Indian Music

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A constant complaint I hear from many young artists in the scene is that it’s near impossible in India today to make a career, or sustain a livelihood, performing and recording music. Sure, there are a handful of bands whose day jobs are “just” touring and releasing albums and EPs, but they’re the exceptions to the trend. For a majority of musicians in the independent music scene today, keeping a regular day job is essential for them to indulge in their musical pursuits. A variety of now-cliched reasons exist for this status quo to have persisted for all these years, but one of the key factors has been the lack of professional training in music. When a young musician decides to expand his/her musical horizons and really study music, only a limited number of options exist that make any sense at all in terms of a worthwhile return on investment (fees mainly). If you’ve got money, you’re aiming for Berklee or Musicians Institute to give you that bump in career prospects or just a better understanding of contemporary music and your instrument of choice. But for those who can’t shell out the big bucks, there are precious few options. Until now, institues like the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, the Global Music Institute (who recently added the Berklee curriculum to their programmes) and the I Love Music Academy have tried to fill the latent demand for professional training in music in the country. Today, a new name was added to that list, and one that aims to give young musicians a “comprehensive” learning base from which “lucrative careers in music” would hopefully open up. The True School of Music, housed in a 15,000 square foot facility at the Sunmill compound in Lower Parel, is the brainchild of blueFROG co-founder Ashutosh Phatak (a musician himself) and his FROG cohort Nitin Chandy (a sound engineer, and the Chief Technical Officer of the sullen amphibian). The state-of-the-art facility will host special training rooms for guitars and bass, drums, keyboards and vocals, alongside a recording studio, a library and an auditorium for live gigs. TSM will offer professional and “foundation” courses, the former aimed at musicians looking to master particular instruments, DJing and sound engineering, and the latter aimed at casual music fans looking to indulge in some formal music training (a monthly membership of about Rs 5,000 a month will give you foundation training and access to the facilities). The curriculum is based on the Trinity College 8-grade Rock & Pop programme, and specially created courses with inputs from the likes of the Manhattan School of Music and the Academy of Contemporary Music (in the UK). The courses are designed, as was repeated several times at today’s press conference, to give budding musicians the opportunity to pursue music full-time, with Phatak and Co leveraging their industry contacts to give students as much industry exposure and as many real-world projects as possible. The DJ courses will be helmed by DJs Uri and Reji, who have created an in-depth curriculum for young DJs. The plan is to keep the teacher-student ratio about 1:10, to ensure a more personal learning experience. The DJ course at TSM has eight modules developed by DJ Uri (left) and DJ Reji (right). It is an ambitious initiative, no doubt, but going by what we were shown at today’s press con, there’s a lot of India-specific thinking that has gone into kickstarting this institute. When I asked why students interested in pursuing musical educations should pick TSM over say a more established names like SAM, Phatak said that the curriculum at the institute was a lot more structured, with fixed modules that interested students could pursue either full-time, or part-time if they have a day job. Justin DiCioccio, Associate Dean at MSM, chipped in saying that the potential for there to be an “exchange program” of sorts with the Manhattan

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There’s a lot happening in the world of Indian indie music and culture every day. We thought we’d give you the pick of the daily news, served up right here in one handy spot. This is your Quick Fix. Boiler Bar Night lineup announced Mumbai’s newest dance night, Boiler Bar Thursdays, has been operational at Chez Moi, Oshiwara, since the beginning of May. It’s already seen Thursday night performances by the likes of Tarqeeb, DJ duo AlgoRhythm, Your Chin, Sickflip and more. Tomorrow, a hip-hop takeover of sorts is in the cards as Chez Moi will play host to a set by veteran hip-hop DJ Uri Solanki, and the night will then segue into some soulful, groovy electronica courtesy of Pune’s Big City Harmonics, who were last in the city for The Scene (pics). Boiler Bar Thursdays kicks off at 9pm, and entry won’t cost you a dime. Spin ‘Lo-Fi Funkaround’ by Big City Harmonics below. Grime Riot Disco “The Grind Tour” announced The boys from Delhi are set to take Mumbai and Pune by storm. After venturing to Delhi, (read about that here) the next edition of Grime Riot Disco sees the dirty dance party travel to Pune this weekend and also come back home to Mumbai. At the decks are The Grind, a Delhi DJ collective who aim to expose the country to underground dance music from around the world. This weekend, The Grind DJs Su-Real, Moniker and Flash Hardcor are set to take over Pune and Mumbai. Check out tour dates below: May 24 – Grime Riot Disco @ High Spirits, Pune May 25 – Grime Riot Disco @ H2O, Mumbai Get your dancing shoes ready, RSVP here and get to both gigs on time (by 10pm). Check out a poster for the tour below: Ready your dancing shoes Andy James metal masterclasses announced Aspiring metal guitarists can look forward to a learning experience next week. British guitarist Andy James, part of Brit metal act Sacred Mother Tongue, is set to tour India next week, taking guitar clinics and masterclasses all over the country. He’ll also be jamming with prominent members of the scene in each city. Kicking off in Bangalore on May 27, the workshops take James through Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi, and see him jam with the likes of ex-Motherjane guitarist Baiju Dharmajan, Bryden Lewis (of The Raghu Dixit Project) and more. Entry for all workshops is free, check out the dates and venues below: May 27 – Alliance Francaise de Bangalore, Bangalore May 28 – Goethe-Institut, Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata May 29 – DLF Place, Delhi May 31 – Palm Expo, Mumbai June 1 – Palm Expo, Mumbai Check out a poster below: In your city. That’s all the news for today. For a collection of music-related news in the press, check out the NH7 Media Capsule. Stay tuned for more daily editions of the Quick Fix.

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Of late, music festivals in India have been opening themselves up to be more multi-hued, incorporating arts, film, and more into the mix. Consider Ragasthan, which had an ongoing film screening tent, or the Escape Festival of Arts and Music, which exhibits works by local artists. A brand new addition to the festival calendar this year is Ruins Of The Renaissance, which takes place between May 25 and 26 at Innovative Film City (pictured above), on the outskirts of Bangalore. Calling itself the “Woodstock of India – and much more”, the festival claims to be India’s “only multi-discipline creativity & innovation festival”. Non-music events at the festival include a standalone film festival, art exhibitions, street performances (including a tango performance), workshops on photography, juggling and storytelling, an open mic stage, and gallery spaces. One can also take a walk around the open art spaces and learn the crafts of welding, origami and get ones hands messy working with clay. The two-day festival features two music stages – the Main Stage, which features folk music and is only operational on the first day, and the Beach Stage, which veers toward electronica. Possibly the most exciting act at the Main Stage is The Manganiyar Seduction by Roysten Abel. For those of you who didn’t catch them at the Pune edition of the Bacardi NH7 Weekender last year (report), the act comprises 43 musicians from Rajasthan’s Manganiyar tribe, performing within a vertical grid structure that was inspired by Amsterdam’s red light areas (read more about the idea behind the performance here). The carefully-rehearsed performances by the Manganiyar Seduction can grab the undivided attention of any audience, and will serve as the centrepiece of the first day of Ruins Of The Renaissance. Those in Bangalore should definitely not miss out on this. The Manganiyars seduced at Bacardi NH7 Weekender, Pune. Also to perform at the Main Stage are Baul group Oikyotaan, Drum Events India, who will bring interactive drum circles to the festival, Kuru Circus and open-hand dance troupe Twilight Players, whom most remember for their appearance in Dev. D. Check out a video from their 2010 performance at Blue Frog, Mumbai below. The Beach Stage at ROTR will feature some of the country’s leading electronica acts. Over the course of both days, the stage will see sets by Arjun Vagale, Delhi bass producer Nucleya (who recently played a mad opening set for Skream and Benga’s Mumbai gig, pics here), Bangalore hip hop crew Low Rhyderz, Mumbai hip hop group Bombay Bassment, and more. Check out a day-wise stage lineup below. May 25 Main Stage Oikyotaan Twilight Players Kuru Circus Color Drumming by Drum Events India The Manganiyar Seduction by Roysten Abel Beach Stage Vipul Angrish Low Rhyderz Nucleya May 26 Beach Stage DJ Alex Sam Abraham Under The Influence Bombay Bassment Arjun Vagale Ruins Of The Renaissance takes place between May 25 and 26 at Innovative Film City, Bangalore. Tickets are available here, and are priced at Rs 1,500 for a single-day pass, Rs 2,800 for a season pass, Rs 5,000 for a single-day VIP pass and Rs 9,000 for a season VIP pass. Student passes are priced at Rs 1,200 for a day pass and Rs 2,200 for a season pass, and can only be bought at physical locations.

English stand-up is at an interesting cultural crossroads where it is still niche enough to be considered edgy and cool but without the mainstream acceptance, financial backing and familiarity of say music, or dance. After the year 2003, which saw the perfect storm of Indian television broadcasting, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, with urban Indians finding an outlet of expression after watching Russell Peters explode on YouTube and bars opening up to accommodating newer art forms, English stand-up got on its first legs of cultural relevance. Ten years in, with comics having struggled to build and educate their own audiences, English stand-up has become a regular part of life in an Indian metropolis (Except Kolkata where the Usha Uthup lobby has prevented anything except Naxals from entering). From a time when a handful of comedians had to beg bar owners and auditoriums for a stage, cities are now full of comedians, open mic-ers who have performed once and call themselves comedians, and people who are funny on Twitter and hence think they’re comedians. Everyone has identified stand-up as an opportunity to make money while few care about the passion that has gone behind building this industry. Through this post, I want to share with you the different kind of organisers and promoters an English stand-up comic meets in his day-to-day life. 1. The Hapless Bar Owner  The hapless bar owner is perhaps the more pathetic of the organisers. Usually made familiar of English stand-up comedy after seeing a competitor organise a show, the bar owner thinks that all it really takes to organise a show is a mic, some lights and a guy who owns an Ahuja sound console to get people to automatically start streaming into that venue as if Mata Amritanandamayi were giving away free hugs. The phone call usually goes like this. Hapless bar owner: Hi, is this comedian X? Actually, I got your number from someone and we were interested in doing some stand-up comedy at our venue. Comic: Nice. So where is this place? Is it a restaurant or a bar? What dates are you looking at? How many comics? What’s the budget like? Hapless bar owner: Errr… actually you know budgets are really tight so we don’t really have much to offer comics… but we can give you exposure… like we have connections in media and you’ll get exposure… (What are you a frickin’ nuclear power plant?) Comic: No see, without budgets it will be tough because no one does it for free… what kind of promotion can you do to get people so we can organise some sort of gate-split? Hapless bar owner: Actually, we were thinking you are on Twitter and Facebook so you can tweet… At this stage, that bar is permanently black-listed while the comedian cries realising that his/her value is lower than that of an emcee in a mall shouting to people to get them enter a lucky draw contest. If the hapless bar owner does manage to con some open mic-ers who are desperate for stage time into performing, s/he does fantastic things like let the bar and food service be open through the performance so that the comic can’t hear himself over the chicken shaslik sizzler. The hapless bar owner then decides that stand-up isn’t worth it and goes back to generic events like “Bollywood Nightzzz with DJ Bunty”. 2. The Facebook Acquaintance Given English stand-up’s novelty, being a relatively good comedian gets you at least one article in the press. That and constantly updating ones Facebook with show details also means most of your friends and acquaintances know that you do that thing where you humiliate yourself on stage for the entertainment of strangers. Thus, most people like to take advantage of this fact and invite you to perform at their weddings and birthday parties. These acquaintances are usually easier to deal with than bar owners and the conversation goes like this. Acquaintance you barely remember: Hey man what’s up! Aur show vagera kaise chal rahe hain? Comic: Nothing much man same old, same old.. Acquainta