One of India’s longest-running and most popular bands, Indian Ocean is one of the few groups to have not just one but two documentary films made on them – Spandan Banerjee’s Beware Dogs (2008) and Jaideep Varma’s Leaving Home – The Life and Music Of Indian Ocean (2010).
With memorable albums such as Kandisa, Jhini and 16/330 Khajoor Road to their credit, as well as Bollywood projects including Black Friday, Hulla and Peepli (Live), Indian Ocean have accumulated many fans all over the world over the past 21 years who love the distinct sound of their music.
Gibson India spoke with the band’s lead guitarist Susmit Sen, who talked about the band’s legacy, their newest members and their future plans.
Obviously you are an interesting band and have a very distinct sound, but what do you personally think has fascinated filmmakers so much to want to make documentaries about you?
Well, I guess one is the work that has come out of the band. And, we have been around for 21 years and we have been touring all over the world, not just in India. So the filmmakers must have felt it should be documented, so they did it. I’m very happy. Yes, our music does have a very unique sound.
How has Indian Ocean evolved over the past 21 years?
When a band remains together for so long the cohesiveness improves. We kept on composing music which came naturally to us. When we started off it was a completely instrumental band because I started the band it and it was only my guitar compositions. When the band kept growing, vocals came in. So initially it was just my instrumental compositions, then vocals came in which was the second stage, and the third stage was after we lost Asheem in 2009, and I think third chapter has started now and where it goes and how it unfolds I don’t know.
How did you find Himanshu Joshi (vocals) and Tuheen Chakravarty (percussion) as the two replacements for Asheem?
We were looking for people to join us on the shows on the road. Initially it was Gyan Singh on the tabala and Sudhir Rikhari for vocals. Himanshu would come to my studio for recording so that’s how I heard him… It’s been carrying on.
Tell us a bit about how you pick a theme for each album, and also a bit about your latest project Khajoor Road.
Apart from the film album called Black Friday, which was our music, none of our albums actually have a theme. We compose various numbers and if we see enough material worth an album we record it and release it. So there is no theme as such. No two numbers of ours sound the same over last 21 years. Every number is unique. What is very special about this album, Khajoor Road – it is the last album Asheem was part of and it definitely means a lot to us.
How many compositions are there in total?
There are seven compositions.
Now while the Internet has caused issues such as piracy, there are also advantages such as promoting music through social networks. In fact, you are giving away one song each month from Khajoor Road on your Web site. Tell us a bit about your marketing strategy.
There were three reasons we didn’t want to go to a music company. When any artist goes to a music company they make you sign a contract giving all the rights to the company. I always felt terrible thinking that I couldn’t own my own creation! Second, we realized we make our money through our live performance because we are primarily a live band. If we ourselves are not making money and a middle person is making money why should our listeners pay for it? I think this is easiest way to reach out to people without depending on the efficiency of music companies. Also, we have the rights to our music and can sell anywhere in the world. We were looking for sponsors and then Johnny Walker came in and brought in a bit of a monetary angle, so that came as a nice surprise. And, I guess this is the module we are going to go ahead and use to do things.
Composing for films, such as Black Friday, helped increase popularity a lot…
As far as Indian Ocean is concerned, I think the band has had a very gradual increase in popularity. Our first album did very well, second album did very well even though it got released only in certain areas. We sold 100,000 copies and that was first time people turned around even though there was no publicity because the music company did not have much money. Our first album that saw lot of advertising was Kandisa because Times took it over they have their own newspaper and network, and that was the first time our album was being advertised major way. However, people did not know who was the band behind it! Then came Jhini which has been successful and has been gradually selling. But what Bollywood did with Black Friday is that Bollywood has a huge budget for publicity and media focuses more on it, so the publicity you get is more. But, if you’re not doing the Bollywood kind of scene, Bollywood is not going to come to you unless you’re absolutely brilliant with what you’re doing.
So would you say the biggest challenge bands face in India is the lack of a budget to market themselves?
Is it just India or the world? I think initially people appreciate you in small numbers and then word of mouth spreads. And, if you can stand the test of time by creating a good repertoire of music over the years then the crowd grows slowly and gradually.
You have a Gibson guitar among other guitars. Any advice for someone just starting to learn to play the guitar?
The Gibson is a much mellower guitar and it has got a sweeter sound to it. A nylon string or steel string depends on what the person wants to do and what kind of music they want to play. Being a traveling musician, a lightweight guitar is nice, and it’s important to have a guitar that does not get feedback on stage – feedback is a big problem with most acoustic guitars.
The lyrics to your compositions are very philosophical. Although you do not write the lyrics, how much do you influence the lyricists? Do you tell them what theme to write about?
Ninety percent of the compositions get written at the end. We first compose and then give them to Sanjeev Sharma and he writes lyrics according to the mood of the piece and gives it to us and then there is a back-and-forth process. We talk about how we feel about the piece. We might ask for various variations of a stanza. But ultimately when he writes the lyrics what he comes up with is so beautiful…
Are there any combination of instruments played together that you think works best?
I don’t think there is any sound that is really bad. It depends on what the composer would like to make. Even if two sounds are slashing – slashing sounds can be composed in a way that can mean something. It’s like using clashing colors in a painting – it is only a master who can use clashing colors and make sense out of it.
That’s an interesting thought.
I am at this point of time working on a solo album. I will be working with different artists in India and outside of India, too. I have already started working on it. I’m actually almost halfway through. But I need to sit down and polish it.
Will Indian Ocean sit down together to work on new music soon?
After I finish with my solo project, then we will sit down and do a complete Indian Ocean project and that will also be a collaborative effort with various artists from all over the world. So you might get to hear violins and the saxophone and new voices coming in. That will also happen.