There is hardly a write-up on Talvin Singh which does not refer to him as the Godfather of Asian Underground. The Mercury Prize-winning musician, producer and composer is best known for his mastery over the tabla and for creating music which brings together western, Indian, folk, classical and electronic traditions. The noted percussionist and tabla maestro who grew up in East London has worked with the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bjork, Madonna and Blondie among others and received an OBE in the 2014’s Queen’s birthday honours.
On January 31, Singh will perform live at Sunder Nursery in Delhi to kick off the 15th edition of the India Art Fair, bringing to the audience the classical and contemporary repertoire of tabla and his unique sonic ambient landscape of tabla, tarang, gongs, bells and electro acoustics. Ahead of the performance presented by pop culture brand and platform Motherland, he spoke about his new and forthcoming album and musical plans for 2024 and beyond. Edited excerpts:
You have been visiting Delhi more often in the past few years. How does it feel to be opening the India Art Fair at Sunder Nursery with your performance?
Yes, I try to come as often as I can. I have been studying the surbahar for the last seven years and so, I am in Delhi quite often. I hope it will be a sunny day when I play. Playing Indian instruments outdoors is always challenging because they are chamber instruments; they belong to the chamber and are not really made to perform outside. They don’t do great in the cold. So hopefully, it will be sunny that day.
What have you been up to in terms of making music, especially since the lockdown?
The lockdown was quite unique. We were given the opportunity to reset whether it was one’s personal life, creativity or business. I really dived into the healing side of music — that kind of therapy and work in terms of recordings, live or personal practice. It’s been almost seven years that I have been learning the surbahar and so I got deep into practice which was great. In the last five years, I have written music almost every day, deliberately taking a week or two off in the middle. We celebrated my guru’s 96th birthday two-and-a-half years ago and I suppose I am trying to manifest his deeper teachings in terms of the tabla. It’s just a natural thing that happened, but there is no reset or major change in what I do.
You have been referred to as the Godfather of the Asian Underground sound for years. What do you make of this tag and how do you analyse it today?
These tags are fine but I try not to really think about it. More than anything, I get blamed for things rather than acknowledged for the right things (laughs). It was such a fresh sound when I made that music so long ago, sometime around 1996-97 and now they think it’s a fresh sound. I think one has to be so careful with music production and one has to reinvent themselves and keep moving on. In the beginning people might think it's experimental but I don’t think anything I have done is an experiment. It is very highly thought of. I spend a lot of time thinking about it; more than the time I spend actually doing it. There’s a new generation which is really taking on that sound and that’s quite interesting. I got invited for a talk in Bombay, to talk about music and the music industry and one of the persons involved said that the Asian Underground sound is a little bit of a gimmick. I laughed and thought it’s strange how now it’s the biggest sound, whether it is Indo Warehouse or Daytimers in the UK. There’s also been a strong academic side to it because people have realised there was a strong anthropology to that side of music culture, looking into our musical history whether it is generated from a culture which is the motherland or a dual cultural experience like it was for me. There were sounds I grew up with being influenced by them in London and the music of India which I was close to since the age of three. I tried to amalgamate all of that and harmonise that into one. That’s always a musical challenge, to try and harmonise something as opposed to two things meeting which is fusion. I don’t do fusion.
Tell us about your new music album which is slated for a release this year.
Due to some personal reasons, its schedule has been shifted and so it's possibly going to come out this summer and it is actually sounding like a summer record. It is like an anthology of all my different musical ideas and shapes all coming together in a cohesive project. I suppose I could just release singles but it sounds like a cohesive piece of work and I was able to find that thread through the different songs.
What is the focus going to be this year? Tell us about the new studio you are planning to set up in Delhi?
This year I am very excited to release new music and that’s going to be a big build for me, for my audience and possibly tapping into newer audiences who haven’t heard my music. I have a studio in London, a studio in Suffolk and I have a studio in Delhi in my house. Along with a few other partners, we are setting up an audio files studio. I have been using a lot of Indian classical music for the last decade but it is audio file music so it is high resolution music. We definitely want to set up in a studio in Delhi with state-of-the-art equipment, and try to capture chamber Indian classical music and folk music in the way I would like to capture it.
Talvin Singh Live at Sunder Nursery, Delhi, on January 31 at 3 pm.
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