Indie Music | Play that thing
Indie music has been waiting to come of age for a long time. With a thriving live scene and a host of dedicated online platforms, it's finally doing just that
Suryakant Sawhney’s workspace fits his music in an almost absurdly clichéd way. The singer, songwriter and musician for Peter Cat Recording Co. (PCRC), who writes black songs of heartbreak and ennui, lives and works in a gritty, tiny terrace flat just big enough for one person. Cigarettes, a worn-out mattress, battered guitar, laptop, keyboard, and bits and pieces of electronic equipment lie crammed inside the room on top of a narrow building in the hipster Hauz Khas Village in New Delhi. Sawhney, hungover and bleary, speaks in a slow drawl, with just enough energy to half-pronounce each word.
But moments later, when he picks up his guitar and sings a song from PCRC’s yet-to-be released album, his voice transforms into a rich, resonant tenor that floods the room and pours out of the door, a gypsy jazz waltz-tinged tune of despair and beauty that is the band’s signature sound.
“I want each beat to have a sensibility to it that goes with a frame of mind," Sawhney says, “and waltz is so swirling and alcoholic. It’s for drunk, sad people…."
Later in the evening, PCRC are booked for a gig at a club a few paces away from Sawhney’s home, along with, on a rough count, 10 other bands and musicians playing at different venues in Hauz Khas Village. It’s only Thursday, but if you were in Delhi that night, you could choose from nearly 25 indie bands performing at venues scattered across the city, playing such diverse kinds of music that the word “genre" starts sounding archaic. Count Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Kolkata, and on most Thursday nights the indie performance count would jump to over 50.
“There has never been a better time for indie music here," says Rajeev Rajagopal, drummer for the Bangalore-based band Thermal And A Quarter which, after five albums and 16 years of making indie music, has both witnessed and been a part of the change. “The whole ecosystem has changed. Even five years back there was no ‘scene’—it was just isolated bands struggling to be heard and survive. Now there’s a buzz, a pulse, an identity," he says.
How did this ecosystem evolve? The Internet had a major role to play—it opened the gateway to so much international music that no one really had to go listen to a cover band to get their fill of Pink Floyd.
“People had so much choice as well," says Dhruva Gautham, guitarist and songwriter for Chennai-based band The Shakey Rays. “As soon as new music was released, you could access it. That expanded the horizon, exposed people to new sounds, new bands, and the appetite grew from there."
Online platforms also made it easy for indie bands to spread their music. A little local act from Chennai could put their music on the same website as Radiohead—hurrah for online democracy. Building on this, entrepreneurs set up dedicated websites for all things related to indie music—hear the latest songs, download albums, read reviews, read about the band, and find out where they are playing next. Clubs and other venues dipped their feet into this new ocean of music and were swept in.
“The infrastructure has gone through a big change in the last four years," says Arjun S. Ravi, co-founder of NH7, the most prolific website and event management company for indie bands. “Along with bands there has been an increase in sound engineers, recording facilities, venues, festivals." Indie festivals are now huge affairs, spread over multiple days, featuring a wide variety of bands, and bankrolled by corporate houses. The cost of good musical equipment and recording facilities has plummeted, and access to these things has become easier.
“It’s all economics," Sawhney says. “You might say indie music has gone up in India now, but every kind of thing is getting its own space to grow to a degree—like…coffee shops! And everything is connected. The Metro (in Delhi), for example, made it possible for me to be in a band. I could not have afforded to travel to the practice pads without it."
The new breed of indie musicians are a globally savvy lot. They quit promising careers in engineering, law, design, education or medicine to follow their art. They got their skills and talent honed and buffed at top music schools in the US or Europe. They spent so much time with folk singers and traditional musicians that they can count themselves one with them. They collaborate with each other and with musicians, engineers and producers from around the world. They are not chained by genres, and they don’t want to emulate.
They are artists.
“Yes you can now make a living from indie music. Five years ago, that would have been much, much tougher," Sawhney says. “But there is not enough money for the musicians to make that their main objective. They are doing something purely for it to be good."
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