Interview with Amateur/Professional Musician

A: When did you get interested in music?

J: Growing up, I was always around music. You go to school, you have general assembly where you sing prayer songs. I was raised as a Christian so we used to go to church, there was a lot of singing there and every festival, every event, you have music. Then, there are movies, which had a lot of songs in it. So, I was always around music and there was always a desire to learn music even though I was not able to formally learn music but I did give it a try. I did go to guitar lessons, so there was a little bit of learning. And slowly my real desire to learn music, and to get into music came after I heard this one guy's music, his name is A.R. Rahman. His music was totally different from what was going on at that time. So that really fired my desire to learn music and that was when I was in the seventh grade.

A: So what was it about A.R. Rahman that was different for you?

J: For me, A.R. Rahman's music was different in the sense that he did not stick to one particular genre or one particular style. What he would do was he would interpret different styles of music, different ways of doing it, and what that led to was a product, in terms of songs or music or whatever you want to call it, the product was something you never heard of. Or it would be something like an amalgamation of everything that you've heard. So if I pick some of his songs, listening to him it satisfies my need to listen to jazz; It would be a blend of jazz with Indian folk with Indian classical music then there'll be a Chinese flute inbetween so it was much more vibrant than what was going on at that time. He was really good with technology as well. He would break the rules, he wouldn't stick to one formula of doing music be it in terms of style, in terms of technology. He was willing to experiment. I don't know if I can put him in the category of world music but I always say he belongs to a totally different category, his own category.

A: I definitely think so too. It makes me think of songs like Dil Se Re and how he uses a bunch of different genres. I was listening to a playlist I know I've seen he's done so many different genres and I'm like, “this is interesting”

J: And some of his songs would start as an Indian folk feeling and then it would get into a Western classical arrangement all together and then it would get back to folk and then it'll have some classical elements and much of it was driven by the kind of movies for which he made music. Some of the scenarios and some of the situations required him to blend all of these things together.

[Moving on to Jamta Kya, the band Jose is a part of and that I had the privilege of working on their album with]

A: How did you meet the guys?

J: All four of us were here at Kansas State University we were doing our own separate professional programs and I used to play a little bit of guitar and a little bit of singing and then these other three guys were also interested in singing and a little bit of music. We would every once and a while get together, there would be a guitar lying around, we would pick it up, play some Indian film songs and some songs that we knew from childhood. One fine day, we were thinking, 'Why don't we try composing, writing songs and have a set of songs of our own through which we can express our thought process and what we think of music and what kind of music we relate to. We just wanted to see if it was possible because up until now none of us were into professional singing or composing or anything of that. So, it was an experiment to see if that's possible.

A: What was the first song that you guys wrote?

J: The first song that we wrote was like something that I had in my mind since when I was in my tenth grade. We called it the childhood song. Back when I was in school and I used to play a little bit of guitar there was this simple set of notes that I would always hum. It was na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na [tune to the actual song on the record, the videos of which I will have below]. It was like a kid going to school and a child playing and it was a simple set of notes that sometimes as kids we are doing something very serious and we are engrossed in something and we start humming. It's that kind of a simple thing and I had that in my mind and I started developing it. We discussed with each other how to write the lyrics for it and it just came out because we all had similar childhood experiences. The idea behind the song was to talk about our childhood and we miss our childhood and what we used to do when we were kids and put it together as a song.

A: When we were working on that [song] for the different verses were you guys talking about each of your different childhood's or about childhood in general?

J: It was kind of in general. Growing up in India it was, I think it's a little different from here, because most of us lived in a tightly knit community where I would spend most of my day in my neighbors house playing around, going into the jungle and climbing trees and doing all sorts of fun stuff. And then we would have the special moments, like Divali which was celebrated in India yesterday [November 2^nd]. It's a big festival where we all get together, all the kids, we do fireworks and then eat sweets we get new dresses. And all of these were common experiences for all of us. So we just picked a few things, like celebrating Divali, and walking down the street like four or five childhood friends putting arms on each others shoulders and walking and telling each other their frustrations about school, what happened at home, telling about your dreams, things like that. Se we just thought about some of these experiences that we all had in common and put them in different verses.

A: The name, Jamta Kya, literally means “Will it freeze?” in Hindi. Where did that come from?

J: I went to Nagpur, its like the geographic center of India, to do my bachelors in architecture and jamta kya is like a usage where jamta kya would literally mean “will it freeze?” but then people in Nagpur sometimes used it for “can you do it?” In our college and our friends started using it for everything. As I've talked to you before, if I'm not able to get the door, I would tell my friend, aur, door jamta kya? He would understand that what I am trying to say is 'Can you get the door for me?” If I am thisty, and I don't want to get out of my bed, my friend is sitting I'll ask him pani jamta kya? Which means, “Can you get me a glass of water?” In a way, by naming it Jamta Kya we were trying to say this is an experiment we are doing what do you think? Does it work for you?

A: Part of this I know from working on the project with you guys, but what was it like for you once you realized that we can record these songs?

J: It was a wonderful experience because I did not have any firsthand experience at actually composing, writing, singing, making others sing and recording. I didn't have that experience of collaboration and technically doing it. I knew some of the basic steps, but I didn't know the intricacies at all so while doing this it was a great learning experience because I knew how I learned the pros and cons of collaboration. I learned how the technology works, I learned what limitations I have so it was like a prep course for me. Sometimes it was frustrating like “Oh God, I wish I knew how to do this,” and then somebody would help me like you helped me out in a lot of things. Sometimes I would have something in my head but I am not able to translate it musically and I would be stuck then I'd be looking for examples. Sometimes it was about communication. It was very interesting. So now, I think, the next project I am gonna do, it would be smoother and much easier compared to the last one.

A: What's the kind of music that you really like listening to?

J: That's a question a lot of people have asked me and I never had a concrete answer because I love listening to all sorts of music. Any good set of sounds I don't mind listening to and I can listen to it for hours. I listen to artists ranging from Yanni to A.R. Rahman to some Indian classical singers and musician so there isn't anything particular I'm interested in. I love all sorts of genres. In terms of what is for me Indian music, that also is like a wide range and I think Indian music is very difficult to define because Indian classical music is Indian, Indian folk music is Indian, the kind of pop culture that has emerged with an influence from the West, influence from China, and all sorts of genre, that's distinctly Indian. It's very difficult what I would call Indian music. There's a constant tension between Indian music being objectively Indian subjectively Indian. For example, what I am trying to say here is for me the kind of culture, the kind of experiences I had in India, that's what would lead me to understand Indian music. For a different person, it would be his experiences and his exposure that would lead him to define what is Indian music. Anything that I am able to relate to, that is familiar, is Indian music for me.

A: Here in the US we have our concept of this is what we believe is country music, this what we believe is blues, is there anything in India that they say, “this is this kind of music?”

J: All that I know is that we have this broad classification as Indian classical music and in Indian classical music there are two distinct groups: there is the Hindustani classical music and one is the Carnatic classical music and they have their own differences and when you listen to a piece which is purely Carnatic classical you can say, “This is Carnatic classical.” Sometimes it is defined by the instruments they use like in Hindustani classical music you don't use the Mrdanga you use Dholak and Tabla as the rhythm instrument but in Carnatic classical you use Mridangam a lot, which is a different rhythm instrument. Even other melody instruments like sitar, and nadhaswaram, there are certain instruments you use mostly in for one kind. Then there is a classification which is Indian folk music. Indian folk music is not a monolithic thing because every region has its own type of folk music. If you go to the west its different, if you go to the east, its a little different, the southern part of India that has several styles of folk music, and in fact, even smaller regions, smaller areas, have their own folk tradition. It's just like the way jazz emerged here because western classical was too rigid and there were rules to follow and all of that things. It was similar in India because these Indian classical music was for the elite, it was a structured thing. Folk music was engineered or created by the lower segments of the society and they didn't have any rules they just went with their heart and they did it just the way they felt like. These are some classifications that have been there for a while. But then in modern times you have pop albums that are like influenced from West and your typical Indian experience and in Indian music you blend them and make something that is more edgy and there's technology involved there and then there's Bollywood which is the Indian film industry. They have a lot of music and they use elements from classical music, folk music, Western music, rap... depending on what the film is about depending on what the film demands in term of music. They have created their genre. It's very difficult to define Bollywood style of music but you can differentiate it. So there are these major classifications. If you go deeper there is Punjabi, Sufi, there is a lot of Bhangra Da... there is a range. I'm not even sure if I know all of them.

A: In movies like Slumdog Millonaire, do you identify with any of the things in that movie?

J: The movie itself is set realistically, I don't see a lot of exaggeration but it's basically a movie. I did not ever have to experience that life, living in the slums, but there are a lot of people who live in slums and the whole setting of the movie was in Mumbai, which is a dense, crowded, city. It's one of the biggest metropolitans in the world. Yeah it was very realistically set but there was no way I could personally relate and I don't see it as unrealistic film. I think what they have done is a good job.

A: One of the concepts we are talking about in my class is authenticity. What for you is authentic Indian music?

J: I touched a little bit upon this a little while ago and I was talking about Indian music and what genres exist. There is a constant tension about defining Indian music objectively and subjectively. In a way, a particular product is objectively authentic or not but what's authentic for me might not be authentic necessarily for another fellow Indian. That depends on where I grew up, what kind of music influence me, what kind of music was I exposed to, and what are my lived experiences in India. So it totally depends on that. Say, for example, somebody if they listen to a particular song done by A.R. Rahman, a lot of people might say this is not authentic Indian music because there is a lot of technological element there is a lot of Western influence and beats but Indian tradition, in terms of its architecture, music, literature, it was never locked within the region. There was always influences, there was always infiltrations and that's the beauty about Indian culture, music, literature, architecture, arts, everything. You have something that is local, you have a tradition, a style of doing things that was born in India and that would be influenced when the Mughals came in, the Britishers came in, there was influence from China, so India is very diverse and they sometimes mingle with each other. The latest inflitration is the Western influence of different styles of music so for me as long as a piece of work has some element of Indian music I can relate to that, that takes me back to my culture, that gives me a feeling of “Wow! This reminds me of Divali!” “This reminds me of the time I spent in my school!” That, for me, is authentic. Any piece that can take me to that state of mind.

A: The most interesting thing for me when I listen to Indian music is when I hear the Western influence and sometimes it's kind of strange because it's like I hear stuff that's Western but in a different way. And so it's really, it's been really interesting to kind of experience our music through a different lens.

J: An example I can give is, for Slumdog Millionare, A.R. Rahman had a track called Mausam & Escape. That was for me, I could be wrong in interpreting the way I am going, but that piece, the way it is composed, the most logical way of doing it is a string section and a Hollywood type of arrangement. But what Rahman does is the most prominent instrument used for that track is the sitar which is not a very intuitive choice. For any musician, the first preference would be 'oh lets do a strings arrangement' but he uses sitar in there and the way he uses it completely Indianizes it for me. Even though there is a lot of a strings section in the background, there are peppy beats and stuff, but then, there is a strong thread that shouts out that this is Indian, that there is an Indian element to this. So I would consider that as an authentic Indian music because when I listen to it brings a lot of visuals that are dear to me that for me are typically Indian, that for me I cannot see it anywhere else so I would call that authentic Indian music.

A: Wow! Well that's pretty much all I got. Jose, thanks for hanging out

J: Thank you Austin!

A: That was fun!

J: Same here!