Indie music artists hop to small towns to tap niche audience
Indie music bands and artists are looking for greener pastures in smaller towns with loyal fans and more receptive crowds.
Indie music bands and artists are flocking to small towns of India as they slowly open up to the western influences in non-Bollywood music. (In picture: musician Lesle Lewis; Source: Wikimedia Commons)
A new wave of indie artists is eschewing coveted venues in big cities — equipped with heavy duty music sets, spectacular lighting and aggressive promotions that lead up to good audience turnout — for performances in serene small towns with niche crowds.
From Bollywood’s veteran composer, Lesle Lewis, blues band Kanchan Daniel and the Beards to a boy band from Delhi, music makers in India across platforms are now looking forward to strum it up in small towns — ranging from Kokrajhar in Assam to picturesque Kasauli in the hills.
At the recently concluded fifth season of Kasauli Rhythm and Blues festival, artists across genres performed on a single stage — taking back nothing but smiles and cheers from fans both domestic as well as those coming in from countries like Sri Lanka, Switzerland and the UK.
“Honestly, I love playing in smaller town festivals because I feel people love you for your music. They are real fans, they have come there because they love your music and I saw that tonight. I love to interact with people of India and they could be from anywhere,” says singer-composer Lesle Lewis — a pioneer of independent music in India.
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“At festivals like this, you see people coming with their kids and they are actually enjoying the music. They have come for the music and that’s how a festival should be. People are actually here to see these bands perform and listen to one band at a time, no option nothing,” he says.
Riding on similar lines is a Hindi-rock band who goes by the name ‘The Local Train’ — formed by musicians from Chandigarh and small towns of Haryana who grew up listening to Bollywood numbers ‘Baazigar’ and ‘Ole Ole’ which influenced them to pen music in Hindi rock ‘n’ roll with a desi touch.
The band is a regular at campus gigs and festivals — which are often considered to be best performance spaces for both established and upcoming performances. Taking in the ‘towny’ vibe, the band has been on constant tour for the past six months to places like Sonepat (Haryana), Kokrajhar (Assam) and Deogarh (Jharkhand) following the release of their debut album — Aalas Ka Pedh — last year.
“We did not want to be a metro band when we started out. We wanted to really get to the two-tier cities and smaller towns because we knew that these people really need exposure. So, college festivals in the outskirts and away from the metros are important and through that I think we have reached to people who don’t have access to alternate, independent music,” vocalist for The Local Train, Raman Negi said.
“It comes down to a very basic thing — it’s about good music and not good music. Language and music is very subjective as long as you are making good songs. People in remote corners of the country don’t even know what independent music means and whether or not they would like it. So when you play your original set for such a crowd and they enjoy, then it speaks for itself and that is your ultimate test,” says the band’s lead guitarist Paras.
“People know our songs in these small towns we play and I think it’s evident that fans there are opening up to new music. It’s just that they have didn’t have the resources before. These are very loyal fans of a band or for any artist,” says Raman.
Mumbai-based Mihir Joshi Band — which likes to experiment with elements of blues and rock and has taken western flavours to places like Shirpur in Maharashtra besides to the North East — says that music is a language that fans understand regardless of the limelight or the celeb-status of an artist.
“These people don’t get that much entertainment as compared to the audience in metro cities. There are several places you can watch a band perform in Mumbai or Delhi every week, but in a small town like Kasauli, they wait for an entire year for an artist or band to perform. They are crazy for entertainment and the joy that an artist gets playing for such people is phenomenal,” says the band’s front man and vocalist Mihir Joshi.
“I want to play in every small-city-concert and festival because I find that people are so much more receptive to good music. They are not bothered about star and celebrity value. People appreciate good music,” he says.
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