Raghu Dixit: The man who makes Kannada rock

Fusio’ is a much-abused word. Anything, from tabla and sitars layered over Lady Gaga’s newest hit, to AR Rahman’s music as rendered by the Pussycat Dolls, can be called ‘fusion’. But how did Bangalore-based musician Raghu Dixit make a tired formula work in an oversaturated market? After five years of prolonged efforts, his catchy Kannada tunes set to contemporary beats are winning audiences across the globe.

Dixit is playing a full summer tour in the United Kingdom June-onwards, collaborating with English contemporary folk band Bellowhead, playing alongside Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant on BBC’s Later...with Jools Holland, and doing music for Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge, a Yash Raj film.

At a time when “knowing how to play ‘Hotel California’ and Iron Maiden songs perfectly made you a rockstar”, as Dixit puts it, he wrote his own songs, inspired by 18th century poets and their songs. “It was very uncool of me,” he laughs. “But I wanted my audience to be able to headbang, and at the same time appreciate their Kannadiga legacy.”

Strawberry Fields and Bryan Adams
Raghu Dixit’s initial rise, from a microbiology student in Mysore to a local musician of some note, follows a trajectory familiar to many aspiring musicians around the country. He started with a band cobbled together for the college festival circuit — “We named it Eclipse, which was appropriate, because the band eclipsed eight days later,” he laughs. This was followed by numerous other rounds of the college festival circuit, culminating at a landmark win at National Law School’s music festival, Strawberry Fields.

A win at FM station Radio City’s music competition led to Dixit being handpicked as the opening act for Bryan Adams’ concert in Bangalore. Twenty-five thousand fans chanting “Bryan…Bryan...” as Raghu’s band — by now called Antaragni, or ‘the fire within’ — set up their opening set, might have unsettled a lesser musician. But Dixit won over the crowds. In what can now be considered a trademark move, he served them a heady combination of different genres. “We did a bizarre Carnatic version of ‘Hotel California’,” he recalls. “When the alap started, they were like what the hell! But as soon as they heard the opening chords of the song, they went back to mad cheering. It was hysterical.”

The pivotal moment of his career came in 2005, when recording label executives met him in Mumbai to tell him that he wasn’t good-looking enough. “I was standing at a traffic crossing, already in tears, when I got a call about an empty slot at Zenzi Bar in Bandra,” remembers Dixit. Dixit, considering this to be his final act, agreed. It was at this concert that he met Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani. Impressed by his music, the duo offered to begin a recording label and launch his album. One thing led to another, and it was at a one-time performance at a festival in London that Dixit’s ambitions went global. After some hurdles, he obtained a UK manager and entertainment lawyer to represent him, and started planning.

The slow climb to the top
The leap to foreign shores was a relatively painless one for the musician, who harnessed everything from Bollywood star power to online social networking. “Anybody who entered Vishal’s studio was made to listen to my music, and then he would record their comments on it. These videos became testimonials we used to promote the CD,” says Dixit. His first manager, Vijay Nair of Only Much Louder, puts Dixit through to the right people in the UK who can help him get gigs and show slots. Dixit’s businesslike approach to his career is apparent. He uses the word ‘strategy’ at least 15 times in a two-hour conversation, and has a network of public relations and management teams which stretch from Bangalore to London. He has an intimate knowledge of the music industry, and can talk for hours, with technical depth and insight, about the relationship between record labels and the internet. “I’m in this for the long haul,” he says seriously. “I don’t want to be an overnight success.”

Dixit calls his first UK tour “the invasion”, which is a pretty accurate description. Dixit invested forty lakhs  — “I live very frugally,” he says — and spent it all on arranging concerts and airfare. He performed ceaselessly at ‘showcases’ for music industry professionals, toured in bars and clubs across the UK, and spoke to numerous record label executives. He performed at festivals in front of an audience of three — “one lady and two kids”, and at showcases with only twelve people in attendance.

Dixit also gives importance to forging personal connections with fans. “There was a fan of mine who rescued me when I was in a jam last year. I was stuck with no place to go, and he housed and fed the band — all five of us — for 45 days. We’ve become good friends now, and he is helpful to the point of cutting my calls and calling back to save me money!” Dixit also gives out concert passes to loyal fans, and will call out names of people in the audience, and thank them for their support. He is on Twitter and Facebook “sometimes for hours at a time”, patiently inviting fans to his concerts and responding to their gushing with humility and enthusiasm. “They’re an investment which requires no money at all.”

Dixit’s second album is releasing in September. Dixit, who has a penchant for the first person plural, referring not only to his band, but also to his PR and management teams as ‘We’, says, “We have a plan for the months to come. And we continue to make small changes, according to what happens. But I am very specific about the goals I will achieve, and by when.”