'Talent shows on television can mislead you'

Hariharan and Leslie Lewis, aka the Colonial Cousins, are performing today at Mood Indigo.

The kings of Indian pop fusion music spoke to Sriram Emani about their music and their experiences at Mood Indigo.

Hariharan, your songs reflect your strong base in classical music. What has its contribution been to your career?

Hariharan: I trained my voice by learning classical music, so it is the basis of not just my career but my entire existence!

You were a ghazal singer for quite some time. How easy was the transition to Colonial Cousins?

Hariharan: My soul is Indian. Wherever I am singing, it is Hariharan singing -- only the technicalities are different. Maybe the tonal quality changes a bit.

Leslie, is there any particular instrument you like playing the most?

Leslie: I guess the guitar -- that is really where I come from. I play the keyboard to survive!

As a computer programmer, you need the keyboard. In the same way, it would've been really tough for me if I couldn't play the keyboard.

Which one of your compositions is very special to you?

Hariharan: I'll answer for him. I think It's gonna be all right is closest to him because he wrote it for his wife and children.

Tell us about your past performances at Mood Indigo.

Leslie: I performed in the seventies with my band Savage Encounter.

Hariharan: Actually we performed on the same day. After my ghazal concert, I came to see Livewire [where Leslie performed].

Did you know each other then?

Hariharan: No, we didn't.

Leslie: It's actually amazing, I meet all the important people in my life at rock concerts!

I met him [Hariharan] at Mood Indigo, and he's important.

I met my wife in a similar way.

So I meet all important people of my life at Mood Indigo and at rock concerts!

Colonial Cousins are a perfect blend of two very different styles of music -- Western and Indian classical. Most of your songs are bilingual and even trilingual sometimes. What is the inspiration behind it?

Leslie: The fact that we are Indians.

With exposure to so many languages daily, we all do fusion all the time.

When we say, 'Hey, chal yaar, let's go,' we've already done fusion unconsciously.

At a time when the world is looking at India for its music and culture, and everyone's going 'Indian', what do you think is the recent trend in Indian music and what do you feel about it?

Leslie: I think Indian music is trying to go international via Bollywood.

It had already gone international because of Pandit Ravi Shankar many years ago. All the songs which were fusion at that time were more or less a combination of a jazz violinist and an Indian sitar player.

What India is trying to look at now is to go via Bollywood, which is the people's music. With Colonial Cousins, we pretty much cracked that trend.

Hariharan: What I feel is basically there is a big hype about Indian music going international, but nothing has happened yet.

The DJ doing something around just one line of some old Hindi song -- you don't call it fusion. It has got nothing to do with Hindi music.

Eighty percent of the songs are taken from English songs anyways.

Unless an Indian soul blends with something Western in equivalent proportion, you cannot call it fusion.

Were there college festivals when you were studying?

Leslie: There were college festivals but, more importantly, there was this Shimla Beat Contest.

It used to be held all over India and the finals would be held in Mumbai at the Shanmukhananda Hall. All the best bands of India would come together; it was amazing! We got a lot of exposure to good rock music through that event.

It's sad that Shanmukhananda no longer hosts anything other than Indian classical music.

Hariharan: There are only two kinds of music, good and bad.

It's not very correct to categorise music into Western, Indian, classical, rock… One must endeavour to bring out the best talent -- whatever kind of music it may be.

What would you tell the young and aspiring singers out there?

Hariharan: Learn your music. There is no shortcut to that.

Leslie: When you are learning music, don't chase money. If you learn your music, the money will come automatically.

Hariharan: What has happened today to all the young singers is that there is too much media hype. The moment they click, they forget everything and start running behind the money. In the process, they do not give themselves time and space to grow.

There is always a crucial period of progress and the window between progress and fading away is so small, so short, that very soon someone else can take your place.

I would like the youth to understand it's okay if you are laidback as far as your career is concerned, but you just cannot afford to be laidback as far as your learning and practice are concerned.

Learn to choose things, don't try to be everywhere.

The media doesn't make you, your talent makes you. The media just gives you hype. So if there's only hype, then you're going to fall so badly you won't know what hit you!

Leslie: You must give yourself some time.

I get demo tapes from lots of young people and many of them say they are not interested in money, they just want to work with me. But if you call them a second time, then the 'Okay, how much money will I get' question is always there. They have started looking at music as a business already.

This is because of the media hype; everyone wants to be a musician because you can be a 'star.'

Hariharan: Also, all these talent hunt shows on television nowadays… they can mislead you so much. They claim to make you 'stars' one day and make a huge fortune out of it for themselves.

And what has happened to all those 'stars' they claim to have produced?

Yesterday, you were number one and today you're not even there!

Don't fall for such traps. Concentrate on your practice and self-growth, rather than music as a business. Money and the fame will definitely follow.