[Published on the 28TH JULY 2011]
You were the first big Indian name in English rock and pop music in India, who dared to strike out on your own, with zero support base. On looking back, how do you feel about it? What was your inspiration?
I’m very happy I did it, and I’m very happy that people like you recognize it! I guess I just did it because I had to. I had all this music inside me which I needed to let out, and since no record companies were giving me a contract, I started my own small home studio in Goa, and put out my first album. Then one thing led to another; I scored music for two films, ‘Jalwa’ and ‘Trikaal’, and my music went national and then international within a couple of years. Totally unexpected.
Were you ever interested in architecture? Why did you do the course?
My Dad taught me my first musical chords and instruments on the ukulele, banjo, and then the guitar. But he always said music was great as a hobby, but that one needed something steadier as a profession. I chose architecture because it involved drawing and design, and I loved both. But as soon as I completed the course I went full time into music, because by then I realized that music was my greatest love. And I decided I wasn’t going to choose second best as my life’s companion. For that’s the way I see one’s profession – as a companion we have to live with for most of our lives. So we might as well choose the profession we love most. If we do, we never work a day in our lives. in a musician’s case, it literally is all play and no work!
Music and engineering all came into the picture, when you recorded your album yourself, another first. Was passion for music alone that goaded you on then?
Absolutely. That, and the thrill of hearing my songs first come alive as I added more instruments and voices to them, layer by layer. It still thrills me no end to listen to a song build up that way.
Were you completely self taught? Guitar, flute and other instruments?
Yes, totally, besides the first chords my father taught me. I still cannot read or write music. My father enrolled me in a music school when I was about seven, but was wise enough not to force me when I refused to return to it. The method of teaching was so orthodox, it would have killed all my love and excitement for music. So I ended up learning everything on my own along the way.
What is your idea of fusion music? You started it long before it became the vogue.
To me fusion is anything which is not pure-breed. Pure-breed is great, but can get predictable after a while. When different music styles and cultures are thrown together, something unexpected and uncharted emerges. Some of it is brilliant, some not. But on second thoughts I must say that nothing is truly pure-breed; everything is inter-related, all music and all musicians are influenced by something or someone else, so in a wide way, all music is fusion. We ourselves are fusion.
How much did your travels in Europe influence your music?
Europe taught me to ‘let it out’. To not suppress what I had inside me. I think it greatly inspired me to start my own home studio in the face of Indian record companies’ rejection, rather than sit at home and mope or accept defeat and go back to architecture.
How different is the music scene today for beginners from the days you started out?
The computer and the internet have changed everything. Today a kid can record himself in CD quality, and put out a song on YouTube, FaceBook, etc. If it touches people’s hearts and fancies, it can spread the world over like wild fire. No one needs a nod from the old Sahibs, the record company executives, anymore.
Your lyrics were about politics, about corruption, staying away from drug,s and you felt deeply about such causes. Today, do you find young musicians caring about such social issues?
You tend to talk about me in the past! [laughs] My songs still are about such things which touch me strongly. Do check out my last releases, “India, I Cry” and “India Against Corruption” on YouTube, and on my website www.remomusic.com. Frankly, I didn’t hear many socio-political songs in India back then, and I don’t hear them today. Most artists, specially from Bollywood, like to play it safe – though they could have had so much fantastic influence on our masses.
After the Padma Shri, has life changed?
No. I was given the Padma Shri for what I am, not for what I’m not. So I saw no reason why I, or my life, should change after the award.
You are known to hold views like outsiders should not be allowed to buy land in Goa. Isn’t that parochialism?
Not at all. It is protection of a naturally and culturally unique, precious spot in India. We tend to ruin all our natural paradises – look what we have done to Ooty, Simla, Dehra Doon; the list is endless. These places are simply too tiny and fragile to accommodate onslaughts of settlers and builders from all over the country. If we keep turning all our natural resorts into metropolis, where do we go on a holiday then? To Pakistan?
What about your shows with A R Rahman? What was the common factor?
Besides being stage performers, we are both composers and arrangers who handle everything from A to Z in our own recording studios. I guess that’s the greatest common factor between us.
You starred in the first two Pepsi launch ads more than 20 years ago, again setting a trend. What are you planning now, to set yet another trend?
Frankly, I don’t plan trends! What I’m planning now is a return to square one, to releasing my music on my own, since record companies seem to have regressed to pre-pop/rock days. They have once again made Bollywood their only god. Besides releasing my new albums, I’m going to resurrect the old ones, as well as record my earliest songs – those written during my school and college days. That ought to be fun!