Ehsaan Noorani On His Journey As A Musician: Bollywood Was Never Part Of My Plan, It Just Happened

Ehsaan Noorani played a monumental role in putting rock music on the musical map of India and he is also one-third of one of the most popular musical trios of the country, Shankar- Ehsaan-Loy, together they have composed music that an entire generation has grooved to and grown up with. But the lead guitarist and composer of the grand SEL trio is a rockstar in every sense of the term and is constantly busy finding new tunes and new voices everywhere, even on the internet.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, he took to Instagram to entertain his fans and in that course of time, he came across multiple independent musicians from far and wide with whom he is now busy collaborating for different festivals around India including the magnum opus Serendipity Arts Festival.

In this exclusive chat with News18, he talks about his journey in Bollywood, working as a trio, his love for Indie music and much more.

You played an important role in putting rock music on the map, can we talk about what it took and the kind of journey that you have had so far?

I started out as a rock musician and honestly, Bollywood was never a part of my plan, it just happened but having said that I grew up listening to a lot of Bollywood music because of my mother. However, after my stint doing music for commercials and indie music I realised I could try out Bollywood too and music that sounded authentic and correct.

Then Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy happened which was really the next step and the point is that we could have gone with what the trend was going on then but we decided to do what we do best and then we did ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, we did not take on the pressure to make it into an Indian album, we only used the flute. ‘Koi Kahe Kehta Rahe’ was the first Indian song to have trance beat of the type that it did, so it was organic and it was basically us reflecting our personalities which lead to different things like ‘Rock On’ which probably was the first Hindi movie to only have rock music. So, it was all a natural progression right from the beginning.

Well, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is synonymous with Bollywood and there is an entire generation that grew up on the music that you all were creating, looking back what are your key takeaways?

Well, number one is getting up on the big platform and number two is not having to compromise on our own creativity which was a very important thing for us and a lot of people don’t really get to do that. I mean one has to still do what the director or the producers want but I think we also had the chance of doing it our own way. I guess it has a lot to do with the kind of balance that we have which gave us a chance to do our own bit.

The point is that a lot of people who did not listen to Bollywood music started listening to it after ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ after it, Bollywood music became cool which we were really all about. Even now when we play songs like ‘Kajra Re’, ‘Rock On’ and all, the audience really erupts and it is so good to see. Bollywood has its own legacy and it feels great to be a part of that history. The audience made it happen!

As someone who has seen it from the inside do you think the Bollywood music scene has evolved and according to you what more can be done?

Evolution in music has different parts of it one is compositionally and the second is with the production and technology which has gone to a great extent. Compositionally, I do not really know because a lot of the stuff that is being done many a time is becoming similar but that has to do with the demand. But having said that, I really want to point out that good music is happening too but in the last 5 years I have not had a lot of ‘wow’ moments while listening to albums.

Let’s take a small detour from Bollywood, it is fantastic to see the indie music scene thriving right now. What is your whole take on that?

A lot of it happened during the lockdown, we found so many artists who were sitting at home and entertaining people non-stop. Every night on Instagram so many indie musicians were going live from their profiles and sharing such good music. I was going live too and in that process, I discovered so many bands and artists.

What were your initial thoughts when you started coming across these musicians on social media?

My initial thought was to just enjoy whatever they were putting out and I really did. But when I started interacting with these guys more, I felt a certain kind of responsibility and a need to make them heard. Of course, I shared their albums and everything on social media but then when a festival like Serendipity approached me the first thought that came to my mind was to showcase independent musicians from the North East.

The Northeast region of India is a hub of talent and slowly a lot of musicians from there are gaining momentum and taking the centre stage. You are personally working very closely with a lot of them, what has your experience been like?

Oh, they are all so great. A lot of times they are unsure of whether or not people will like their music as a result of which they are hesitant to come forward with it but I hope we are able to give them the kind of respect an artist deserves.

Lastly, can we please talk a little about the curations that you are doing and were seen at the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa?

We have the Tetseo Sisters who sing tribal folk music, and then there is the Wallang family band headed by Rudy Wallang and they are all very good. We also have a rock band from Mizoram called Avora Records and they do a lot of post-punk electronica music. Lastly, we have this other band called Trance Effect and they are fabulous too. It feels so nice to have curated this set list, they are all so hard-working and realistic.

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