Interview: Gaurav Vaz of The Raghu Dixit Project
In the midst of their heavy touring across India, we were able to catch the band’s bassist Gaurav Vaz, who also plays with Allegro Fudge and is the brains behind Radio Verve, for a quick byte.
TheTossedSalad: How did the band get together, since you obviously are into more projects?
Gaurav Vaz: Even before Allegro Fudge and Radio Verve, I was with Phenom. Used to play at various competitions, etc. Raghu turned out to be one of the judges at a few places. We even opened for him when he played on our campus. Once while we were gearing up for a gig, Raghu came up to me during the sound check and asked if I would like to be a part of a project he has been working for some time. And I was game! Since then I’ve been playing with Raghu regularly at most of the gigs.
TTS: What made you guys work on a multi-lingual album? English, Hindi and Kannada. Music transcends all barriers?
GV: Raghu wanted to do an album where it feels just too natural. We speak in these languages invariably at any time of the day. So we thought it’s just too obvious to let our listeners have the real us.
TTS: You guys have done a 4 country tour last year. How was the experience? Were the local nationals too in the audience for the gigs?
GV: Now this is where I will say that music transcends all barriers. We played at Russia, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. At all the places we experimented according to the crowd present. In Japan we had a translator who explained what each song was about before we started. In Korea we played on the last day of the World Music Festival where about 100 artistes too were performing. Honk Kong saw us playing to a studio audience and us being aired live on national radio. Our first gig at Russia was a change as we played for the Naval base and then the very night played at a college. To these people, it didn’t matter if they could understand the language. The notes, the silence, the tones, the attitude- they mattered.
TTS: MySpace launched last year in India. You were one of the tie-ups and had performed in Delhi and Pune for the official launch. Is MySpace doing any good to the Indian music industry?
GV: MySpace is still the place where people find out new music. It can definitely help the Indian music scene as a promotion platform, but because of its relatively new presence in India, it still has to catch up. MySpace needs to go through a very strong marketing phase right now. Otherwise Facebook will continue to give it competition.
TTS: People find Mysore Se Aayi the best track during live performances. Do you feel the same? Which track do you enjoy the most on stage?
GV: Any song that the audience likes is always a pleasure and yes, Mysore is a nice track to play live.
TTS: And your favorite from the album?
GV: Gudugudiya is my favorite as I’ve played that track on the album too. Otherwise I like Ambar and Sorutihudu.
TTS: A few reviews around the web have mentioned that the album has a Bollywood feel. Thinking of writing for the film industry?
GV: We get to hear that a lot too. We’d love any chance we get to work with the Bollywood music industry. After all it’s the biggest film industry in India. Raghu is already working three Kannada films and probably a Telugu one is in the pipeline too.
TTS: A new album in the pipeline?
GV: We’re working on it. Mid-2009 we should release a single. Expect an album by year end.
TTS: Any collaboration work that you’ve been thinking of? Whom would you love to work with?
GV: We always have been a collaboration project. The first album consists of work Raghu had been working on 12 years! We don’t make a conscious effort of joining hands with anyone. If stuff happens, we let it happen. Though I think we can take our collaboration work a bit more seriously, as recently Raghu , when he was in the UK, was playing with some Rajasthani and local artistes at a music fest.
TTS: The major rock scene in India is the heavy metal act. Piece of advice for those who are willing to experiment?
GV: Like it is for any other field of work, stay true to yourself. You don’t want to end up hating yourself, just because the majority crowd loves you. If your music is good, people will listen.
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