Music composer and singer leslIe lewis describes how Western music has dominated the industry, be it RD Burman’s reinterpretations or Usha Uthup’s pop songs in the 70s and 80s
Indian music composer leslie lewis is back, not with an album but a series of concerts called #Connect with his fans where he promises to perform free of cost for a year. The initiative is supposed to reconnect him with his audience where the organisers can simply contact him and book him for a performance.
One of the pioneers of Western music in the industry, he shares his inspiration on introducing this culture of rock and pop to India. He says that not only is he influenced by Western music but also world folk music. lewis listens to all types of music — from Spanish to latin.
lewis believes himself to be a dinosaur in the music industry as he has ben here for a long time, almost 30 years. He has seen this industry evolving from a handful of singers to singers with varied voices to suit every genre and actor. He says, “It was important for the singer’s voice to match the actor’s face at that point in time. Now the target audience has become open to more diverse voices. The film song has become independent of the star persona,” he says.
But will the Indian music industry be completely swamped by its Western counterpartIJ “We cannot go on eating international cuisine every single day and we tend to come back to our origins of dal-chawal at the end of the day. We Indians cannot sustain purely on anything foreign and experiment and temper with our spices. This is what is happening in the music industry. Although the music may have the Western touch, it will never completely transform into one so that it can cater to whole of the population.” Bollywood movies are the perfect epitome of what lewis embodies, where the music is an amalgamation of Indian and Western culture.
lewis judged the reality show Sur Sagar on Doordarshan and it introduced many talented singers and music bands. He believes that the initiative by the channel proved to be amazing because it introduced the concept of singing self-composed songs which is yet to be seen in any other reality show. He feels that in future this very concept can become a successful move for the reality shows and the music industry.
About the current position of international music in India, the veteran singer and music composer elucidates, “The same music prevails in India from a long time where composers like RD Burman were influenced by latin music and so were Usha Uthup’s pop songs from 80s and 90s.” The music trends are changing rapidly where the youth is inclined towards EDM and other genres. In this scenario, there was a reason he started the Coke Studio where he fused different artists to create distinct pieces. He says, “I strongly believed it would touch the hearts of the population and would create a name of its own which actually happened and the tracks have been introduced in many Bollywood songs.” Similar to Coke Studio, he has started Folk Fusion, a show on BIG FM radio, where he has fused folk songs with a Western touch so that the music connects to the youth in India. The composition remains the same but the song is Westernised.