24 October,2010 09:27 AM IST | | Lalitha suhasini
The Raghu Dixit Project's festival calendar has been packed, starting with the WOMAD festival in May this year. Bassist Gaurav Vaz tells us how the band works its international tours, some of which they fund themselves
Right from headlining the second stage at the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) this year, to being signed on for the Watts Festival in Devon after the band was spotted performing at The Great Escape Festival, the Raghu Dixit Project'su00a0 (RDP) career graph has seen spectacular highs. As this interview went to print, the group was already in Sweden. One high included being signed on by Sony ATV, a label that has the likes of The Beatles and Bob Dylan on its roster. Excerpts from an interview with Gaurav Vaz, the group's bassist:
Gaurav Vaz
Having been published on an indie label, what will the Sony/ATV deal mean for RDP?
The Sony/ATV deal is a publishing deal. We were just released on an indie label. We had no exclusive
publishing deal till this one. Now that we are with one of the biggest publishing companies in the world, it should translate into more opportunities, as they actively try to place the music in movies, ads or any such commercial musical opportunities.
RDP has been touring a lot lately. How and when did you plan this?
The tours this year are a clear and strategic move to try to create a sustainable touring career outside India. These were being planned from the time we started working with our international management earlier this year and have been a great investment in cementing our career outside India. Having played outside India for almost four of the last seven months, we now see great potential in the music we make.
Has this exposure to new audiences and new musicians led to any collaborations?
Completely! The Raghu Dixit Project was always meant to be a platform for collaboration. We've already
collaborated with renowned guitarist and producer Justin Adams in the UK. We recently did a whole new song as a collaboration with the Australian group Mama Kin.
What is the sound of the second album, if you are working on one?
We are currently working on two parallel sounds that are emerging for the new album. There is a very clear sufi/quawwali sound that is making its way into our music and a largely contemporary folk sound, mostly based on the Kannada writings of Shishunala Sharief and Da Ra Bendreu00a0-- iconic poets from Karnataka who have been instrumental in shaping Kannada culture.
Have there been cases on international tours where audiences have listened to your music online and actually sung along?
Yes! And that is quite shocking for us because most of our music is not in English. It's quite interesting to see how people identify with different songs and remember different parts of songs when they come and watch us play. We've had a lot of people writing to us about how our songs have touched them. One of the craziest encounters was when we were on stage in Caceres, Spain, for a workshop and we got requests from complete strangers for 'Mumbai'! obviously referring to our song 'I'm in Mumbai, waiting for a miracle!'
Of course, I make it a point to get everyone to learn a bit of Kannada and Hindi during every show, so there will always be a lot of people struggling but trying their best to, and eventually doing a great job of, singing along with us!
