The dawn of indie music has long set off and has taken leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. With this new breed of artiste striking chords with an approach that doesn’t fit into a box, the industry of independent music is seen to be growing rapidly in both public approach and demand.
Right Before COVID-19 broke out and rendered normalcy to kaput, we chatted up with a couple of people who have been influential over various spaces across the independent art and music industry.
No longer are Indian bands all about humming melodies, metal head-banging and shiny pop-singer/songwriters only. There’s a new culture around indie music that has emerged. With the rise in consumption of , indie music has slowly and gradually accumulated an eager crowd of well-wishers and fans who have raised the bar for innovative and different music everywhere.
Going through the recent fest season, more than a few journals and people involved in the industry have raised a question of crisis in the world of Independent music. This crisis has mostly revolved around a paucity of quality venues and a distinct struggle in generating revenue.
According to Kaushik J. Barua, an active promoter based out of Guwahati and Delhi who holds cool and experimental parties under ‘Kerplunk’, “Indie has not grown with a lot of genuine fans. It initially grew with the sense of cool that comes with it. The Indian crowd here enjoys Indie music as experiences more than as music fans. People like coming to these gigs because of the conversations they have and the cultural growth that they are exposed to.”
Uddipan Sharma, the frontrunner of one of India’s top bands aswekeepsearching from Pune says, “Everybody from the independent music scene talks about numbers and statistics nowadays. This shows that things are growing and getting better. It was just about playing music for 20-30 friends in 2010.”
We asked Anurag Tagat about his experience in the industry where he has worked as a long-time music journalist. “I started going to shows and college festivals just to check what bands were playing. That’s how I got into it. 2016 went really good for me because you see so much great music coming out! Talking about the current scenario, he continued, “Indie music stands shoulder to shoulder with global music. Its been really cool to see a lot of independent musicians from India getting global recognition because they are no less than any other acclaimed international bands in terms of the skill they have. They have been doing a great job and the scope is definitely increasing. Some are admirably putting in their own money, time and effort to break internationally. With the advent of the Internet, the audience scale has also improved as people have started looking beyond Indian classical music from India. With global markets also taking an interest in Indian music, everyone wants to discover people who are doing things differently.”
When asked about his personal favorites, he chuckles with a twinkle in his eye he says, “There are too many good ones! Off the top of my head, I really like what The F16s from Chennai, Gauley Bhai from Bangalore and Diarchy is doing. The Earth Below is coming out with new records this year so I’m really excited about that. Some of my favourite metal bands like Bhayanak Maut are also making it large in the Indie scene right now!”
