Rock and roll with blues is my kind of music: Mihir Joshi

Q. The Mihir Joshi Band's debut album is named Mumbai Blues. Are the songs about the city?
A. The album is called Mumbai Blues not because they are songs about Mumbai, although there is one song in the album that is about the city.

The album's title comes from the fact that it is blues coming out of Mumbai. The music is by musicians in Mumbai but the songs are about people in India, which everyone can relate to.

So there are songs about heartaches, potholes in the city, even a tribute to Sachin Tendulkar. The basic idea was to keep it relatable. If you listen to the nine songs, there will be at least six that will resound with you.

Q. You've made all kinds of music in your career. What is the kind of music that you want to make with your band?
A. I've always been a rock and roll kind of guy. Blues has always been a major influence in the kind of music I've loved. Bands such as The Beatles, Rolling Stone, Led Zeppelin, have been influenced by blues and added their own flavour to the songs.

That is what my band is also doing. Blues is the skeleton on which our music is based but it also has a bunch of other influences. Having said that, I don't want to say that this is the only kind of music I want to restrict myself to. As a singer, I'm open to singing even for Bollywood.

Look at the kind of material music composers such as Amit Trivedi, Vishal Shekhar and others are coming up with. It's path-breaking. When it comes to my band, it is rock n roll with blues influences that I want to make, and we're always open to experimenting.

Q. You have been an RJ and a talk-show host among other things. Did you always want to be a singer?
A. I always see myself as a singer who has done 15 other things to make things work. I've done a fair amount of writing, anchored couple of TV shows too, but I always knew that I'm happiest when I'm
on stage.