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Mapping the sound of popular music
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Keith Peters, one of the best bassists in the country and a Rahman favourite, puts the music scene into perspective
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PHOTO: V. SREENIVASA MURTHY
SOUND LOGIC Keith Peters: `There is money in music if you can just find the right contacts and the right gigs'
See Keith Peters off stage and without a guitar in hand, and you might not realise just who you're looking at. After all, they rarely come as down to earth and easy-going as this bass player. However, underneath that calm exterior rages a musical tempest few others can match.
Although the reticent artiste usually receives relatively little media attention, almost every musician would rate him as one of the best bass players in the country, if not the best. That title comes as no surprise, considering he has been a constant fixture on every work of virtuoso music director A.R. Rahman, besides playing for more than a handful of very well received rock, fusion and jazz acts.
"In terms of sound, it was Rahman who really changed Tamil film music," says the bassist who was recently in Bangalore for a private concert. "Before that, the music had good melody, but it stuck to the classical style. It was too light and didn't have any punch." With Roja, however, that scene changed. "The bass was up, the drum tracks sounded good... the audience was really zapped." For Peters, that was also the break that properly launched a long, fruitful career. Although Peters had been on the scene for 11 years before the release of Roja, much of that time was spent doing club gigs that paid the bills. "At that time, there was no cable TV, and so doing music professionally was taboo. There were very few people making albums at all."Still, contrary to what most musicians claim, Peters found ways to do music professionally and even found enough money in it to make ends meet comfortably. "I used to ride a cycle to work, but there was always enough money to survive. There is money in music, if you can just find the right contacts, the right gigs and get on the right tracks."
And if there was any doubt then, says Peters, the early '90s changed all that. With the coming of cable TV and new technologies, every kind of music, from pop to rock to Hindi film music, spread across the country, making the live and recorded music scene more accessible.
Radical changes
Indeed, says Peters, the process of music making has changed radically since the late '80, thanks to both a shift in mindset as well as growth in technology. Thus, the film music industry isn't geared towards churning out songs like on an assembly line anymore. The focus instead is on quality over quantity. "The old guys used to do a song a day," explains Peters, who has worked with a number of other young music directors like Yuvan Shankar and Karthik Raja. "Now most music directors write a song and then leave it around. They'll call in a flautist and work on his part for a while, then get the guitars right and finally get the bassist in. So the song has more time to grow, and there's more work done on the sound."
Another big change that has come with technology is that sequencers and electronic sound banks have begun to force sessions musicians to work harder at their trade. "I keep hearing stories about how there's no work for film musicians. Only the guys who play live and practise and keep their chops together can survive." He is therefore thankful for his ability to work on the live scene too.
Calling what Peters does as working on the live scene is an understatement, of course. Few musicians manage a live performance portfolio as prolific as this bass player. Over the years, he has collaborated with all of the greats of Indian popular music, including Louis Banks, Amit Heri, Kumaresh and Ganesh, Prasanna, Sandeep Chowta, Shivamani and so on. One of his pet projects is Roxygen, a rock band that also includes Timothy Madhukar and Christy Samuel of Moksha, drummer Suresh Peters, guitarist Sudhin Prabhakar and keyboardist Jim Sathya. And while he loves playing jazz standards, he finds most delight in fusion, which he still finds to be a fascinating learning process. "Carnatic musicians have a very strong base of knowledge. In many ways Carnatic is more evolved than jazz: some of the calculations they make are really tricky. So I adapt myself to them and follow them."
With over two decades of musicianship behind him, Keith Peters is a happy man, and it's plain to see why. A successful musical career with plenty of room for creative diversions and tangential explorations, and room to still learn from others. Who could ask for more?
RAKESH MEHAR
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