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Fusing cultures
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Karsh Kale on his brand of music
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Sound of the generation Karsh Kale
It is the paradox of life. You always yearn for what you don’t have. Growing up in an environment that is mostly surrounded by rock, hip-hop and electronic music it was natural for the New York born-bred Karsh Kale to imbibe this music. But he
was in search of his Indian identity, which took him closer to Indian classical music. And thereafter, his music was never the same. “I always had an inclination towards Indian classical music but, unlike nowadays, we didn’t have so much exposure to it outside India. So whenever I knew there was a concert happening, I would try and be there. You see, growing up away from my roots, I had this feeling of isolation,” reasons the multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, with four albums to his credit.
Products of fusion
His bent towards Indian music comes to the fore in every piece of sound he creates. Since there’s a heavy influence of rock, hip hop and electronic music that flows alongside classical Indian music, you wonder whether it is just another kind of fusion music. “Why not,” asserts Karsh. “We all are products of fusion of cultures. And music reveals what the society is like. My music is the sound of the generation. This is the kind of music that youngsters across the globe – be it from India or the U.S. – identify with,” says the self-taught musician, who claims to have learnt the tabla just by watching Ustad Zakir Hussain’s performances. Karsh has given innumerable performances with maestros like Sultan Khan, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Paul Oakenfold.
His new album, Breathing Under Water, with young sitar exponent Anoushka Shankar, is also an attempt to reach out to this ‘fusion’ generation. What is it that bounded the two artistes together? “Anoushka is as crazy as me. I think we are a fan of each other’s music. Once we both were discussing some timeless albums and what made them timeless. We wanted our album to have those qualities as well. The music also has less emphasis on electronic. ‘Breathing…’ is like a story, where there are scenarios that people can relate to, especially those who travel a lot. We are glad it is reaching out to people, as I keep getting mails from people saying so,” explains Karsh, who is also the founding member of Tabla Beat Science along with Zakir Hussain and bassist Bill Laswell.
With a host of celebrities like Sting, Shankar Mahadevan and Pandit Ravi Shankar in the album, it is much different from the earlier ones. What’s after this? “More of the same,” is how he puts it. “I am also scoring music for a few films, including a film based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘Interpreter of Maladies.’ ”
MANGALA RAMAMOORTHY
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Metro Plus
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Chennai
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Kochi
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Visakhapatnam
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