Raghu Dixit and his band are ready to elevate the musical experience on the second day of ASEAN-India Music Festival. By Angela Paljor
Theirs is a warp and weft of influences. And their music stirs you out of the melting pot. The Raghu Dixit Project — the epitome of folk-rock — has a surprise planned for the second day of the First edition of the ASEAN India Music Festival. “We will be playing new music that we have been working on. Also, the soundtrack of Chef is out and it will definitely be a part of it. Basically, a mix of new and old songs,” shares Dixit who correlates India to the essence of the band.
Dixit’s music is strongly rooted in Indian tradition and culture, presented in a contemporary format, which he believes is the core essence of being an Indian. “While we as a country are strongly attached to our traditions, art and languages, but at the same time, we borrow cultures from around the world, especially in the past ten years with the internet and technology has become accessible to all. Similarly, we as a band are traditionally rooted but we create an amalgamation of music borrowed from across the globe,” says Dixit. However, they don’t go through any brainstorming while composing music. “It is a natural process, it just happens — certain melodies automatically click with certain languages.”
The music industry and the Raghu Dixit project have been away from each other for a long time. “We are an independent band and our journey in itself has been a DIY (Do it yourself). We have created our own market and it has been 15 years. The band has taken its own sweet time of attracting a single fan at a time. Now we have a considerable amount of loyal fan base who won’t miss a single concert,” says the frontman of the band.
For Dixit, the main purpose of the band is to make the audience happy. “Which is the core reason why we don’t sing songs that are sad or reminds people some tragedy — we concentrate on lively and happy songs.”
The scientist turned rock artist makes sure that their lyrics are not trivial. “Rather they are more philosophical with embedded messages. And we take pride in borrowing poetry from ancient Indian and present it with a contemporary twist for the younger generation,” shares Dixit who, was completing his BSc when a friend called him less macho for being a Bharatanatyam dancer. Taking a two-month challenge to learn a rock song on his friend’s guitar, Dixit discovered what it feels to play an instrument “and then onwards I never looked back.”
The band is also known as the open house for musicians and poets to come together and collaborate. “Thus the very element of sound is constantly evolving in dynamics depending upon the occasion we are performing for.” Their stage act is another aspect that makes them stand out. From colourful costumes to entertaining stage acts, all add up to their image.
Talking about the difference in composing for the band and a film, he shares, “For Raghu Dixit Project, I compose whenever I feel like it. Composing for a film is completely dictated by the script, the director’s vision and the producers market demands. The image of the actors who are portraying the character on-screen also matters. All these together draw a boundary and you are expected to create something magical. Personally, I find it quite challenging, something that I enjoy doing. But the only problem working in a film is that once you are done, you need to wait for a year or two for the gratification. But as a band, it is on-the-spot, you play the song and the crowd responds to it.”
However, each one has its own high. One can’t ignore the fact that film music reaches beyond the live audience. “We have been very lucky with Chef as the whole band has played the soundtrack which is very close to the sound of the band itself. But such projects are very rare. I have also worked on projects where the music is entirely commercial. But I only differentiate between good and bad music. The difference in the genre doesn’t really matter,” he adds.
With the trend of actors taking the mic on a rise, Dixit refuses to look at it as a phase. “I feel people have to keep on experimenting to sell a commercial product for commercial reasons. Sometimes the acting-singing blend is part of the whole marketing strategy as the audience prefers the stars more than the singer or the music composer. In that sense, it’s justified.” But as composers, he finds it difficult to get actors to sing as they are not really singers. “So, we end up doing a lot of magic tricks with the computer.”
The band is known for its multi-lingual production. Dixit makes sure that he understands the script well when working on a regional film, one with a language he doesn’t understand. “I get the production team to translate the script in English. And when I am working on a song, I have a team to monitor my enunciation.”
Dixit is a master of many trades and to balance them all sounds a lot more challenging. However, he disagrees. “The fact that I do so many things keeps my life interesting. Every day is very unremarkable till I encounter a challenge and deal with it. There are 24 hours a day and it gives me enough time to deal with it,” says Dixit who has five movies in Kanada, two in Telugu and one in Malayalam lined up. The band is also coming out with its third album — more like a collection of singles as every song is a collaboration with an international artist.