Homegrown artiste Praveen Achary, who performed thrice in two days with Swedish DJ and producer Eric Prydz at the recently held Vh1 Supersonic here, says India is “influenced by external imagery” in a lot of arenas.
Achary, who churns out music with a combination of deep, tech and progressive house, has played at a lot of festivals like Sunburn, Vh1 Supersonic, Submerge Supernova, Krank and Go:Madras.
The 29-year-old artiste says some of the Indian artistes can even give international artistes a run for their money. But this is not happening.
“We are in a country that is probably influenced by external imagery — even if it’s fashion. When we buy fashion wear, we can easily buy handloom wear from India. But it’s a certain kind of image that we are accustomed to. Similarly with music, if you look at pop radio, there is a certain number of international artistes dominating that.
“So for them, they are by a force of habit, naturally inclined towards that,” Achary told IANS here.
He rued how a lot of people are treating music as a commodity, instead of being passionate about it.
“They turn on the radio, whatever is there, they listen to and they end up liking it. If you keep watching it, have roti, dal everyday… You are going to like it eventually. But you have to acquire a taste of your own, and that doesn’t happen right now,” he added.
Achary, who launched his own record label Juicebox Music in 2013, says the scenario will change gradually.
“All these clubs and festivals are starting to branch out and starting to focus on all these things. It will change… It is unfair currently, but it is in process because I have seen the reaction of crowds where the Indian guy was better than the international, and that is a good move itself.
“If the audience can realise the difference, they will make the choice of wanting to have the Indian guy to come out later. So all is in process, we cannot rush into things. If we do, it will be a sudden change and people are not ready to take that,” he added.
Having played along with musicians like John Digweed, Richie Hawtin, Deadmau5, Achary says that from the production angle, Indian music fests match upto the level of those internationally. But the audience is still being built.
“In India, we are still building our audience to understand what music festivals are about… We are catching up very quickly. Over here, people are still discovering and exploring music. There is that bridge we are trying to finish,” Achary said, adding that at least a ten-fold difference has emerged within the past six years or so.
Achary has also been signed by huge record labels like Mitch Alexander’s microCastle (Canada), Eelke Kleijn’s Outside The Box Music (Netherlands), Cid Inc’s Replug Records (Sweden) and Darin Epsilon’s Perspectives Digital (US).
(The writer’s trip was at the invitation of Vh1 Supersonic. Kishori Sud can be contacted at [email protected])
By Kishori Sud
