I should have started doing this a long time ago: Writing regularly about music and musicians. But I am a chronic procrastinator. Even while trying to write this post, I got up at least 5 times to check my Instagram posts- like I got to see this! I am not sure if it’s some kind of a disease but it’s an indication of how much of a sucker I have been for instant gratification. Alright, regrets aside, let me start off with my quest to start a blog when I first heard of the term while attending my classes in journalism way back in 2007? “Do you know what a blog is?” the guest lecturer had asked. I had almost raised my hand to speak my mind of what it might be, but had killed the urge and settled on hearing what she had to say. “Blogs are like, let’s say personal diaries, you write about your experiences and things that you are knowledgeable about but you can share it with readers online,” she had said. It had sounded like a straightforward idea which I thought was brilliant. I always wanted to write about music (not that I knew a lot about music but I liked all things music) but didn’t know where to start. And voila! this was it. Thank you, internet.
And it took me 8 long years to sit here and write this post.
What was I doing all this while? Well, the first one is true (procrastination) and the second was that my first media job landed me as a copy editor for a news website in New Delhi. The 24 x 7 cycle of updating the site left me hardly any time for music, let alone honing my guitar skills. Am I justifying myself here? Maybe. But on the positive side, it was while working here that I first decided to write something on music and got to attend my first musical concert as a journalist.
The Grammy-award winning Japanese musician Kitaro was in town. Although I failed to write anything about the concert, it fueled my enthusiasm to try and write about music and musicians -they amaze me all the time.
Check out Kitaro in action.
As I hopped on from one news website to another and to a news magazine, I contributed stories on music whenever I could and published them online. Some of the first ones were of the folk rockers from Bengaluru –Swarathma. My next catch was Lucky Ali and his band at the Hard Rock cafe. Then I came to know about one of the best things that had happened to Delhi – The International Delhi Jazz Festival. The 3-day, free for all concert organized by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) at the lush green environs of the Nehru Park was something I had never seen in my life. I covered all the four editions of the festival from 2011 to 2015, each and every performance, and boy! I loved every moment of it. Every interaction with different musicians from around the globe was an opportunity to feed my hunger to try and understand what keeps music and musicians going. Here are some of the stories that I wrote during those years: Smells like Jazz Spirit | Jazz just got bigger in Delhi | Where music does the talking | Spirit of fusion. I have published a couple of other stories that I am going to share in separate posts. But that’s about it.
No please don’t get me wrong! I am not showing off here. I cringe whenever I read these posts. I am only trying to show you the rickety arrows that’re in my musical quiver.
So my first blog in 8 years is dedicated to all things music. And I am going to meet musicians, listen to their music, make music and share them with you.
Because when it keeps coming back, you can’t do much about it.
Going where the wind blows 