Indian indie music goes international

There’s been a steady rise in independent and non-film music acts touring abroad and performing at international festivals. In a country that’s still warming up to alternative indie acts, could this be the motivation they need to not hang up their boots?

When Chembur-based singer-songwriter and harpist Nush Lewis announced her debut international tour to Australia for her latest EP, Forgotten Verses, earlier this month, it pointed out to a seismic shift. Could this be the beginning of Indian indie music being taken seriously internationally, like Bollywood or Punjabi already is?  
 
Lewis is not the only one. Since the year began, Delhi-based gypsy-jazz band Peter Cat Recording Co has announced their tour around North America, which starts in April and will go on till early June and will also be a part of the BottleRock festival in Napa, California,  in May this year. Indie-folk band When Chai Met Toast (WCMT) is going to tour the UK and Ireland again in May after their UK tour last year; their debut US tour begins in June. Kerala-based multi-genre band, Thaikkudam Bridge, will also be starting their US tour next month and Chennai-based modern rock jazz band Jatayu is part of the Fuji rock festival’s lineup in Japan this year in July, after their South East Asia tour in 2022. 

Nush Lewis, Gursharan Singh and Sahib Singh

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As independent music and musicians still struggle to find their feet, and success, on Indian shores, being acknowledged for their efforts and talent outside the country could be the motivation they need to keep going. “There is definitely an audience abroad that is very interested in Indian acts,” confirms Ritnika Nayan, founder of Music Gets Me High, a music consultancy firm. Nayan, who has worked with international artistes and festivals abroad, agrees that Indian musicians dabbling in English music, do get a better response, but that can’t be seen as a generalisation. If it was, then Diljit Dosanjh wouldn’t have played at Coachella, one of the most talked-about festivals in the world. “Diljit’s tours have been all sold out shows and in arenas,” says Sonali Singh, Diljit’s business manager and tour producer. She says that he was the first Indian artiste to collaborate with Live Nation Entertainment, an American global entertainment company. “Live Nation chose to work with him,” says Sonali, “because of his constant ticket records and because of the data and numbers they have collected from his previous shows.” Nayan also reveals that organisers and promoters look at social media and Spotify numbers when programming artistes, besides their genre to see if they fit the vibe of the festival. 

Gursharan Singh, director of GK Entertainment, an Indian event and artiste management agency in Ireland, admits that they choose artistes based on their popularity among young people. GK Entertainment is the one taking WCMT to Dublin. Kishan John, WCMT’s manager, says that during their UK tour last year, 80 per cent of the  audience were Indians and the rest 20 per cent were locals. Gurusharan says, “Since we come from the same community, we can understand the local demand better than international promoters, and also deliver better than them.”

Ritnika Nayan, Manish Chandnani and Sonali Singh

But Lewis getting an opportunity to showcase her work at the Adelaide Fringe Arts Festival is a good sign that international tours are not directly proportional to numbers. She says that Australia was never on her radar, but “the opportunity just fell into my lap”. If there is one way to start a tour, it’s “when a booking agent calls you and says, ‘hey, I see value in having you come and play’”. That is exactly what Manish Chandnani, director of blaide.live, an agency that works as a promoter, did. Chandnani, who has over a decade of experience in running music festivals, says that, “this has picked up in Australia in the last two years but there isn’t a demand for English acts. The Indian diaspora in Australia has increased and they are demanding Indian Hindi acts such as a Prateek Kuhad or an Anuv Jain,” he adds. Ritviz, who is currently on an Australia tour with sold-out shows, also has Chandnani to thank. Chandnani  says, “There needs to be a cultural exchange.” “With Ritviz, we took a calculated risk by seeing his popularity in India and Australia and the number of tickets he sells.” However, Lewis was a curation decision taken by him. “Ritviz is for the audience but [Adelaide] Fringe is for the artiste.”

Chennai-based modern jazz-rock band Jatayu had a hustle cut out for them. Last year, Jatayu went on a South Asia Tour and this year, they are part of the Fuji Rock Festival lineup. “I manage the band and plan the tour,” says Sahib Singh, who is also the guitarist of the band. “Initially, I was just reaching out and sending cold emails to the right people and festivals.” Sahib says that though Jatayu’s music hasn’t yet taken off in India, internationally it seems to be gaining ground, especially in countries like Japan, Singapore and Thailand because they created a buzz by touring. The in-person networking, that the band indulged in during last year’s tour, has led to them playing at the Fuji Rock Festival. “Majority of the Indian crowd likes film music and some of them don’t want to give new music a try but internationally, people are open to it.” Sahib adds that there was a good buzz for their shows. “I feel that in India they support international acts rather than their own acts. But wherever we have travelled, they are as curious about an Indian band, as their own acts.” The reason why touring in India is difficult is because, “India is not financially viable. You can’t regularly tour in India because there is not enough money in the indie scene [unlike Bollywood] unless you are playing at festivals, which still don’t pay enough,” explains Sahib. However, John believes that, “outside India, especially for a band that is not established or backed by a label, it’s very difficult to land good deals with venues or festivals to make doing shows viable, as everything from ground zero is borne by the artiste especially when costs are high”.

Lewis points out that in India many musicians “take a good sound check and the sound engineers for granted as we are spoilt for choice”. For her upcoming Australia tour, she has been told that many venues have a DIY situation instead of a proper sound engineer. However, Sahib says that it was the opposite situation in Japan, with the best quality equipment and engineers available. 

While Jatayu is seeing the world as its primary market and not India, Nayan who has also worked as a booking agent, observes that, “a lot of artistes just want to go abroad without cracking it in India as they are of the mindset that the Indian audience doesn’t understand their music. That is not always the case. One must first try and establish themselves in India so that they can get better opportunities abroad. I get approached by international acts all the time and I have to say no to them, because I haven’t heard of them nor have they created a mark in their own country,” she concludes.

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