The young sitarist reveals why the harmony comes before the lyrics for her
The young sitarist reveals why the harmony comes before the lyrics for herIT'S funny to think that the elegantly dressed (in a printed blue wrap dress, with blue eye shadow that highlights her expressive, light-brown eyes) sitar player Anoushka Shankar went through a "goth phase" in her
younger years. When you ask her about it, she laughs and then feigns embarrassment. She's composed during the interview, and that comes from volleying questions by journalists at an age when most of us just passed amateur trapeze work on our school's jungle gyms.
Anoushka was in Mumbai to perform with her band The Anoushka Shankar Project at Blue Frog. The band is an avenue to experiment beyond her classical roots. It comprises Shankar, Tanmoy Bose on tabla, Ravichandra Kulur on flute, Leo Dombecki on a variety of instruments, Barry Phillips on cello, Sanjeev Shankar on shahnai and Jesse Charnow on drums and percussions. Why another venture altogether? Because this is different from her classical performances, "When people hear just my name, they come to the concert expecting me on the sitar," she explains.
It is inevitable for her father, sitar legend, Pt Ravi Shankar's name to come up. Despite mingling with some of the music world's most beloved artistes, George Harrison for instance, who was a dear friend, Anoushka's agenda was "just to be normal." She could have easily opted to go to a private school, but instead went to a public one that thrived on arts (all things creative) and sports.
Four albums and living between England, USA and New Delhi later, she's seen and been seen a lot. We cover topics like Bollywood the last movie she saw was Taare Zameen Par why the terms 'fusion' and 'genre' are thrown about too easily, and how, because she's an instrumentalist, music matters over words "Once you have words, you have a language. Music is the first element, words brings in a second element and sometimes I don't agree with the words sung by musicians, they seem silly or trite."
As for her musical tastes, they go from contemporaries of her father, to Salim Sulaiman and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy in Bollywood and Ali Fakaturi, Bju00f6rk to the Beastie Boys, internationally.
