Raghu Dixit dug into his roots, hunted out folk songs and made desi music his destiny
0like his song I’m in Mumbai waiting for a miracle… Raghu Dixit spent months in Mumbai meeting all the recording companies, hoping that one of them would listen to his songs and give him a break. No one did. He waited for hours for an appointment and some of them bluntly told him that they did not have the time to listen to his songs.
Miracles do happen. Crossing the road, in a daze, Raghu broke down. He got a call from his friend Shashanka Ghosh, director of films like Quick Gun Murugan and Bewakoofiyan, telling him that he had fixed up a gig for Raghu at Zenzi, a bar in Bandra. Excerpts from the interview:
A master level Bharatnatyam dancer who became a microbiologist in Belgium, where did the music fit into this equationIJ
Music always existed. I discovered my love for it after a long and interesting journey through dance and microbiology. But that is what makes all of this very special. My background in classical dance and the corporate world has had such a big influence on me as a musician today that I would not have it any other way!
How does composing for Bollywood differ from composing for indie projectsIJ
Well, when you’re composing for a movie, not just Bollywood, this is any movie, you are playing your part in the bigger picture. So the music you make is the culmination of the director’s vision for the scenes that the song supports, the kind of emotion the music needs to evoke and your own creativity as a composer. The eventual song needs to work across all these parameters.
With your own music, you have full freedom on many things including the language, tempo, theme, style etc. But when you are making music that needs to fit a movie score, there are other things to think of.
The interest in folk-influenced music has definitely been on the increase. What is it about folk music that is seeing this more commercial revivalIJ
Folk music comes naturally to all of us. So there is widespread identification with this genre of music among the masses. In my opinion it is fantastic that folk music is seeing a revival. Folk music is an essential and integral part of our culture and the more people fall in love with it, the more they will identify and love our culture!
What do you think about the maturity of mainstream music industry in IndiaIJ Compare it with the standards abroad. Especially, that of packaging, channels, recording labels, studios, sound etc.
Mainstream music in India is very different from what is mainstream in the west. In India, mainstream music is specifically made for the film industry and for promotion of movies that are put out. And also, India is a very different market and has a much much wider and diverse audience that needs catering to. So I don’t think it is fair to compare the two at all. The Indian music industry has evolved to understand and appreciate the audience they are catering to and our music, the packaging etc all reflect that.
How did you plan to embrace digital mediumIJ
Well, I did not really have a choice in the matter. I just missed the bus when Indipop made it big on mainstream TV, and had to go around playing as many gigs as I could to get my music heard. When the internet came about and social media entered our lives in a big way, it was a blessing for us and made our lives much easier!
With regard to the digital medium being used for audio recording, I think it is fantastic. It has allowed musicians like me to be very flexible with how we create music. It is quite interesting to note that I recorded a majority of my last album on my laptop and portable sound card when on the road in three different continents meeting various musicians along the way. That is only possible because of the advances in digital music recording.
Anything exciting happening in the future that we should know aboutIJ
A lot of new music is slated for release from my label RDX Productions very soon and I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks of the music I have been working on for the last year!