Indie in India

It’s with a twinge of pain that I notice that indie rock has found few, very few takers in India. All over the world, indie acts of all stripes, though not compatible with mainstream tastes, have already emerged into the mainstream. Everywhere, the acceptance for the alternative has only grown and indie rock has seen unprecedented efflorescence. Everywhere, just not in India.

You can imagine my surprise when, in 2009, I happened to be reading Sanjoy Narayan’s column in the Hindustan Times and discovered that he had mentioned and praised The Hold Steady — a band I worked with in the US. I was thrilled and shocked to see this band being written about and discussed like Narayan had just seen them, and had been following their career. I was even more surprised when, one day, while sitting in my office at Random House India, where I was the head of the publicity department, I received a call from Michael Macy, the cultural attaché from the American Embassy. He loved The Hold Steady, had heard that I knew the band and wanted to bring them on a tour of India. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen as the band was in transition and could not make the trip at the time. I tried unsuccessfully to find another band to come, but came up empty. Finally, I urged a band called Hurricane Bells (it comprised members from several New York indie bands) that had a song on the Twilight soundtrack. Not a sell-out in the States, but they could bring in 200 people at any club in the US, by virtue of being known from their former bands, if not of their own talent. The tour was a huge success, with the band’s CDs and T-shirts all sold out. Most importantly, the band was appreciative of their wonderful and welcoming experience in every city they performed in.

I  was sure this would be the first of many indie bands I would bring to India to tour. I’d now been living in India for almost one year and had a few friends with similar musical tastes. The people I’d met in India who were familiar with the bands and music I would mention were scarce, but they did exist. We could discuss Wilco, The Smashing Pumpkins, Yo La Tengo, Archers of Loaf, The XX, and an array of current indie acts, but when I mentioned The Gits, Lemonheads, Scream, Buffalo Tom, the Sugarcubes, Dinosaur Jr., Wolf Parade or Thee Hypnotics, I could have been speaking another language as no one had any clue to who these bands were. Indie bands that were well established elsewhere were still relatively obscure in India. I realised this more when I found out that Nick Cave had written a new book and was looking for a publisher in India. My editor had just returned from the London Book Fair where she was told it would become the hottest book of the year. I remember shrieking with excitement. I’d seen Nick Cave many times and was a huge fan. The Death of Bunny Munro was going to be the hottest book in India…how could anyone not love Nick Cave, the musician and the writer. I soon found out that Nick Cave, and his Bunny Munro, were not going to be a hit. Very few people in India knew Nick Cave the musician. I did reach out to a few journalists I knew that were into Indie and asked them to take a quick read and if they liked the book to give it a favourable review. The title had poor sales to say the least, whereas in the US and abroad it was on all the bestsellers’ lists.

I just could not understand how Nick Cave could not be known in India. As Oprah would say, my Ah-ha moment was on the horizon.

A local ska band had posted an announcement for an upcoming gig on Facebook, and I posted a not-so-nice comment about them being unoriginal and doing nothing new. One of the members responded, and rightly so, that I was being a “hater” and I should support new music in India, because in the Indian scene, ska was a new thing. They were the only ska band. Of course. Now I got it. This is new to the Indian music scene, and can only pave the road for the acceptance of other genres of music.

While working as a publicist at Taang! Records (the music the astronauts took to the moon) in the late 80’s and early 90’s, I had the opportunity to work with one of the greatest ska bands ever, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. They weren’t the only ska band in Boston at the time: We had Bim Ska La Bim, the Allstonians, and touring bands like the Specials, Less Than Jake, The Voodoo Glowskulls and Operation Ivy.  We had Moon Records, and ska nights, and the Bosstones, set precedence by wearing suits and fedora hats. They toured and still do, around the world and play at festivals to crowds of thousands. Every year, they host the Hometown Throwdown with other local bands, a tradition that still sells out almost immediately.

There are no ska scenes in India, no record labels or radio stations dedicated to ska music, no Moon Records. How would anyone in India be expected to know The Mighty Mighty Bosstones? For the past six years, I’ve tried to secure sponsors to bring various indie bands to India. Indie bands and artistes do come, but when they do, there isn’t much promotion or excitement. Only Much Louder (OML), a concert promotion company in Mumbai, brings in the indie on occasion, with bands like Tegan and Sara, but the last time did it, there wasn’t much excitement surrounding the tour. They came, played and left without much fanfare. OML also brought Norah Jones, who performed with M. Ward, but they played in huge auditoriums, with tickets costing a bomb, thus keeping out many of their fans. M. Ward, the opener, was barely mentioned in any reviews or promotion. In the states and abroad, he could sell out his own show and yet no one in India really knows him or cared. I read that Ed Sheeran recently performed in India and was happy to see that, although he’s not really indie — more of an Elliot Smith-Jeff Buckley rip-off, but it’s a start.

I see that indie bands are playing in Southeast Asia, in Singapore and Hong Kong, Dubai and Malaysia…just not in India. Why is this? Why doesn’t indie come to India? Doesn’t India want indie? It has everything else.

How do music connoisseurs choose bands and music these days? You can download any record, or song for free, an open sea of choices, so how does someone in India get to hear about Japandroids or Hives or Of Monsters and Men? Radio stations don’t play them, and music publications in India don’t write about them. Did any of the mega stations in India play Ed before he came here, and how did his Indian fan base get to know him?

Another company trying to bring in indie to India is Music Gets Me High, run by Ritnika Narayan. Ritnika went to school in the States and studied music business. She’s been to shows, she knows how it works and gets indie. She often reaches out to me, asking for a sponsor that contacted her for bands. The calls were always for Diana Ross, Lady Gaga, and some old school musician that no one in the US cares for any longer, but still demand huge fees. I’m currently looking for sponsors to bring the Japandroids and J. Mascis (from Dinosaur Jr.) to come and tour India. No one in India is really familiar with these bands. Yet, both Japandroids and J play all over the world to sold-out audiences and I don’t mean sold-out like selling out at Turquoise Cottage, I mean selling out huge festivals and performing in front of up to 5,000 at a time. Everywhere, just not in India.

India does have a thriving and growing music scene, just not for indie music. All the bands I’ve seen in India play cover songs and are completely unoriginal. I’ve seen one or two bands that play original songs but eventually, you’ll hear a cover song.

In 2010, my French friend and I decided we would start to “put the indie in India” by organising a monthly DJ night where we’d spin punk and indie and turn the crowds on to new indie music. At our first gig at TLR, we were playing Modest Mouse and TV on the Radio. Requests started coming in for Pearl Jam and Nirvana, Britney Spears and Boys II Men and at that, we called it a night.

But why didn’t they want to listen to Modest Mouse, or any of the indie we played. Why in this day and age would anyone, tot or teen, want to listen to Britney Spears?

I began working in the music industry at an early age. As a college freshman in Boston, I was going to punk shows with my roommates. Even if I didn’t like the music all that much (I found it scary and wondered why a mosh pit was deemed fun) it was a scene and so much more than that. I was the talent buyer for one of the world’s renowned punk music venues called the Rathskeller in the heart of Kenmore Square. We had Saturday and Sunday all-ages punk shows, and I was in-charge of booking 7 nights a week of indie. I booked the first Hole show and Pearl Jam shows in Boston, and booked everyone from Tad to Husker Du and Cows to Mogwai. The music scene of Boston in the late ’80s and ’90s had one of the best in the United States. We had tonnes of clubs, a supportive scene with hundreds of bands. On any given night, you had 25 clubs to choose from, with bands from all over the world. There was college radio and CMJ. We had scenes and we rooted for our friends and went to their showcases for major labels when it happened.