It is a criminal offence for a musician not to be prolific: Raghu Dixit

Raghu Dixit prefers the open-air area of the cafe we were meeting at – because the “reverberations are too strong” inside. In the city for a gig-and-leave visit, the Mysore Se Aya man is comfortable under the cloudy Kolkata skies, sipping on his Darjeeling tea and speaking about music, his meeting with Usha Uthup in the morning, and why he doesn’t own a car and still prefers to ride a scooter through Bengaluru traffic. Excerpts from the chat:


An indie artiste needs 1,000 fans. If they come to all your gigs, listen to your music, buy your merch, you’re sorted – rent `20k, petrol `3k, mobile bill `1.5k. How much more do you need?


Throughout the chat with Calcutta Times, Raghu’s down-to-earth persona shines through. He knows how to keep it real.
For 25 years now, the reason why Raghu’s music connects with thousands is exactly this –zero artifice. Read on…
Tell us about your upcoming release…
We just released Shakkar, which was a studio production, but somewhere I felt we should also record and release a live version of the same. So we hired an auditorium, created a living room set, and just played all-acoustic versions of the eight songs, just the four of us (in the band). We recorded and shot live. That should be coming out sometime in end-July or August. Post that we also want to immediately get into a session where the whole band comes together and performs Shakkar the way we do live. I feel the energy of that live album will be very different from the studio one.

That is an interesting take on videos…
I feel it is a waste of time and money to produce separate music videos. Our mainstay has always been being a great live act, and even our videos should project that.
These two projects, then, are the primary release plans for the year?
The whole year is being chalked out for that. At the same time, the idea is to travel the world, to keep collaborating, with or without my band; the idea is to keep making new songs with new musicians, to keep releasing them. I have wasted too much time – the last album before Shakkar was in 2013. I think it’s a criminal offence for a musician to not be prolific (laughs)! The idea is to churn out six albums over the next two years, let’s see!
Tell us about Home…
Home is a project where I have travelled to meet musicians displaced by war; artistes who have lost their homes and cultural identities. The idea is to collaborate with them on the basis of two questions: one, what does home mean to them, now; and two, after having gone through that terrible crisis, why do they want to wake up and make music every day? Has their relationship with music changed? Has their purpose changed?
Has yours, as a songwriter?
Yes. Shakkar was written at a phase in my life when I wanted to die every day. If you listen carefully to it, you will realise it’s an anti-suicide album; it saved my life, making music with John Paul (The Raghu Dixit Project guitarist and Kolkata-based musician) saved my life. So my purpose of making music changed. At least from this song, I have tried to make songs that make someone feel worthy, loved & strong. My real journey as a musician starts now. All these years, it was practice, maybe, for this moment.
From (banjo legend) Bela Fleck to Rajesh Vaidya to (UK folksters) Bellowhead to (sarod stalwart) Soumik Datta — you have always thrived in collaborations. Has songwriting been primarily a collaborative process for you?
Always! It’d be a shame if I claimed all my music as mine alone. All my songs are my personal stories; I am very bad with imagination. I don’t think I have written a single song completely on my own, I have always stood on the shoulders of great musicians who have made me and those stories look tall and beautiful (laughs).
What is your take on the future of independent music in India?
I am completely against the doomsday idea of independent music; I think there will always be an audience for good, honest music, no matter the genre or language. Let’s get real: as an independent artiste, you need a thousand fans. If those thousand fans come to your every gig, listen to all your music, buy all your merch, you’re sorted – rent `20k, petrol `3k, mobile bill `1.5k. How much more do you need? Having a cone ice-cream on the streetside is so much better than going to a fancy ice cream parlour and eating cold ice-cream in a cold room (laughs)!


On a possible collaboration with Usha Uthup
Usha ji told me, ‘Darling, you must come visit me,’ and when I did, she gifted me a beautiful gamcha stole,” says Raghu. Talking about collaborating with Usha Uthup, he adds “We’ve locked in three songs to work on over the next few weeks. The moment I walked in, she asked her assistant to start filming. I joked, ‘You’re acting like Gen Z!’ and she laughed, ‘Raghu, I am the Gen Z in Gen Z!’”

Quotes:

Getting separate music videos for albums is a waste of time & money. I feel, the energy of a live album will be different

I have come to realise that there’s really no such thing as a perfect song. People either like it or they don’t, and that’s just how it is. It took me 25 years of my career to understand that

I am against the doomsday idea of independent music. I think there will always be an audience for good, honest music, no matter the genre or language