Freedom for the indie artiste

It was sometime in early 2017 that Uday Kapur was at a music journalist friends house in Mumbai attending a listening session for a new album by the American hiphop duo Run the Jewels Kapur had been mulling the idea of starting an artiste label back then But the plan he had for it was offbeat The intent was to focus entirely on artistes from smaller towns and economically impoverished backgrounds or those making songs in hotpotato genres like protest musicTienas an Azadi Records artiste whos part of the showcase PicAaditya KumarSo at the party the Delhi resident got talking to another friend who he considers to be one of the biggest hiphop fans in the country During the course of that conversation this friend whipped out his laptop and told Kapur that there is a certain musician from Kozhikode in Kerala worth checking out His name was Sharan Jayan Kapur heard the tracks Suitably impressed he kept Jayan in mind as one of the potential artistes for Azadi Records the name he had thought of for the label And sure enough once he and cofounder Mo Joshi had sorted out all the necessary paperwork for Azadi Jayan was pleasantly surprised to receive a message on social media asking him whether he was interested in signing a dealPrabh DeepThat story in a nutshell encompasses the ethical backbone of this yearold label Its not about targeting and mooching off established biggies Its about bringing lesserknown but talented musicians from out of the shadows and giving them the exposure they desperately need And this weekend Azadi Records will do just that at a gig where they will showcase eight artistes from their roster to the audience in the citySome of the musicians at this gig though are from Mumbai and Delhi with the biggest name in the lineup being rapper Prabh Deep Be that as it may none of them are shy about addressing social issues through their music I had noticed that there was a trend in the indie scene against speaking out on issues A majority of the artistes I interacted with would express opinions in private But when it came to their music it was way more commercial in nature Its almost as if they practised selfcensorship Maybe it was due to a fear of losing out on brand projects because thats the financial model on which things function these days Kapur tells us adding The other thing was that I felt that the focus had shifted away from making music in a way that can be timeless It was more a case of This is whats popular so lets copy it Thats what happened with Nucleya as well He did something new And then 100 people spent the next five or six years just copying him and basking in his gloryThe 26yearold continues I also felt that musicians from nonmetropolitan cities were being ignored I think it boils down to a case of laziness Its not easy to go and find new artistes from places you might not have heard of If there is a kid sitting in Ranchi and making music who is going to find him and make sure he makes it big Thats the sort of effort that Mo and I wanted to take right from the beginningBut commendable as the endeavour might be it still hasnt translated into steady financial yields We put 20 per cent of what we make from gigs and a few branded projects back into the label The rest of the funds come from Mos own money Kapur confesses Nonetheless there are other ontheground results that are equally important One of these has been to raise a legitimate question about the incestuous youscratchmybackIscratchyours tendency prevalent in the indie circuit How else if not for Azadi would an act like Triangles have made it to a gig at a major venue in a city like Mumbai For all you know the musician might still have been sitting in Kozhikode scoring maybe for Malayali and Tamil films But thankfully Jayan who uses that moniker for his stage acts received that social media message from Kapur once the time was right And today the prospect of him releasing his first EP in a couple of months is far from a distant dreamON July 6 9 pmAT The Habitat Hotel Unicontinental Khar WestCALL 9833358490ENTRY Rs 100 under 21 years Rs 300 restCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates