An Interview with Bhrigu Sahni: Part I
Sahil Khan: So how did music start off for you?
Bhrigu Sahni: Actually my parents are the root cause for the existence of music in my life. My dad was into Pink Floyd, The Who, The Beatles and almost every other artist then. I remember being three when I started listening to these artists. And my mom is an accomplished singer, singing various ghazals. So it was just in the house, in me.
I picked up the guitar post-tenth grade. Well, it was pretty on and off before that because my fingers used to hurt, found difficulty changing chords, A to D, D to A, etc. quick enough and all those barre chords. Anyways, in tenth I had this in mind that I'll make my own band and play at places.
SK: So that means just five-six years. And first Indian at Berklee College of Music. Amazing.
BS: Oh. I didn’t even know that for a fact. After the performance this guy came up to me and told this to me. I'm still not sure.
SK: The Indian mindset is that music is not a career. And Berklee being so expensive. Never did an issue crop up at home regarding this?
BS: Berklee is very expensive. Very expensive. And the first step itself with the auditions happening in Malaysia puts off many people. No one’s going to let you go so far off to audition. But my parents have been supportive. They have been into music themselves. All that was expected from me was to stay focused in whatever I do. It does scare at times, as in what am I going to do after Berklee? But right I'm learning as much as I can and do my things. Then we'll see.
SK: So never in either your parents or yours minds did it come, that what if you're not able to settle down with music a career then there should be some base?
BS: Of course, that has come to our minds now and then. So I was doing zoology and wanted to study animal behavior, evolutionary biology. I also used to read popular science articles. So it was something that I always wanted to do. I even completed my graduation in zoology. So yes, pretty much it’s on my mind when it comes to something else as a base to stand on.
SK: Your first year at Berklee. How was your experience?
BS: It was a challenge. You land in Boston, a completely new place; you don’t know anyone out there. You have to find an apartment all by yourself. But all of it was covered up by Berklee. It’s such an amazing place; there are musicians everywhere and they're just like you. Everyone's scared that they are doing music, happy at the same time that they're doing something that’s close to their heart.
Piano, trombone, guitar, bass, vocals, everyone is doing something. It was great fun jamming with some amazing musicians and listening to great music.
SK: So you usually acoustic finger style, or do you pick the electric at times?
BS: I did initially play the electric a lot. Everyone does want to switch over to the electric after acoustic. Had a lot of fun experimenting with it. I had a band called Khadki Junction Blues. So anyways, getting back to the question, I'm basically a very lazy person. Who is going to take the pains of plugging in the guitar to the processor then to the amp? Also listening to acoustic artists like Tommy Immanuel, Michael Hedges made me wonder what magic they could do with the acoustic.
SK: How did you come across Michael Hedges? I hardly know anyone who listens to him.
BS: Dude, its all there on YouTube. If you have the initiative you can find anything on the net. My cousin told me about Tommy Immanuel and once you're on YouTube you tend to move from one guy to another. My dad also made me listen to Hedges when I was around eight. And I was like, is this a guitar that he is playing? I never thought I'd be playing Hedges, so it makes me even the happier. So liking these guys made me hooked to acoustic finger style, but it isn't my final thing. I don’t know where I am heading. I'm just learning and picking up stuff. So I might go into anything.
SK: Khadki Junction Blues. Mood I '06 winners. How did that all happen?
BS: Not winners. We came fourth, so we just kind of missed the finals. But I surprisingly won Best Vocalist, though I was practicing for Best Guitarist.
SK: So you were the vocalist also for the band?
BS: Ya, I was the vocalist. Actually we had three vocalists. One was this Indian classical guy called Prithvi and he would do some aalaps in the middle of a song, we had another female vocalist, Rucha, but all the rock and all was done by me.
SK: Tell me more about Khadki Junction Blues.
BS: It was basically me and this guy called Karan Kulkarni, who is now doing sound design in Australia. He is a superbly talented guy. He is more into music production and engineering bit of things. He is phenomenal bassist also. He and I used to spend days and nights together and just record and compose music. We also had Prithvi who is an Indian Classical vocalist from Bangladesh. We had a tabla player and a drummer also.
We basically experimented with sound. We weren’t really a rock bank or a funk band or anything as such. We just wanted to explore some kind of new sound and whenever we got a gig, we would do it. We just had fun. And then everybody went their own ways…Prithvi went to Mumbai, Karan went to Australia and I went to Berklee. Now we don’t have a Khadki Junction Blues but I would definitely like to get back to that and have another session.
SK: So are you performing soon somewhere? In Pune maybe?
BS: I recently performed in Mumbai at this place called Blue Frog. My friends at Berklee told me that it’s a really cool place to place to play in the whole of India. It’s got great acoustics and really good crowd and I was really looking forward to that performance on the 30th of July; so I am busy practicing and getting everything together. In Pune, I was telling my Dad as to why don’t I do a gig at Shisha, just a half an hour gig or so. But nothing as such has materialized.
to be continued...
PS: Interested people could watch the Berklee performance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd6PZMds-0Y
Sahil Khan
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