Music from the Hills: The Ladies of Indian Rock
Tipriti Kharbangar of Soulmate. Photo: Karan Madhok
Sultry blues, rocking tunes, and genre-benders: with an eye on the true indie music queens of India, Ady Manral recommends some of his favourites.
India’s indie scene has struggled with equal gender representation—and for years, labels, event organisers, and bands have faced criticism for not always being a female-inclusive space for performers. Recently, however, there have been efforts by some music labels and festival/promotional companies to push for more balanced representation, and ultimately, to introduce amazing new artists to a larger audience.
There is still a long way to go. For starters, India’s music festival scene is still pretty male dominant. Apart from a few exceptions, most of the headliners—specifically in the rock genre—tend to be men or male-groups.
There is indeed a whole wide world of the ladies in the Indian indie-music scene… I had a ‘good’ problem in narrowing down the top choices, with so many gifted artists to choose from.
My exploration helped me understand the growth we’ve seen in recent years—hopefully, these numbers grow gigantically in the future.
But, there is indeed a whole wide world of the ladies in the Indian indie-music scene. A few weeks ago, music journalist Amit Gurubaxni (who contributes to FirstPost and India Today) compiled a pretty cool list of 100 women songwriters and composers working in India’s independent music scene. His list, and the ongoing Women’s History Month, has inspired me to share some of my favourite female indie musicians in the country. Of course, I had a ‘good’ problem in narrowing down the top choices, with so many gifted artists to choose from.
My exploration helped me understand, for myself, the growth we’ve seen in recent years—hopefully, these numbers grow gigantically in the future. And a disclaimer: My picks are not a representation of anything more than a list of talented folks that I dig.
Now go have a listen!
Aarifa Rebello
I recently saw Aarifa play and was struck by her simplicity and the ease with which she played and sung. There is a bit of honesty and genuineness to her song-writing that I really enjoyed. Last year, Aarifa was selected as one of the finalists in a country wide competition judged by A.R. Rehman and Clinton Cerejo.
Dot
Like so many others an awe of Dot’s beautiful voice and song composition, count me, too, as a big fan. In fact, I remember Dot from her high school days in Mussoorie, in the boarding school where I work—where her potential was there for all to see. It’s been a while since we’ve seen some new content from her, and I’m sure her fans—including yours truly—can’t wait for her to come back with another catchy tune.
Aditi Ramesh
In simple terms, Aditi Ramesh is just brilliant. She’s been one of my recent favourites, especially for her ability to blend so many genres together to create something unique and original. Aditi is also part of an all-women collective called Ladies Compartment—along with the aforementioned Aarifa Rebello, Nandita V., and Ramya Pothuri—which recently performed at the highly-acclaimed music festival NH7 Weekender. You can usually find her music on the top of my playlist, playing on loop on a rainy day.
Tipriti Kharbangar
‘TIPS’ is the rock mama of India! It’s not possible to put a list together of Indian musicians without mentioning Tipriti as one of the top-shelf artists. I remember watching her legendary Shillong-based blues band Soulmate perform a few years ago, and build up some courage to interview her and guitarist Rudy Wallang. This is when she mentioned that, one of the most important elements for a performance to feel genuine is to make sure that you—the performer—are having fun. Count me as a huge fanboy, and I continue to be in serious awe of this true rock star.
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Ady Manral is a singer-songwriter based in Landour whose debut EP Lean On Love was released globally to critical acclaim in 2018. Ady has performed gigs in India, the UK and USA over the past few years. He was the co-founder and director of Big Gig, a music festival in Landour. He currently works at Woodstock School India. You can follow him on Instagram at @adyindia or Twitter @adymanral
