Playing Away

While Indian classical musicians have long been appreciated in the West,alternative musical acts have had a tough time. Even Indian film music is comparatively better known. But as the industry gets more organised,the opportunity to perform has increased. One of the biggest factors is that more bands are making original music. Gaurav Vaz,bassist of the Raghu Dixit Project,which has a UK and European tour coming up,says,“A big handicap of independent bands in India used to be that they mostly played covers. That cannot get you far. Audiences want to hear something original and unique; that has started happening only very recently,so now people take Indian bands more seriously.”

Another helpful factor is technology — social networking sites have made life a lot easier for bands. Satish Warrier,manager of Menwhopause,says,“If you need to find tour organisers or booking agencies,the best place to start is Facebook or MySpace. And once you’re at a festival abroad,you can always network and get into the circuit for the future. The opportunities will then keep coming in.”

The tag of being an “Indian” band is no longer a handicap. Audiences don’t automatically assume that Indian music equals Bollywood or classical music,as Scribe found out in Norway .

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome,however,remains funding. Most bands still find it tough to find sponsors and have to raise most of the money themselves. Menwhopause— which was the first Indian band to perform at the South by South West Festival in the US — was lucky enough to be sponsored by the Indian government,but they still had to fund their American tour themselves. However,Vaz points out that with the number of live gigs increasing in the country,that too can be managed: “If a band can get up to Rs 50,000-60,000 per gig,they can easily set aside some money from three-four performances to finance an international tour.”