I'm not afraid of making mistakes: Raghu Dixit

composer singer and songwriter Raghu Dixit is truly a rockstar whorsquos taken his brand of desi music to all corners of the world But the two things that come across during his interaction with us are his humility and sense of humour For somebody who in his teens learnt to play a rock song on the guitar within two months to win a bet against a college friend Dixit has come a long way He insists itrsquos just the beginning Raghu Dixitrsquos second album releases in November this year u00a0 You recently tweeted that it was a dream come true to perform for MTV Unplugged Yes itrsquos something Irsquove been dreaming about for many years now It was around the time I started playing music that the Unplugged cassettes of Eric Clapton Nirvana and some other wonderful bands were released I was completely amazed at how these musicians who had created such beautiful songs completely broke them down to create a different sound and still sound so beautiful Having grown up on that to actually play for MTV Unplugged Season 3 was like a dream come true for us I enjoyed every moment right from soundcheck to dressing up to actually finally shooting the episode The icing on the cake was that the channel allowed us to bring our fans to the gig That really made it truly special You completely enjoy performing in front of an audience donrsquot you Absolutely The very reason I make music is because I enjoy the thrill of being in front of an audience and getting that instant gratification And brickbats at times laughs But yes itrsquos an amazing feeling to play for an audience and see that the song is being enjoyed and everyone is singing aloud and reacting to the song What can I say Itrsquos a feeling of joy that nobody can touch Growing up in your hometown or working in Belgium as a microbiologist did you ever think you would one day be a household name as a musician I still donrsquot believe itrsquos happening After all these years I feel itrsquos just the beginning Now I have to live up to whatever name Irsquove earned I have to prove that my second album is as good as the first one be consistent perform well and compose something new everytime we compose The first album was a trial and luckily for me it worked out great But the real test begins now For example when we recorded for Unplugged I felt we could have done much better So such reality checks are necessary and itrsquos important to build on those and get better The way I see it and I keep telling everyone is to believe that whatever wersquove done till now has been a great exercise and now we have to put that practice into action There must have been some difficulties along the way We truly believe our music belongs to the whole world and is not restricted to the country we were born in Initially we did find it hard to even break even We spent a lot of money travelling abroad But then we got to perform at festivals other bands have only dreamt of performing at That way itrsquos a great achievement but has taken a lot from our band both financially and physically Hopefully in a year or two we can tap the market in a bigger way and whatever we have invested will all come back to us But the journey has been fabulous Wersquove learnt a lot These are exciting times and wersquore truly kicked about what lies in store for us Has being a selftaught musician worked to your advantage There are two sides to it Since Irsquove not been trained by any particular school of music I have absolutely no boundaries Irsquom not afraid of making mistakes or what others might perceive as mistakes On the other hand because Irsquove not learnt music Irsquom also intimidated working with musicians who know music theoretically For me to meet a musician who knows his theories inside out and to talk in a language that I would have loved to learn but never did intimidates me Itrsquos quite interesting that every musician leaves a lesson behind for me to learn and thatrsquos how I picked up music I donrsquot have any regrets about not learning music but I dread the time when musicians intimidate me with their knowledge or when I have a thousand notes in my head and I canrsquot reproduce a single one through my music Whatrsquos in the pipeline Wersquore doing a Bollywood film called Bewakoofiyaan directed by Nupur Asthana We worked with her earlier in Mujhse Fraandship Karoge Then our second album is releasing in November so Irsquom very very kicked about that We have also been selected to play at Celtic Connections festival in Scotland in January And to think your musical journey started with a bet against a college mate Laughs Yes it was so silly Look at what it has done to me now Are you still in touch with him Yes interestingly hersquos a father in a church now Wersquore good friends We laugh about it every now and then You should be giving him commissionhellip Not commission but I send him my love laughs