Join us for an exclusive interview with Bengaluru-based musician and Grammy winner Ricky Kej as he discusses his groundbreaking version of the National Anthem. Launched on August 9, this rendition features top Indian classical musicians and has set a Guinness World Record for its grand scale. Discover the inspiration behind this historic project and what it means for Indian music and culture. Don't miss this in-depth conversation with one of India’s most acclaimed artists!
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00:00What was it that first, I mean you did share as a child, that was the first sound that you'd heard.
00:05But you know, to go on creating it the way you have been, what is it like?
00:09I guess I'm constantly inspired, you know, to create different and sometimes more epic versions of the National Anthem
00:17because I think it's a melody that absolutely deserves it.
00:20And what was it like to assemble this very extraordinary ensemble?
00:25It was a huge blessing, it was a huge blessing.
00:27I think there is a kind of a distance between our cultural legacy and the generation now.
00:33So what was that like?
00:35It's always fantastic. I love music education as a concept itself
00:39because I think music education is really important to uplift the art form itself.
00:43Our National Anthem and the sounds that they are used to are very different.
00:47What was it like blending it, both of the tenors, you know, like orchestra,
00:51I'm not a musically sound person but I love music. What was that like?
00:55Before I started recording with them, like, you know, just before we started the recording,
00:59I sort of gave a short speech to them and I told them that, you know,
01:02that after you guys have ruled us for 200 years, you better do a good job.
01:08You know, I'll tell you something, they usually say,
01:10I don't know whether an Indian musician will get an award or not but Ricky Gage will get a Grammy.
01:14What do you have to say to that? What is the secret to get a Grammy award?
01:18There are some amazing Indian musicians who got the Grammy.
01:20You've made it a habit of collecting, as I would say, awards
01:23and creating these beautiful versions of the Indian National Anthem.
01:27And when I heard this one, I had goosebumps.
01:29I think that happens when you listen to the National Anthem.
01:32Of course.
01:33What was it that first, I mean, you did share as a child, that was the first sound that you'd heard.
01:38But, you know, to go on creating it the way you have been, what is it like?
01:42I guess I'm constantly inspired, you know, to create different and
01:48sometimes more epic versions of the National Anthem
01:50because I think it's a melody that absolutely deserves it.
01:53It's a zero-controversy melody, a zero-controversy song.
01:56It's a song that is loved by every single person in this nation,
02:00no matter what their ideologies are, what their religion are,
02:03which geographic location they come from.
02:05So, it's a song that brings all of us together.
02:08And I don't know, last year when I did the version of the National Anthem with the symphony orchestra,
02:13I thought this would be the end of it.
02:15I'm never going to be able to better this.
02:16But then we are here today with a new version.
02:18So, I guess I'm going to continue making newer and more different versions of the National Anthem forever.
02:24And what was it like to assemble this very extraordinary ensemble of musicians?
02:30It was a huge blessing.
02:31It was a huge blessing, you know.
02:32And, you know, sometimes I think about it that how, I mean, where have I reached in my career,
02:37you know, where I'm able to even talk to such people and I'm able to be in their presence.
02:42I've always had this rule in my career that whenever I collaborate with a musician,
02:47that musician has to be better than me because that's the only way I can learn.
02:50And that's the only way I can grow.
02:53And here, it was just exemplified over here.
02:56Just, you know, watching these musicians create magic, even when I compose music,
03:02which is not the National Anthem, my regular music that I compose,
03:05I never go planned into a studio when I'm working with musicians like this.
03:09I always go slightly unplanned just with the basic framework of what I want.
03:12Because if I go extremely planned and if I write down the notes that I want them to play,
03:16then I'm limited by my own imagination.
03:18And I'm limited by my own musical knowledge.
03:22But then when I showcase my melodies to musicians such as these,
03:26and they interpret the melody in their own way, bring in their life experiences,
03:30bring in their music knowledge, their own virtuosity and, you know, and their own skill to it,
03:35they just take the composition to a whole new level.
03:37Absolutely.
03:38And that's what happened with the National Anthem.
03:39The notes are the same, but the way they play it, that's what makes the difference.
03:42Absolutely.
03:43You said something really nice is, legends like these don't have egos.
03:46They're very humble.
03:48I think that's also the reason for their success.
03:50And also the fact that the music remains so timeless, the contribution remains so timeless.
03:54You cannot be this successful if you're a bad human being.
03:56It's just not possible.
03:58So I believe that they are good human beings.
04:00You cannot be this skilled at a musical instrument, which is based on feel,
04:05if you're a bad human being.
04:07And vibes, you give out those vibes.
04:08Exactly.
04:09So you cannot play this melodically, you cannot control your musical instrument
04:13in the way that these brilliant musicians control their musical instrument,
04:17if you are a bad person.
04:18And that's what it is with them, you know, they're just marvellous human beings
04:23and they're good at what they do.
04:25You know, I would always say, I look at Hariji.
04:27I have been meeting him over for like 28 years.
04:29Lucky you.
04:30I know.
04:31And I would actually say he's the last of the moguls when it comes to
04:35our Indian classical music.
04:37What was it like working with him?
04:39I've never met him before in my life.
04:40I'd never met him.
04:41And it was a very long shot that he would actually show up for this recording
04:45and he would agree to be a part of this recording.
04:47Luckily, he agreed.
04:48And he showed up at the studio.
04:50And when he came to the studio, you know, I had the opportunity of like,
04:54you know, of holding his hand and bringing him inside.
04:56And, you know, and of course, I touched his feet, got blessings from him.
04:59And then while he was setting up and they were setting up his headphones
05:02and setting up the microphone and things like that,
05:04and also setting up the lighting because we were also filming it.
05:07That time I was just standing in front of him and I was wondering that,
05:09you know, like, wow, I'm in this guy's presence, you know,
05:12I'm in Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia's presence and I just got blessed by him.
05:16Wow.
05:17It's such a blessing for your career to, you know, to have these experiences.
05:21Absolutely.
05:22And you've also created a world record of getting 14,000 kids.
05:27I mean, wonderful.
05:29And also the fact that you are also imparting knowledge to them
05:32because I really feel this is not many.
05:35I think there is a kind of a distance between our cultural legacy
05:40and the generation now.
05:42So what was that like?
05:43It's always fantastic.
05:45I love music education as a concept itself,
05:48because I think music education is really important to uplift the art form itself.
05:52We do not all have to be professional musicians,
05:55but as long as our audiences have some sort of sensitization to the art form,
06:01then what happens is that we as musicians,
06:03we create, we can create better and better music
06:05and we don't have to constantly think that, you know,
06:07we have to dumb down our music or people will not understand our music
06:09or people will not appreciate it.
06:11So I guess we need to create a generation of music appreciators
06:14and that's what we did with these 14,000 kids.
06:16We taught them the basic notes, we taught them the basic scales,
06:20we taught them basic rhythm.
06:21Wow.
06:22And when we did all of that, these, you know, these kids,
06:27they are going to learn how to appreciate music in a much better fashion.
06:31Absolutely.
06:32And also, you know, I was really intrigued, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
06:36you know, also our national anthem
06:38and the sounds that they are used to are very different.
06:41What was like blending it?
06:43Also the tenors, you know, like orchestra,
06:45I'm not a musically sound person, but I love music.
06:48What was that like?
06:49So the Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
06:52I've collaborated with them multiple times in the past
06:54and I love working with them each and every time that I work with them.
06:57In my opinion, they are the best orchestra in the whole world.
07:00So I actually, you know, before I started recording with them,
07:03like, you know, just before we started the recording,
07:05I sort of gave a short speech to them and I told them that, you know,
07:08that after you guys have ruled us for 200 years,
07:11you better do a good job, you know,
07:14and they took it in the best spirit possible.
07:17And I can tell you this with full conviction that
07:19even though I've collaborated with them multiple times in the past
07:22and recorded with them on multiple projects,
07:24they gave their real best to this one
07:26because all of them felt that we have a responsibility
07:28to give our best to the Indian national anthem.
07:30And I've never heard them perform this well.
07:33Oh, how lovely, how lovely.
07:35What's interesting, I mean,
07:37you've made it a habit of winning the Grammy, as I would say,
07:40like your shells must be weighing down with the awards.
07:43I like the fact that you said, a lot of people say,
07:45oh, I don't, I'm not bothered with awards,
07:47but I would feel an award for anyone is a validation of what you do.
07:51Of course, it is an absolute validation,
07:53not just a validation, but as I'd mentioned earlier,
07:56it's also a platform for you to do bigger and better things
07:58because at the end of the day, as an artist or as a musician,
08:01you just want to keep growing.
08:03You want to probably grow your audience.
08:05Maybe not, maybe you want to grow your audience,
08:07but you want to grow as an artist.
08:08And the only way for you to grow as an artist
08:10is for you to have this platform to do bigger and better things,
08:12to collaborate with people who you've always wanted to collaborate with,
08:15to learn from other people.
08:17And this is possible when you win awards simply because,
08:20you know, people recognize you a lot easier
08:23and people take you more seriously.
08:25You know, I'll tell you something,
08:26they usually say, pata nahi whether an Indian musician
08:28will get an award or not,
08:29mar Ricky Cage ko toh mil jayega Grammy.
08:31What do you have to say to that?
08:33What is the secret to get a Grammy award?
08:35Some amazing Indian musicians got the Grammy.
08:38That is the band Shakti got it.
08:40That is, you know, Shankar Mahadevan got it
08:43and Rakesh Chaurasia.
08:50There was someone last year also.
08:52I forget the lady.
08:54But it was quite amazing that, you know,
08:56that we have classical musicians who are winning the Grammy.
09:00Absolutely.
09:01Because the thing about classical musicians
09:02is that classical musicians have truly broken cultural barriers
09:05everywhere in the world
09:06and they've reached out to audiences
09:07that would normally not be exposed to Indian culture
09:09and Indian music.
09:11I'll give you an example.
09:12Let's say a Bollywood musician.
09:14They perform, Bollywood musicians perform
09:16everywhere in the world.
09:17They are able to fill up stadiums.
09:18They are able to fill up complete theaters and audiences.
09:21But the only people who show up for their concerts
09:24are people from the Indian diaspora.
09:25Yeah.
09:26They are the only people who show up.
09:27Because Bollywood, no matter what anybody says,
09:30Bollywood has not actually broken cultural barriers
09:32except for maybe what three or four songs
09:34that you can actually count on your fingers.
09:35Absolutely.
09:36Bollywood in general has not broken cultural barriers
09:38whereas if you look at a person like Pandit Ravi Shankar
09:41when I was 19, I had watched a concert of his in the Bay Area
09:44and I was very shocked
09:46because up until then I had seen a bunch of Bollywood shows.
09:48Yeah.
09:49But when I watched Pandit Ravi Shankar's concert
09:51the diversity of people in the audience
09:53was very representative of the diversity of the city itself.
09:56Absolutely.
09:57It was almost an entirely Caucasian population,
09:59a couple of African-Americans,
10:01Asian-Americans and a few Indian people.
10:04But it was very representative of the demographic
10:06of that particular city.
10:08And then I ended up watching a bunch more of his concerts.
10:11I watched about three or four of his concerts
10:12and it was the same everywhere.
10:14And then I realized that this gentleman
10:15is playing pure Indian classical music.
10:18And the concerts that I watched of his were not even fusion.
10:20They were pure Indian classical music.
10:21Wow.
10:22And he was getting audiences
10:24everywhere in the world to listen to him.
10:26But at the same time,
10:27let's do an experiment.
10:29If you go out in the street like in Delhi over here,
10:32you meet as many people as you want
10:34and you ask them,
10:35name one song of Pandit Ravi Shankar.
10:37Nobody can name it.
10:38You know, this is what I was just coming to
10:40because recently we lost Yamini Krishnamoorthy.
10:43And a lot of people said,
10:44it's just so sad that there's a disconnect.
10:48I mean, the ones who know about her
10:50are either no longer there or are really old.
10:53The young generation, handful would know.
10:56So that comes to educating children.
10:59And also we no longer have concerts.
11:01People won't pass it.
11:02They're no longer the bytes happening.
11:04Pandit Ravi Shankar moved abroad.
11:05Ustad Zakir Hussain moved abroad.
11:07Anushka Shankar doesn't live in India.
11:09So that is the problem.
11:10So I believe that what's happening right now in India
11:13is that the Bollywood music industry,
11:15the pop music industry
11:16has got such a huge marketing machinery.
11:18And nowadays people,
11:21gone are the days rather,
11:22that people actually go out to try to listen to music.
11:25They only listen to the music that comes to them,
11:27music that is being fed to them.
11:29And unfortunately,
11:30the only music that is fed to people
11:32is the music that has got a very strong marketing machinery.
11:35Absolutely.
11:36And so that is why what needs to happen is that
11:39if classical music needs to be appreciated
11:42by a larger audience,
11:43there needs to be a machinery to help it reach people.
11:46Exactly.
11:47It needs to be a concentrated effort.
11:48There needs to be a lot of will to do that.
11:50Because when a person who normally says
11:52that I only listen to pop music
11:53or I only listen to Bollywood music,
11:55if you expose them to a Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia concert,
11:59they will be mesmerized immediately.
12:00Absolutely.
12:01But the problem is that the gatekeepers
12:03believe that our audiences are very dumb.
12:05That is the issue.
12:06Absolutely.
12:07No, no, you have a point here.
12:08Because you know,
12:09also the way it's marketing,
12:11the way it's showcased,
12:12oh, classical music will be boring.
12:14I'd rather go to a concert.
12:15Exactly, exactly.
12:17I totally get that.
12:18Because when you go to Vienna,
12:19you see the Mozart symphony.
12:20And if there's a concert happening
12:21and somebody is just like playing Mozart.
12:24So I get that.
12:26Also, you are part of the curriculum in school.
12:28Yes.
12:29Your journey.
12:30What is it like?
12:31What has changed, I would say,
12:32from Winds of Samsara to Divine Tides?
12:34So I guess, you know,
12:37of course, with Winds of Samsara,
12:38as I mentioned,
12:39the award was a huge platform.
12:41I was doing a lot of concerts outside of India.
12:43And I had a strong follower base outside of India.
12:47But then after the award,
12:48a few people in India started taking me seriously.
12:51And slowly that audience built.
12:53And now I've got a good follower.
12:55I've got a good number of followers in India.
12:57And now I'm doing a whole lot of concerts.
12:59Last year, I did about more than 30 concerts in India.
13:01Wow.
13:02And about 77 in total.
13:04But more than 30 in India.
13:06This year, I decided to concentrate a lot on India.
13:08And I decided to cut down on my traveling.
13:10Last year was 17 countries.
13:12This year, I'm just going to be doing three countries.
13:14And I'm going to be concentrating
13:15on doing as many concerts in India as possible.
13:17Because I feel that, you know,
13:19that more and more Indian people
13:21will like my music if they're exposed to it.
13:24No, I totally agree.
13:25And also, you know,
13:26with today's stress on mental health and all,
13:28classical music is actually rejuvenating for the soul.
13:31It's funny that you mention that.
13:32Because I'm releasing an album at the end of this month
13:34which is going to be about mental health.
13:36Oh, awesome.
13:37So that comes next.
13:38Such a pleasure speaking with you.
13:40I don't know if I was supposed to say that.
13:41But it's alright.
13:42Yeah, because chakras are healing.
13:44They keep listening to the sounds.
13:46No, I meant, I'm not sure
13:48whether I was allowed to say it
13:51in terms of marketing or whatever.
13:52No, no, no.
13:53But it is required.
13:54We do need that.
13:55Thank you so much.
13:56Such a pleasure speaking to you.