I have a confession to make: I’ve always been the worst at discovering new music. Friends would get the coolest tracks on LimeWire (shout out to an oldie!) while I would struggle to find one decent song. But as I grew older, and finally understood how to discover new music (the trick is to listen to every… Continue reading 8 Songs By Indian Indie Musicians That Deserve A Spot In Your Playlist
From Prateek Kuhad’s latest to upcoming band Corner Cafe Chronicle’s debut album, queue up some fantastic music by homegrown indie musicians: 1. Singer-songwriter Alisha Batth‘s new single about letting go and finding liberation and joy. 2. The video of Prateek Kuhad’s Kasoor is as beautiful as the song. 3. Nirali Kartik and Kartik Shah of… Continue reading 9 new songs by Indian indie musicians that deserve a spot on your playlist
Chandrika Darbari was 16, when she first saw the gut-wrenching visuals of injured children in Syria. The images of blood, devastation and helplessness haunted her into wanting to make the world sit up and take notice of their plight. That’s when she penned, ‘For peace in Syria’, a song she shot with her siblings while… Continue reading Meet 19-year-old Rika, the new prodigy in the world of British pop
New York-based musician Falguni Shah dons many hats. She’s a Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter; she’s a student of classical maestros like Ustad Sultan Khan, among many others and mum to her seven-year-old son Nishaad. But above all, she wants to be the person who reinstates music as a unifier, especially in a time that’s looming… Continue reading Singer Falguni Shah moved to New York to prove that music has no boundaries
In the early 2010s, long before Gully Boy, Divine (Vivian Fernandes) was spitting rhymes and honing his craft in an Andheri slum. He was part of a small underground community building a hip-hop scene in regional languages in a country that had so far only seen mainstream English/Punjabi rap. Divine’s rap is all about his identity,… Continue reading #ELLEPlaylist: Here’s what ‘Gully Boy’ Divine is currently listening to
Growing up in Bengaluru in the 80s, Vandana Jain was surrounded by the music of legends such as SD Burman, RD Burman and Madan Mohan — courtesy her parents’ playlists. Naturally, retro Bollywood songs left an indelible impression on her and now, 15 years after leaving home, she still finds herself listening to them over and over… Continue reading This musician’s upcoming EP pays homage to retro Bollywood and Pakistani music
This weekend, we recommend switching your Friday night plans up and grooving to some offbeat electronica tunes at the Disrupt music festival in Mumbai. In addition to acts like Amsterdam-based experimental duo Know V.A, Mauritian curator Fourmi Rouz, and home-grown talent like BLOT, Spryk and DJ Uri, the Grammy-nominated British act Zero 7 will be making… Continue reading Listen to Grammy-nominated electronica act Zero 7’s set before Disrupt kicks off tomorrow
When it comes to jazz music, only a handful of venues across the country can be credited with keeping the genre alive. One of them is The Piano Man Jazz Club in the capital, which has given the indie scene a much-needed boost. In the last three years, it has brought down a number of… Continue reading Why you can’t afford to miss The Piano Man Jazz Club’s third anniversary gigs
The video begins with singer Florence Welch, and several other women draped in colourful veils, standing still. Soon, they began to dance and shed their veils as the video progresses. Their actions are reflected in a pool of water, which lends an eerie air to it. This choreography in indie rock band Florence + The Machine’s new… Continue reading Dancer Akram Khan on choreographing rock band Florence + The Machine’s new video
The vocals on ‘Little ones’, the first track on Tarana Marwah aka Komorebi’s debut album, Soliloquy, has a lilt reminiscent of trip-hop visionary Imogen Heap’s. And so far, critics and listeners have been eating it up. “I’m not sure what I did right, but people are able to understand what I’m trying to say,” says… Continue reading Tarana Marwah is our indie artiste to watch out for
Out of the 70-plus acts that will perform at this year’s edition of the NH7 Weekender music festival, which will be held in Meghalaya at the end of the month and in Pune in December, less than a dozen are women or female-fronted acts. The Indian independent music scene is still nascent, but it has… Continue reading 5 boss ladies who’re changing the indie music scene
