Herald Café: You have been performing in Goa for the
past few years and enjoy a dedicated audience that
comes to watch you perform. Your comments on that.
Hari + Sukhmani: Punjabis are everywhere but in Goa
we get that good mix of diverse crowd that we crave
for. It’s always fantastic to perform for an audience that
understands Punjabi, but to get a good reaction from a
non Punjabi audience is even better.
HC: How is the Goan audience different from the rest of India?
H+S: The one thing that is really different is that the
audiences here enjoy the pace of our music.
HC: You have collaborated with artists from across
the world to create fresh music. Would you consider
collaborating with any musicians from Goa?
H+S: We have worked with some fabulous musicians from
Goa including the band Earth Stage, consisting of Elvis
Lobo, Joe Ferrao and Bosco D’Souza. We hope to work
with them more often. It’s probably safe to say that we
have enjoyed the most on stage with these guys.
HC: How would you best describe your music genre?
H+S: Simply put, we’d say it is Punjabi folk music with
a twist!
HC: Do you think the Indian music industry is
more mature now – especially since a number of
musicians are experimenting with their genre and
fusing it with another to create a new genre?
H+S: Fusion has been happening for a long
time, only now the mediums have changed. Yes,
it’s very encouraging to see musicians in India
experimenting with music, and more importantly,
people accepting it! That is the evolution of the
independent music scene in India that we are so
happy to be a part of.
HC: Do you think Indie music is now getting the kind of
recognition that it deserves? If yes, what are the reasons
according to you?
H+S: Independent music is free music. It isn’t created with
any purpose related to money, recognition, etc. When
music is created with the purpose of making money or
pleasing large audiences, it becomes generic. That is why
most of the pop music numbers sound the same. People in
India are getting weary of pop music. They want something
more original, which has more soul. That explains the
growth of the Indie scene. Although it is still at a nascent
stage, the future for indie music is very encouraging!
