The year was 1993, when the Indian rock band Indus Creed released the track Pretty Child on a Sunday. Back then, MTV used to broadcast from Hong Kong, and their weekly programme list was finalised on Mondays. But they squeezed in the new Indus Creed song into their Sunday schedule and played it five times a day. It brought the 1980s band instant fame, greater reach and a cult following. Rock Machine became Indus Creed.
When I arrive to meet Zubin Balaporia, the Indus Creed founding member, at a hotel in Miramar, in Goa where he has co-curated the music side of things at Serendipty Arts Festival 2024 (SAF), alongside tabla artiste Bickram Ghosh, the Mumbai-based 58-year-old keyboardist reminisces about the heydays of Indian underground music scene, and the monumental role TV channels MTV and Channel [V] played in bringing Indian rock music into our homes.
In this exclusive interview with Moneycontrol, Balaporia talks about the curation at SAF, the evolution in Indian rock music and regional rock, on jamming with Manipuri band Imphal Talkies frontman who was abducted and beaten up, and the loss of tabla legend Zakir Hussain, who died on December 15, the day the festival began this year. Excerpts:
Tell us about your association with Serendipity Arts Festival.
The first time I had the privilege of working with Serendipity was way back in 2016 or 2017, where at that point I was just playing keyboards and directing a show for them which came through another curator, that was with Usha Uthup and a couple of other singers. Then, they called me last year as a special projects curator which meant I had to curate two events for them last year, it spiralled into three events which I was very happy with and they were happy, too. So, I had the honour and privilege of performing here with Zakir (Hussain) bhai, who unfortunately passed away just a few days ago. It’s really shocking news and it was very emotional for me to take the stage this year on the 15th of December because exactly on this date last year, I had played with him on that very stage.
What does Zakir Hussain’s loss mean to you?
I’ve been so busy that it’s actually not really not sunk in. But he was such an amazing guy. He would influence you in a way where he never tried to tell you, ‘oh, you should do this and you should practise’. It was the way he spoke and the way he played with us that inspired you to just do the best that you could. He was such a great player, literally from another planet. He could run rings around anybody on stage, but he would never ever do that on stage. He was well aware of who he was playing with and how he played with them. And he would challenge you, but never to undermine you. The challenge was always to bring out the best in you. That’s what I really, really admired the most about him.
Has his band Shakti been an influence on you?
Oh yeah. Growing up, we were all listening to Shakti, to (John) McLaughlin, to Zakir bhai. I’ll tell you another thing about him that I really, really appreciated and took to heart. He never complained about anything. His schedule used to be so crazy. He’d be playing Delhi one day, Japan the next day, LA the third day. And, then, he’d come for rehearsal to Prithvi and I said, Zakir bhai, you must be really tired. And he would say, ‘no, no, no, I’m fine. I slept five hours. I’m good. Let’s go.’ As a human race, we love to complain, but he never complained, he was so positive in everything. I came home and told my wife that I was going to stop complaining about anything.
So, tell us about your curation this year at Serendipity.
In this year’s curation, basically the first concert I did was called One World and it was with members of my band Indus Creed, but we didn’t do any Indus Creed songs. We decided to do a concert. I thought a good thing would be keeping in mind all the stuff that’s happening all over the world in Ukraine, Russia, Palestine, Israel and closer to home in Manipur, where I don’t think people this side of the country even know or care about what’s happening. It’s terrible what’s going on there. We don’t even know or want to know. So, the idea was to do a peace initiative concert where we would take songs that were anti-war, spoke out for peace, brotherhood, friendship. We did 17 songs, everything from Michael Jackson to Sting, they were all cover material, but it was all to do with peace and anti-war. That went off beautifully. Along with me were my band members Uday Benegal singing and Mahesh Tinaikar playing the guitar and we had some very special guests. We brought down a gentleman called Lou Majaw, who is, of course, a Northeast icon. I played on the same stage as him way back in 1985 in Kolkata. Uday has been in touch with him for over 40 years. That man’s talent and energy is on another level. Warren Mendonsa of Blackstratblues, a lovely guitar player, was another act. We had two lovely singers, Pratika Gopinath, who plays for a band called Easy Wanderlings, a Pune-based band. And a wonderful singer called Aria Nanji, who performed with me last year as well. And Jarryd (Frans Braz Rodrigues) played saxophone on a couple of tunes. That was a lovely concert. We had some visuals going on.
The second concert again stemmed from something I did with Zakir bhai last year, when it was like a fusion concert. I was like since we’re playing in Goa, why don’t we do one fado? So, fado is the Portuguese music in Goa. We found Nadia Rebelo, a lovely singer based in Goa to do a whole concert of this beautiful music. We put together a band and did a whole set of fado tunes. It will always be beautiful. But it’s our responsibility to kind of contemporarise it slightly instead of doing it the way it’s already done, to push the envelope, change it a bit without disrupting the DNA or the sanctity of the music, to make it relatable to the younger generation. All art must evolve. If it doesn’t evolve, eventually it’ll die. Those who play traditionally, bless them, they should do it that way. But I think it’s up to us. And then the next generation could be the torchbearers.
I’d like to speak about one more concert which was very special to me. I brought the Happy Home and School for the Blind choir up to Goa. They sing beautifully, they have a wonderful pianist, Nitesh, who accompanies them and loves jazz and had been wanting a stage to do sets of jazz standards, so I set up a little band for him.
And there was the Thumri concert, in which we tried to do with the North Indian tradition of thumri what we did with the fado. Singers Vijay Prakash and Priyanka Barve performed. She’s fantastic and her husband, Sarang Kulkarni, played the sarod. We had an interesting classical string quartet. Basically, a Western classical string quartet playing with Indian classical musicians.
Few bands reunite as an act after parting ways. In the 1980s, Indus Creed was one of the pioneers of Indian rock. Then you guys disbanded and reunited. How, would you say, your music has evolved over time?
Well, to be honest, we’re a bit of a strange band in that way. If you follow the lineage of the albums, each album has been sort of radically different. The first was sort of slightly pop rock. The second was more progressive rock. The third had Indian influences in it. So, each was very different. And then, we stopped playing in 1997 and we got back in 2010-11. We did an album called Evolve in 2013 which, I would call, is contemporary Indian rock.
Though there’s no Indian influence as such in that material. But like I said, we have to keep evolving and for us it’s always been writing from the heart. So what comes out is not a planned thing. What touches us, we hope it will touch the audiences. In fact, a very big corporate head honcho cum friend asked me one day, how do you guys select songs? Do you have a test group where you play songs? And I was thinking, jeez, should we be doing this? Because we don’t do any such thing. We just do what comes to us naturally and what we like and enjoy. So, there is no aim to feed a market and belt out hits. You just do honestly what comes to you.
How different was it composing for Bollywood?
I’ve done very little Bollywood work and mainly background scores. But I’m working on a new film now. Unfortunately, I cannot talk about it. But it’s a very interesting project. But I’ll tell you about another film which I did early this year, a fabulous film. You must go and watch it when it comes out. It’s a Manipuri film, called Boong. It’s the name of the character, the boy in the film.
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I met Lakshmipriya [Devi] for the first time on the project, Lakshmi and we just hit it off and I had an absolute blast. In fact, the guy who wrote the songs (we did the background score together) his name is Ronid [Chingangbam], his short name is Akhu [founder of the folk-rok band The Imphal Talkies]. So, I brought him down to open the festival on the 15th (December). Because of the problems that are happening now in Manipur, entertainment is the first thing that takes a hit.
How do you make music in the times of war?
It’s very difficult. Akhu has been abducted by militants, he’s actually been kidnapped and beaten up. He’s lost some sensation in his back. It’s not the Kukis or Meiteis who abducted him but those who don’t want them to co-exist. It’s not really a race thing. Whether it’s power, politics or money, it’s a mix of all.
How do you see the rock scene evolving in India? Growing up in the ’80s, ’90s, and even the early 2000s, we witnessed a vibrant underground rock scene, rock fests, pub gigs, etc. Do you see a resurgence?
I think there’s a resurgence because I’m interacting with a lot of young musicians. The drummer and bass player in my band are the same age as my son, so it’s fun to hang with them. And I see how busy they are, playing here and there. They don’t have a day free. So, I think, it [the underground music scene] is making a huge comeback.
And it has been hit by Bollywood quite a bit now than it was before. In the ’70s and ’80s, when I was growing up, in school and college, we all went and saw Bollywood films, but we went and saw it as a fun thing, they were never taken seriously. If you wanted to see serious films, then you saw films of Govind Nihalani and Shyam Benegal (who died this week on December 23). Which were great and fantastic. Now, even commercial Bollywood wants to be taken very seriously. And there’s so much music and many young performers doing well in Bollywood. So, that circuit for the Western rock guys has got squashed.
We used to play at all the IITs and IIMs. Now, I think, they prefer calling a small Bollywood act that they can afford, the big guys are, of course, unaffordable. Definitely it has made an impact on the rock scene for us in a negative way. But I mean, hey, it’s music, and everyone has a space and time to play.
Which young bands should we keep an eye out for?
Easy Wanderlings, from Pune, is really nice. They’re not really a rock band. They’re more like a folk-rock-pop kind of thing. Its fronted by Pratika [Gopinath] who sang with us, she fronts that band. Then, Akhu’s band The Imphal Talkies, you should hear them.
What’s the project that’s keeping you busy nowadays? Any upcoming track, album or concert?
I haven’t had the time to breathe with Serendipity [Arts Festival]. So, I’m going to take a little break. When I get back, there’s this movie project that’s starting.
I have two bandmates who are the laziest guys on the planet and I’m not too far behind, but a little less lazy than them. One of my pet projects that I would love to do with the band is to do a sort of acoustic album, because that’s something we’ve never really explored and we can do that very easily. I think the songs will really come out well. But there is an Indus Creed project happening next year with Sony Music where we’re going to re-record some of the old classic tunes from our first album but in a rehashed manner. So, a completely new recording. And there’ll be four or five guests on that project. It’s complicated because Sony has the rights for those tunes but they’ve given us the go ahead for that. But that won’t be new material, it’ll be old material revamped in a new way. But we should do some new material. It’s been a long time since we did anything new.
Any show coming up?
Indus Creed next performs end of January. It’s been a bit hectic. Just before Serendipity, we played at Hornbill in Nagaland, the week before that we played in Meghalaya and Tura. The week before that we were in Bangalore.
Does it hurt to see Indians paying through the nose to watch international acts while ignoring homegrown bands?
Yeah, it hurts, to be honest. But it’s not a question of being Indian or foreign. It’s actually a question of how big your stature is in the industry. It’s as simple as that. When we played with Europe, the Swedish band, way back in 1988, we opened for them. Now this concert in Meghalaya, they came for that concert as well. So, we were sharing the stage with them. Now, it’s a festival, so I don’t see us like an opening act. We’re sharing the prime act right at the end but you’re sharing the stage; but sound check and everything is around their schedule. That shouldn’t be. It should be an equal place and platform. So, it does hurt sometimes.
In term of music rights and royalties, how vulnerable are rock bands?
Well, today it’s not difficult to legitimise your material. There are ways and means of putting your work out. And, thankfully, the industry has become much cleaner. So, your rights are coming to you. I’m getting royalties for a movie I did with Govind Nihalani Saab in 2004, called Dev. It wasn’t even really a big hit or something. But wherever in the world it’s played, I’m seeing some royalties on it. It’s great because a cheque just arrives for something you did 20 years ago. And I haven’t done anything. All I’ve done is just put my name down in the IPRS (Indian Performing Right Society Ltd). You just register at IPRS, with an agent, who will look after your stuff. I would encourage all musicians and all bands to take that very seriously because it’s your music. Why the hell shouldn’t you get what’s due to you?
Who’s your all-time favourite rock musician from India?
Oh God, there’s no all-time favourite. That’s like asking which of your children do you love the most. (Smiles) There are so many great guys here. The band 13AD from Cochin, we played with them at I-Rock (Mahindra Independence Rock) just before we came here (Serendipity). We played with them the first time in 1985, again at the same concert. That’s where I met Lou (Majaw), he was with his band The Great Society.
We were just blown away by them. When we first met them (13AD), they were sitting in one corner, very shy and very conservative. And we were wondering, what kind of a rock band is this, the guys didn’t look like rock band kind of guys. But when they got on stage, they slaughtered the place. To my mind, till this date, 13AD, fronted by Eloy (Isaacs), the guitar player, is the best Indian rock band that ever came out.
A lot of regional rock is coming back to life now.
I really would encourage people to sing in regional languages because your reach is much more. English will limit you, unless you feel it. If you feel in English, you must sing in English. If you feel in your local language, sing in your language. If you put it on, it’s evident, it doesn’t work. It has to come from the heart. Regional stuff is great because your market is so much big, people are thinking in India that ‘I’ll be a global phenomenon’. That’s a bit strange.
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