This ‘kids-only’ Mumbai gig seeks to introduce children to Indian indie music

The 3 Art House in Khar is known for their programmes based on activities for children. With Little Sounds, they hope to expose the kids to Indian indie music at a young age

Say the words ‘house gig' and the picture that comes to mind is of a group of men and women seated and listening to the band play, maintaining silence in deference to the musicians and their art. This one, though, will be different.

Little Sounds is the first ever kids-only gig, with the audience limited to the age group of six to 15 years. The brainchild of Bengaluru-based Romel Dias, Little Sounds was conceived back in 2018. Dias started this platform to host live music shows after seeing his musician friends go through issues such as venues not paying well or issues with sound quality. "We started off as house gigs," says Dias, "but we also started exploring spaces where you would not typically think of as a gig venue, like a yoga studio or a basement of a tech institute, to name a few."

This show features city-based independent musicians, NAT and Meera Desai, and is a collaborative effort between Little Sounds and 3 Art House, a gallery in Khar. "They [3 Art House] are focused on kids where they do music classes and other art shows," adds Dias. "So with this whole idea I was happy to do a gig where it is focused on kids."

NAT

Banat Kaur Bagga, one of the co-founders of 3 Art House, says that her experience with children's education led her to come up with activities for kids. "We thought of creating programmes and activities for children which we could take into other art spaces." Dias says that he wanted the kids to experience what the indie music scene is like, hear the music from India and also to push and spark their creativity. "If someone is interested in music but only sings Taylor Swift, they can now be exposed to artistes they may have never heard of."

Bagga further says that since children immerse themselves in the experiences around them, they decided to make a conscious choice to not have nursery rhymes and children's music "They already listen to that in school, so we decided to get them to listen to music which adults also listen to and foster the local indie music scene right from childhood," says Bagga. For the organisers of Little Sounds, the decision to have NAT and Desai as performers made sense because both of them have teaching experience.

Banat Kaur Bagga and Romel Dias

"I am very passionate about kids and educating them, as I have been teaching them guitar for over a decade," says NAT. He admits that he doesn't play his originals for children but this concept was interesting and thought of giving this a shot. "In order to keep children engaged," he says, "you have to give them something they like which is usually energetic, fast upbeat numbers. I have noticed that most of my students want to learn songs by Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift," he chuckles. And hence, NAT decided to intersperse covers of popular songs with his original music.

Desai's set, meanwhile, will have her original music but will also be interactive for the children. "My songs have parts that the audience can sing along, as I like having them involved. I will also be bringing a DIY percussion set with me to make it more engaging for the kids," she says. The hope, adds Dias, is that somewhere down the line, he sees these same kids attend more gigs in future as adults.

WHAT: Little Sounds kids-only gig
WHERE: 3 Art House, Khar
WHEN: June 18, 11 AM onwards
CALL: 83560 24972