Anoushka Shankar: ‘I feel more comfortable being vulnerable in my music in a way that I wasn’t before’

Sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar. (Photo: Laura Lewis)

It was a quick three-day visit to India for Anoushka Shankar who was in Mumbai to collect an award from a prominent magazine as well as to promote her mini-album Chapter I: Forever, For Now which released in October this year. The eminent sitar player, composer and producer has been on a whirlwind spree of recordings and tours, having visited North America in October. Next year, she has a Europe tour in place but before that, she is all set to visit India for a multi-city tour, including Mumbai for Lollapalooza India on January 27 and 28. The nine-times Grammy-nominated musician gets candid about her latest music project and why she is excited about her India tour in 2024. Edited excerpts:

Chapter I: Forever, For Now, Anoushka Shankar's newest album.

Chapter I: Forever, For Now is an intriguing title for a mini-album…

I think with instrumental music, the titles become very important because you’re not directing people with the lyrics about what the music is about. I like that ambiguity about instrumental music where people can respond how they feel. From my standpoint, it is about telling what is it to me and the titles are where I can do that. I was trying to capture the idea that these songs were really about savouring moments fully. Even in longer moments of pain and difficulty, whether it is personal or something larger like the pandemic, it is still possible to experience moments that are tender and joyful and if we learn to be present for those, they can feel full and complete. On the other hand, one can experience things that feel like forever; where one has reached some kind of happy ending and it turns out later that it wasn’t. It is the idea of being aware of the transience of experience and trying to be there as fully as possible. That was really what I was trying to go for with that title.

Do you think you were able to do that with the songs?

To the best of my ability at the time. Chapter I has influenced the subsequent chapters as well. That was how the recording process was also as well. It was really about showing up with a blank slate in a room with new collaborators. I had worked with Arooj Aftab, the producer earlier but not in a close way as it was now. It was really about being in the moment, allowing vulnerability and melodies to occur and play them as fully and honestly as I could. It was about honouring the music at that time and that became the template for the future Chapters as well. It has been a rewarding process.

In the last few years, you have really allowed yourself to be more vulnerable as a person and as an artist. How significant has that shift been for you?

Being vulnerable as a person was a significant shift and learning from that, that it was safe to do that and then choosing to do that as an artist was another stage for me. I feel more comfortable being vulnerable in my music in a way that I wasn’t before. I think there is real beauty in that. On the flipside, I have also learnt what safe vulnerability is versus exposure which doesn’t feel safe. I am not a proponent of baring it all unless it feels safe or when there is a purpose. Whenever I have been “vulnerable” publicly, there has been a trust - maybe, it will help or it has a purpose - I trust that and I take the plunge. There are times when I have overshared and that feels icky! (laughs)

A couple of months ago, soon after performing at the Edinburgh International Festival, you had posted about how tough it can be to perform on stage when you are going through personal problems or health issues. What prompted that post?

There are all sorts of complexities in that. Someone has bought an expensive ticket and they deserve all your time and attention and on the other hand, we do forget who that person is and what might be going on in their lives. Sometimes I might get a call just before going on stage that one of my kids is really sick. There is so much happening which isn’t seen. I had that funny intuition bell go off in my head again after the Edinburgh show when I pretended that I was fine. I had an awful migraine and it felt like torture to be on stage but afterwards, I felt dishonest to not speak about it. I still go back now and then to read it. The response has been huge from people who went for it and it hadn’t occurred to them but also from other artists because everyone has had similar experiences.

Does all of it feel worth it once the performance is over and you hear the applause?

That is a tough question to answer. There is a part of me which feels that going on tour as a teenager was very difficult. There was a sense that I never had a choice and that I was working so hard. My family culture was that you never cancel, no matter what and it was ingrained in me. There’s a part of me that really rails against saying that it was all worth it because sometimes it was not. Some of it was painful and it would have been nicer if I didn’t have to do it. I remember that just a few months before I was to start my solo career, my father (the legendary Pandit Ravi Shankar) got ill and he couldn’t do some shows which I was meant to be playing in. They sent me in his place and I did these unexpected solo shows for thousands of people where people had bought tickets for Ravi Shankar and instead, they were getting 18-year-old Anoushka Shankar. On top of that, my dad was sick. I look back at that now and think, would I send my kids on stage when their parents are sick with all those expectations from the audience? No way! So, I wouldn’t say it was always all worth it because there’s a culture around showbusiness that can be very addictive at the cost of your wellbeing and mental health. On the other side, I am also an artist and I know how transcendent it is and how spiritual music can be. The power of the art can lift you out of things and can carry you through. There is a weird dichotomy around my relationship with it, where I do think it has an incredible healing power but sometimes, I think it goes too far.

Going back to the mini-albums, how many Chapters are there going to be?

I am planning to do only three Chapters in this journey. It has been a very freeing way of making music - thinking short term about the story I want to tell just now. There is a freedom to how experimental I can be when I am very present in the now. I am going with the idea that these Chapters are going to be ultimately connected but they are each standalone. Chapter I was released while I was making Chapter II and I have just started Chapter III. I am sharing it with people while I am making it. Chapter 2 will be released in spring when I am touring Europe.

You are playing in India in January for Lollapalooza and also have some other shows planned?

I am really looking forward to it. I am touring 5-6 cities including Lollapalooza which will be really fun. I am playing with the quintet that I formed when I was here last year that I have felt deeply fulfilling and inspiring. That was our first time together, but the show itself has evolved a lot since then and new music has also come out. It is one of the most inspiring groups I have played with.

Apart from the mini-albums and the tours, what else are you focussing on?

I am actively looking for composition work. I have been a composer for a long time without actually thinking of myself as one because I was making music for my own albums and I thought of myself as a performer. I love the stage, so it can be for dance, theatre or for films and television. I want to grow this side where it does not have to connect to my own tour or album. I have prioritised being a solo artist where I write primarily for my own work and projects but I think there is so much out there that’s inspiring.

You started really young and then over the years, you came out of your father’s shadow and started your career as a solo artist. Was there a point where you felt that you had really come into your own?

I don’t think there has been just one and I hope there’s still more but I think there have been certain stages where I feel there have been shifts. Probably the first one was when I made Rise (2006) which was my fourth album but it was the first one that I composed and produced. I think I found confidence in my ability as a musician as also in making music that was multicultural and multi-genre. It was more personal to who I was at the time. With Traces of You (2013), I started writing lyrics in English and it did not feel weird to do that as a sitar player. On Love Letters (2020), I was writing from a very personal life space and I was singing myself because it felt so personal that it had to come from me. There are different stages of vulnerability and letting people in a little bit more each time so there is more transparency in my work. Over the years, that trust in the music and the process has kept growing.