'Indian Ocean was warned about failure'

Susmit Sen extreme left with his former band Indian u00c2u0080u00c2u0088Ocean Their avantgarde sound in the early 90s made youngsters switch channels listeners in India were in no mood to greet original music They couldnrsquot believe that an Indian band mdash instead of pulling off U2 or Guns Nrsquo Roses mdash made original music rooted to the culture Indian Ocean the FolkFusion group formed in 1990 brought a new wave talking about prayers protesting against wrongs and celebrating desert rain Susmit Sen guitarist and cofounder bid goodbye to the band three years ago but his solo tunes are no less popular He will be in Mumbai to conduct a workshop on original music later this week followed by a rare closeddoor gig Excerpts from an interviewFor the first time you will be playing in a small indoor settingAn intimate setup is a beautiful idea because one can connect to the audience This is the first time I am coming to play as a duo in Mumbai I will have tabla player Gursimran Singh for company it will be interesting to interact with the listenersWhat tunes should we expect from the gig Any Indian Ocean songsI will be playing all my own compositions along with a few other tunes I may play one or two tunes from the initial years of the band but I have limited time and there are lots of new tunesSusmit Sen shares a light moment with the audience during a live showWhat will the workshop be aboutIt will be on composing your own stuff I will be talking to people about a journey that of writing your own music One needs to know what a composition is all about and how should one go about it the different aspects to it most importantly the pleasure to be originalWhat is the secret behind blending sounds to make one good tuneFor me it has never been difficult to merge genres because I grew up on Indian Classical Music The amalgamation comes to me naturallyThere were doubts among listeners when Indian Ocean happenedWhen we started no other band played original music Many told me it would bea failure if we donrsquot play covers tunes known to peopleYou have also worked with former Whitesnake guitar player Bernie Marsden What did you learn from himOne of the beautiful things that I saw when on stage with Bernie is an array of fantastic guitar gadgets I wanted to know what kind of gears electric guitar players use Bernie is such a player that he proved that the tone is basically on your fingers and not the gadgets He came and plugged in directly to the amplifiers and created that particular sound My earlier belief got confirmed that the tone actually depends on the musicianBut youngsters love pedals gadgetsThese days people forget to concentrate on the basic necessities of music One should not be lost and overwhelmed with processors They have been made to help guitar players and not to sell them off so much that they miss out on their own expressionsVenues in India are shutting down and a channel like MTVacircu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Indies is going off air Is indie music under severe threatIt is a pity that Mumbairsquos blueFROG shut down I recently played at their Bengaluru venue The listeners should be sensitive to good music Music is not about jumping around and banging your heads there are also basic elements of human emotionOn September 1718 workshop 12 pm onwards September 17 gig 830 pmAt Cuckoo Club by The Hive 5AA Pali Hill Macronells Compound next toacircu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Candies Bandra WCall 9167422926Cost Rs 350