy’, featuring Indian Ocean bassist/vocalist Rahul Ram, have used comedy and storytelling as pillars to stand beside protest music in their tours in India—and abroad.
Bhola—playing for Ditty—believed that there are, indeed, several artists out there who focus on more socially-conscious content. “There are people doing it, but they are only those who are directly-affected. Most of the musicians here are from middle to upper middle-class families. Then are there artists like [rapper] Sofia Ashraf, who writes about social issues within her context, about being a woman, etc.”
Ditty’s frontwoman—Aditi Veena—had always showcased a lyrical array that mixed up the environmental and the ethereal, matters that spoke of both personal and global urgency. The issue screaming for loudest attention for the next decade, she said, is climate change.
“I feel like this is a really crucial decade,” said Veena. “Not just for artists, but for all of humanity. With all the changes in the climate around the world, serious changes are also gonna happen in the economy. On how we produce and use things, what we consume. Everything is gonna go under this big transformation. And I feel that art is going to be influenced.”
“I don’t know about the future ‘style’ of music as much, but I feel that a lot more artists are going to talk about these things.”
And if it’s not issues with climate, then issues with the imbalanced of Indian society, or political disenfranchisement, that will continue bubbling up to the core. Already, rappers like Kashmir’s Ahmer Javed (Ahmer x Sez On the Beat) have written political dissent into their music, and specifically, about the struggle of fellow Kashmiris.
“Artists are finding their own voice,” said multi-instrumentalist and producer Chaitanya Bhalla, “and are able to write about their own experiences. That is always refreshing. My hope is that they get to talk about the life and times that we live in, without being censored.”
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Few artists over the past decade have tried their hands in every pocket of the Indian music scene like Bhalla. Since the mid-2000’s, he has been a guitarist for the metal band Rabbit Is Rich and Half Step Down, an engineer for artists like Susmit Sen and Prateek Kuhad, and continues to play guitar for the iconic ska-collective SkaVengers, act as a vocalist/producer for The Pirate Radio, and play guitar for The One Eight Project (by Prabh Deep). In Pune, he appeared as a producer for his duo act Kavya x Chaz alongside vocalist Kavya Trehan. And when he isn’t working in the ‘indie’ scene, he lends his production talents for ad agencies, where he has composed music for brands like Harley Davison, Ford, Hero MotorCorp, Coca Cola, and more.
Bhalla and Trehan’s two-person act was a showcase of minimalistic excellence, and another nod to where the future of the scene could be heading. Their set was small and barren. No big drum-sets, no guitars, no large pianos. Their presence looked remarkably isolated on the giant elevated stage, which would’ve been enough to host an entire acrobatic Bollywood dance troupe. Kavya x Chaz are armed with a couple of mics, synthesisers, Trehan’s vocal-effects pedal, and Bhalla’s MacBook. Bhalla operated on his table, providing additional vocals, while Trehan swung back and forth, marvelling at how much space they had.
An early evening set at 2019 NH7 Weekender in Pune. Photo: Karan Madhok
And when they made music—Trehan’s sultry, spacey vocals over Bhalla’s drum-n-bass-heavy electro-pop production—the result was a futuristic musical ruckus. They didn’t need anything else to move the crowd.
Bhalla’s experienced have given him a unique place on stage of modern Indian indie evolution, as he has closely observed the intermingling and fusion of genres over the past decade. He got his start in the biggest stages like many other independent musicians, in the iconic Great Indian Rock (GIR) festival—a multi-city event that has been held for thousands since the 90s.
“My first GIR experience was with the metal-core band Rabbit Is Rich, back in 2008-09, and it used to be all about heavy-metal bands back then,” said Bhalla. “But over the years, there has been inclusion of all kinds of music, so that’s really cool. Artists are really beginning to understand their audiences.”
“There’s no dominant sound—rather, bands and artists alike are really able to be themselves and create unique music that people might wanna try out.”
Bhalla has been a musical shapeshifter, and has often found himself using technology to create new trends and sounds in Indian music. He said that he believed that this will continue to be the road into the future.
“I can’t really say what will happen over the next few years,” said Bhalla. “But I think that there are going to be a number of people putting music out on streaming services—and hopefully, more festivals will pop up.”
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Festivals like the one in Pune are an ideal marriage of different musical philosophies, of those who believe that only live-instrumentation qualifies as ‘real music’ and those that trend more towards EDM genres. Walking across the large field, you can hear a little of both—and this being India, you can hear it in multiple languages. It also isn’t long before the rappers from the third stage rhyme their way over sampled beats and into this musical khichdi.
Delhi and Pune-based musician Jonathan Samson is another artist who has embraced the fluidity of different forms. He has made a living both as a live drummer as well as an electronic producer, donning different hats for different occasions, working in genres of jazz, trance, Hindustani, and live rock. He has worked with the folk-rock band Avi & The Uprising..
For Samson, the changing balance between electronic and live music isn’t just inevitable—it’s necessary. “I agree that it’s happening. And it should happen. I’m not saying that electronic should completely replace live instrumentation, but people shouldn’t choose sides. We should embrace both things.”
For Samson, the changing balance between electronic and live music isn’t just inevitable—it’s necessary.
“I agree that it’s happening,” said Samson. “And it should happen. I’m not saying that electronic should completely replace live instrumentation, but people shouldn’t choose sides. We should embrace both things. Great things can happen when you incorporate live music with electronic.”
“Indian music is so diverse,” Samson added. “I don’t know where it’s going, but wherever it is, it’s going to be a cool place… the sounds will be very unique to India.”
What, exactly, is that ‘unique Indian sound’? We are a nation blessed with a long history of music: Hindustani traditions, Carnatic expressions, and Sufi influences. In an instant, the sounds of the sitar, sarod, veena, and venu, distinctively sound ‘Indian’. Even as millennia have passed and cultures have evolved and synthesised into something new—including a healthy dose of Western influences—the ancient musical traditions continue to be heard and incorporated into the modern nation.
And at the end of another decade, the last dusk before the 2020s begin, you can still hear remnants of those ancient ragas, traveling through time, celestial sounds still reverberating in a different ultrasonic range. The sound of ‘indie’ music in India today is influenced by this baggage of history, of course, but it fuses together Bollywood pop, international rock, and psychedelic trance. It uses shehnais and ghatams as much as it does guitars and drum-sets. Sometimes, the vocalists harmonise in the dhrupad styles or croon out bhajans. Sometimes, they grovel over heavy metal riffs or spit acrobatic rap bars. And sometimes, it is fuelled by the electronic energy booster to take us into yet another dimension.
If festivals like the large gathering in Pune are proof, there is no single ‘dominant’ sound now—and there likely won’t be one dominating direction in the future. But the synthesis of the past and the present and the East and the West will continue over the next decade, and the best bet is that musicians are going to lend themselves over to electronic to keep the wheels turning forward.
But for every funky, electronic act, there are acts like Ditty, artists who stray around soft melodies, keeping their sound ethereal and comforting. Closer to home.
Soon after her set in Pune, Veena was asked if she feels the pressure to conform to a certain sound to fit the trend of Indian listeners.
“I don’t think I need to,” she said. “My music is what comes out of me.”
There is a Hindi saying, ‘Apni dhun pe nachna’. Dancing to your own beat. And as I left the city after an eventful weekend, when the synthesis of sounds faded away in the horizon, this was the emotion I took back with me. Every act will push the indie sound in a new direction, but the staying power will be wherever there is this true, authentic inspiration. The authenticity to dance to your own tune.
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Karan Madhok is a writer, journalist, and editor of The Chakkar, whose fiction, translation, and poetry have appeared in The Literary Review, The Lantern Review, F(r)iction, and more. He is the founder of the Indian basketball blog Hoopistani and has contributed to NBA India, SLAM Magazine, FirstPost, and more. Karan is currently working on his first novel. Twitter: @karanmadhok1
