Bangalore-based band Swarathma say big cities are exhausted with an overdose of live concerts; their focus is now on smaller towns and working with underprivileged kids.
Bangalore-based band Swarathma observes that to develop the music sensibilities of the Indian masses, the focus of Indian musicians need to shift from big cities to their smaller cousins. And that is what the band is trying to do, earlier performing at Lucknow and now touring Rajasthan with a two-city halt — one being their recent performance at the Rajasthan International Folk Festival.
“It is always a pleasure for our group to perform live in a small city,” points out drummer Montry Manuel, “In a big city like Mumbai, rock bands perform every other night. There is over-exposure.” Vasu Dixit seems to agree. He says, “We are performing at Jodhpur, but the audience here is global.” But he adds that the team now wants to capture the audience from smaller cities in India, and would love to cater to the local audience.
However, their mission is not without glitches. Manuel cites their recent performance in Lucknow. He rues, “Often in smaller cities, there’s not enough infrastructure to support a live concert. We need good sound engineers otherwise it becomes a problem. Several smaller venues do not have good sound equipment, and lugging those around can often become cumbersome for us.”
Vocalist Jishnu Dasgupta states that the future of Indian bands today lies in smaller cities. He affirms, “People in small towns are hungry, begging for live music. It may be easy for a kid from Mumbai to watch a band he wants to, but not so for a kid from Bhopal. If Indian Ocean tours Bhopal, it becomes a very, very big deal. That is a great response for us and we would love to walk on this path.”
Did you know?
Working for the Dream A Dream Foundation has brought the band mates closer to their goal — making music for underprivileged kids. Vocalist Jishnu Dasgupta says, “Whenever we perform for charity, we just love to take two or three guitars and start playing for the kids.”
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