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[Music]
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[Applause]
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hello hello hello thank you for having
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me here very excited to be a TEDx D to
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you one of the things that I actually
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wanted to talk about was not just my
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journey the fact that even I started
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pretty early I started as a professional
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composer at the age of 16 I have my own
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record label at the age of 20 put off my
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own record at the age of 21 did a lot of
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stuff I mean I've been an entrepreneur
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all my life done over 5000 commercials
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over a dozen movies basically I'm trying
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to tell you that over two decades i've
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just gotten ready already child but life
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is so exciting actually it's part the
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reason why i wanted to do this talk was
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because we decided that one of the
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topics that would be relieved twisting
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is to talk about the social and societal
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impact of music in india and one of the
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most interesting things about music in
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india and especially social music in
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india we talk about activism and we
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talked about activist music especially
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from the west we talked about Bob Dylan
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and we talked about all those kind of
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people but in India we have some of the
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greatest social activism in music in the
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history of man it's basically it it goes
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back over a thousand years and
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encompasses as many people as Santa
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Kabir foolish' meerabai Tosi das all the
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way to come out under so there's a huge
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history of that kind of music being made
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in India and that was a
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the influence on my music ends at
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immediate any one of the reasons why I
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find it so exciting was because of this
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one particular track that I'm just going
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to pay you or offer to you a little
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snippet of it
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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yeah that's the beauty of Indian
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presence can you believe that
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damadam mast Kalandar is imagined yes
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it's a sentiment but that's the beauty
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if that's the beauty of Indian music is
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that we have and the lyrics are so
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beautiful
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essentially what she's saying is my love
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my beloved somebody over here to mine
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Sani karta means she's looking for she's
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looking for the beloved she's looking
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she found Bhima and she found Bishnu and
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she found she found everyone
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she found sita she found everyone but
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she couldn't find the beloved so where
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is the beloved hiding from me
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that's an incredible thought isn't it if
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such an immense thought the idea that
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this woman at that time could be
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questioning the beloved questioning God
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it's such a huge huge thing to do today
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when we think about Meera why we think
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about her saying Mary togehter Gopal too
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slow not going but basically what she
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was doing was being very smart she said
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one day the father of Tamela Kamogawa
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that's the way that a source of music
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and revolutionary music actually
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happened in your music for social change
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through through the through the
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centuries it's been worked like that
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they've been very clever about it just
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like Amir Khusro Road men in Johnson and
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Iran I got Nariko Arika is so great so
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what was the idea the idea was an
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empowered woman an empowered woman
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saying he many jobs in another ayat they
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are always sang in the voice of the
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woman why did they always take the
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feminine voice why was it always Matheny
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hoping his agenda Marisa Thuringia it
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was a very very smart device it was
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strategic it was deliberate the idea was
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to subvert systems using social system
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they used God to subvert God to the
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right effect they went past Dogma and
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they went to the essence of what
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godliness actually means it means
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inclusion it means I am you and you are
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me and there is no separation and they
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achieve that through music they did that
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over and over again
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the problem is with us we are not good
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at marketing ourselves we're not were a
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dream nation we don't look at our past
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with with pride we don't look at our
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past as as a line where as it is the
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most alive past in the world but the
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problem is we are getting disconnected
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from our past and one of the connections
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actually to the past one of the most
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important connections to the past is
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through music for social change and that
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is where I think I got most influenced
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from my music for cept immediately so
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for example when I was when I was
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thinking of the composition for each
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area and we were discussing the song we
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were thinking about and we were talking
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about it so then we started talking
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about it and then it struck me that it
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has to be at the level of a certain song
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that's one of my favorite songs
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it's ma a PRA was an m-80 between a
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German from Campbellsville and we had to
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hit that level we have to have a song
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that resonated at that level so you know
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that your culture has this greatness but
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you don't you don't connect to it you
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don't reinvent it your generation is the
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generation that is going to carry the
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sand
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legacy forward and we need to keep the
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collecting the connection intact we need
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to keep that connection going it doesn't
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matter what music is out there right now
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what matters is how you connect to that
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music do you connect to that music as an
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individual and say hang on I need to dig
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deeper I need to find what is happening
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and I need to find how this music
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connects to my country so much is being
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done in the space of Technology very
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little is being done in the space of
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connection communication an actual
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conversation music is supposed to start
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conversation one of the most interesting
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things that happen with Cutty is that we
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got attacked but the fact of the matter
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is why is it so important for me to say
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this today because there's a backstory
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to this entire song 84 was the year that
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changed my life that's what she says in
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the song so we have to not only fight
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censorship
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we were told we can't put off this
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message directly we can't address this
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directly but why can't we address wounds
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directly here is an artist wanting to
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voice her opinion directly cause I her
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story and nobody's listening everybody's
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judging because you have a preconceived
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notion of who she is and I feel that's
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really what the spirit of meerabai
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stands for that's what the spirit of
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Kabir stands for that's what the spirit
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of bullish R stands for when Coolidge
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saw as a man can you imagine those days
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a man said today you just gonna try
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after a 3 or a 3 now I am going to we're
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gurus and dance no emotion what a
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dangerous idea that is to do that in
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those times so I just want to tell you
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that you live in a country full of
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revolutionaries revolutionaries of the
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heart revolutionaries of love
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revolutionaries who seek to connect to
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unite not divide revolutionaries who
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seek to bypass all the dot men and reach
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God directly
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in whatever form whatever path whatever
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then in whatever route you choose
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connect to them connect to these people
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they are the real wealth in this country
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it's a country of a million stories and
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the country of a million of a 1.3
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billion people who are right now
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homogenizing everybody wants to beat
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them all it's nothing wrong with that I
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get it I love it I got another
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conditioning too but you know we need we
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need to know our past to know where the
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future is gonna die music means
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breathing music means life music means
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death music means passion music means
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love music means India music use the
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world music means silence music means
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space music means technology music means
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technique music means craft music new
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skill music means talent music means God
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music means harness everything
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everything music means tattoos music
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means expression so here let's come to
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the power of God okay I think doubt is
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useful but only in a certain place so I
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have a line that I learnt very early in
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my life do you have to apply because I
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became a professional very young so the
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only thing I would face in fact I would
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walk into a studio and people would
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doubt me so the only thing I faced I
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knew every morning I would wake up and I
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would face other people's doubts so I
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started developing a certain defensive
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miss
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used to walk in with extra swagger and I
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used to be like huh you have no idea how
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good I am
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but what started happening was I started
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thinking about it even more and I said I
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need these two words to work for me in
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every context so the words are am i and
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the reverse I am so how does this work
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in private in your most private moments
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it's an important question to ask
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yourself am I really good am i capable
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and turn that doubt into belief you have
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to have the machine inside you to turn
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that that is really where practice comes
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in that is where that is where hard work
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comes but once you're done with that and
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once you feel comfortable then the that
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am i has to turn into I am and when
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somebody meets you it should not matter
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what they think of you because you know
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who you are
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am I - I am as a see so I write every
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two weeks
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it never stops I think the day you get
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very comfortable and you say I know
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music that need your data as a musician
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because if you know you don't know but
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if you accept that you're on the journey
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then at least the journey will be
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enjoyable so there are many milestones
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in my life that are very there are
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moments of success and moments of
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celebration but behind that is a lot of
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hard work and a lot of you know people
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would call that failure but it's
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actually not failure what it is is
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another lesson learned so you really
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should have a very healthy attitude
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towards failure I think this is one of
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the most important things to learn in
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life is that failing is never actually
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failure failure is giving up but failing
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is I mean it's
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you just keep learning so I'll give you
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an example of the title track of Sat
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immediately and the number of versions
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we made a bit she cut to Biddy Martin
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honor
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[Music]
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Oh cookie do you command
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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it's beautiful when you have gone
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through a journey and then the reason
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why we arrived on the final track was
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because we were like hey we need
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something that's more more youthful we
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need something that has a more more and
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an energy of today
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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yes so we arrived at this because we
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wanted something that sounded more like
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a band and younger more more you know
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like a certain kind of fan India feeling
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into it yes so that's that that's the
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way creativity works is that nothing is
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nothing is a failure everything is a
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lesson and an evolution the thing that I
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think I talked about earlier and I think
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that it's still it's still pertinent to
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what you're saying which is that how do
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we leave make that music for the future
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because if we don't reinvent that music
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for the future that becomes
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institutional music it's happened to
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jazz in America it's happened to
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classical in Europe we should not allow
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that to happen to the classical music of
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our country people like lilandra Kumar
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people and stars are you saying
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therefore that they're important people
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in our culture to be able to push the
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culture and keep that reinvention going
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but we should also not lose our
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connection to our to our odds we should
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I mean I think it's very important I
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feel it to be a personal responsibility
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as a composer to have a certain DC put
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into my work I like that
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then let me sing the song about doubt
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this all has been extremely severe and
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very concerned let's do a little harmony
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on
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yeah okay daddy matzo ball touch present
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the gaudy guilty heavy southern people
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big like Ava
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John John Johnny DuBose demos he goes by
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hot be gross diva about God me get off
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me get off me get off ha ha giggles ha
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oh yeah yeah yeah yah yah yah yah yah ha
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giggles ha ha giggles
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[Applause]
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you
