'Indian Ocean was warned about failure'

Susmit Sen (extreme left) with his former band Indian u00c2u0080u00c2u0088Ocean

Their avant-garde sound in the early 90s made youngsters switch channels; listeners in India were in no mood to greet original music. They couldn't believe that an Indian band - instead of pulling off U2 or Guns N' Roses - made original music, rooted to the culture. Indian Ocean, the Folk-Fusion group formed in 1990, brought a new wave talking about prayers, protesting against wrongs and celebrating desert rain. Susmit Sen, guitarist and co-founder, bid goodbye to the band three years ago but his solo tunes are no less popular. He will be in Mumbai to conduct a workshop on original music later this week, followed by a rare, closed-door gig. Excerpts from an interview:

For the first time, you will be playing in a small indoor setting.
An intimate set-up is a beautiful idea, because one can connect to the audience. This is the first time I am coming to play as a duo in Mumbai. I will have tabla player Gursimran Singh for company; it will be interesting to interact with the listeners.

What tunes should we expect from the gig? Any Indian Ocean songs?
I will be playing all my own compositions, along with a few other tunes. I may play one or two tunes from the initial years of the band, but I have limited time and there are lots of new tunes.

Susmit Sen shares a light moment with the audience during a live show

What will the workshop be about?
It will be on composing your own stuff. I will be talking to people about a journey, that of writing your own music. One needs to know what a composition is all about and how should one go about it, the different aspects to it, most importantly, the pleasure to be original.

What is the secret behind blending sounds to make one good tune?
For me, it has never been difficult to merge genres because I grew up on Indian Classical Music. The amalgamation comes to me naturally.

There were doubts among listeners when Indian Ocean happened...
When we started, no other band played original music. Many told me it would be
a failure if we don't play covers, tunes known to people.

You have also worked with former Whitesnake guitar player Bernie Marsden. What did you learn from him?
One of the beautiful things that I saw when on stage with Bernie is an array of fantastic guitar gadgets. I wanted to know what kind of gears electric guitar players use. Bernie is such a player that he proved that the tone is basically on your fingers and not the gadgets. He came and plugged in directly to the amplifiers and created that particular sound. My earlier belief got confirmed, that the tone actually depends on the musician.

But youngsters love pedals, gadgets...
These days, people forget to concentrate on the basic necessities of music. One should not be lost and overwhelmed with processors. They have been made to help guitar players and not to sell them off so much that they miss out on their own expressions.

Venues in India are shutting down and a channel like MTVâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Indies is going off air. Is indie music under severe threat?
It is a pity that Mumbai's blueFROG shut down, I recently played at their Bengaluru venue. The listeners should be sensitive to good music. Music is not about jumping around and banging your heads, there are also basic elements of human emotion.

On September 17-18 (workshop: 12 pm onwards, September 17 gig: 8.30 pm)
At Cuckoo Club by The Hive, 5AA Pali Hill, Macronells Compound, next toâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Candies, Bandra (W).
Call 9167422926
Cost Rs 350