Artist Interviews

Q&A: Raghu Dixit

By | Published on Wednesday 27 July 2011

Raghu Dixit

One of India’s most famous contemporary musicians, Raghu Dixit is starting to gain wider recognition in the UK, thanks to appearances on Jools Holland and at Glastonbury and Latitude.

But Dixit, who performs with a loose line-up of musicians he calls The Raghu Dixit Project, is perhaps the most unlikeliest of rock stars. He grew up in a conservative Tamil household in the South Indian town of Mysore, studied to become a microbiologist, trained in the Indian classical dance of bharatanatyam, and didn’t get into Western music until his early 20s. In fact, he learned to play the guitar just to prove to a college friend that strumming a few chords was easier than mastering the complex foot patterns of bharatanatyam.

In a nod to his dancing days, a pair of ghungroos or anklets completes Dixit’s on-stage costume of a kurta and a lungi or Indian sarong. He sings in Hindi, in Kannada (the regional language of his home state of Karnataka), and in English, but whichever he chooses, Dixit has a voice that manages to cut through all barriers of language or culture. With his new double A-side single, ‘Hey Bhagwan/I’m In Mumbai’, out this week, a UK tour starting next week, and plans to complete his second album this autumn, we asked Raghu to answer our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
The music was always in me! It just took a little while to come out and make itself heard. In the meanwhile, life had taken me to Belgium where I was working as a microbiologist. It was there that one of my colleagues sent a song of mine to a local radio station and, looking at the fantastic response they got, convinced me to get back and follow my passion.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
The songs were written over many years, between 1996 and 2008, so there was no single point of inspiration. It’s like a personal blog in a way. From a period when I just wanted to be heard. Each song has its own story, really. The lyrics to ‘Hey Bhagwan’ were written by Aditya Dhar, a guy who helped manage Antaragni, my band at the time; I picked them up from his desk and by the end of the day, I had composed the song. ‘Gudugudiya Sedi Nodo’ and ‘Soruthihudu Maneya Maligi’ are Kannada folk songs that were being sung by other popular singers but in a very different format. I sang them in a contemporary style. And ‘Mumbai, Waiting For A Miracle’ is about the innumerable times I came to Mumbai with a new demo CD in search of a record contract.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
There is no one single process. Sometimes, I hit on a melody and try and write words that fit. Now I’m digging into ancient Kannada poetry and working on how to make music around it. It’s very instinctive and spontaneous, and not like sitting in a lab and working on bacterial culture! You just need your mind to be free, and uncluttered. The music just comes.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
More than artists, it’s always been the country [India]. There is no one particular musician whose compositional style has influenced me. Because I didn’t have a tape recorder at home, I did not listen to popular music while growing up. My parents were strict about us not listening to Western music. This forced me to be original and develop my own style.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
You’re definitely going to have a good time, and experience an unbridled sense of freedom and absolute joy. Some of the hooks will get stuck in your head. That’s a warning.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
There are huge expectations, so I want to not get affected by the pressure. The aim is for us to sound as natural as we are on stage… to play a live gig in the studio. The plan is to record in September and October and release the album in India at the NH7 Weekender festival in Pune in November. The ambition is to reach out to a larger audience, even though we’re not a mainstream band, a Nickelback or Britney Spears. We’ve given ourselves a year for India, and another year for the rest of the world. Meanwhile, my Bollywood project should be out next month. And I’m working at the Southbank Centre in London with Bellowhead and Indian classical dancer Gauri Sharma Tripathi on a musical that will premiere at the next Alchemy festival.

MORE>> raghudixit.com



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