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From Secretive Beginnings to YouTube Stardom: A Bagpipe Story
This podcast episode features a fascinating discussion about the intersection of Scottish bagpipe music and Indian classical traditions.
Transcript
That's mind blowing on its own.
Speaker A:The Scottish bagpipe, I have no idea.
Speaker A:I've heard it.
Speaker A:I couldn't.
Speaker A:I couldn't track it.
Speaker A:I couldn't, you know, I couldn't mimic it in any way.
Speaker A:They just seem so foreign, actually, before I get to that fusion, because I think that we're probably all waiting to hear that.
Speaker A:So I'm jumping back again.
Speaker A:So your mom, your parents, pushed you into the.
Speaker A:Into the singing.
Speaker A:You're very accomplished as a singer, winning competitions.
Speaker A:How did your family react to this new love of the bagpipe?
Speaker A:Did they understand it?
Speaker A:Did it take a lot of explaining?
Speaker A:Did you have to play for them to show how much potential you had?
Speaker A:Like, how did this work?
Speaker B:Well, you know, the stereotype about India and Indian parents is very true about how they want their kids to do something serious in life.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Yes, yes.
Speaker B:You better be a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, or, like, making the big bucks and using that Indian brain you have.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And my dad is like a straight A student and extremely, extremely, very good with academics and very disciplined military man, you know, so that's my background.
Speaker B:My mom's more like, you know.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Not lay back.
Speaker B:She's also very good at discipline right now.
Speaker A:Okay, got you.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But when it came to career, let me tell you, I think I feel very, very blessed to have the most amazing parents who actually only ever encouraged me and supported me throughout my craziness.
Speaker B:But I would say this, they were, you know, they knew and they could see the potential of how a singing career could sprout up and like, you know, like what it could transition to and that, you know.
Speaker B:But when I started to do backpipes, of course my parents were very confused.
Speaker B:So, like, what.
Speaker B:What is this?
Speaker B:You know?
Speaker B:And here's what happened.
Speaker B:I remember this conversation very well.
Speaker B:My dad came into my room because this was the time I had brought my whole set of bagpipes, and I was sitting there and not really doing very well with it.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker B:So there are lots of layers.
Speaker B:Let's push back a little.
Speaker A:So, yeah, tell the story.
Speaker B:To play bagpipes, you don't really start with the whole set of bagpipes.
Speaker B:You first.
Speaker B:You first learn on a chanter for at least about six months to about a year.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Which is what I did.
Speaker A:Sorry, what's the chanter?
Speaker B:So the chanter looks like a flute.
Speaker B:It looks like a flute, basically.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So you.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker B:You basically practice on that.
Speaker B:It has no bags, nothing.
Speaker B:It's just.
Speaker B:It's just a stick that you blow and practice on.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So I did that, and after that is when I brought, like, bought myself the whole set of bagpipes.
Speaker B:So now when I bought the set of bag types, I didn't really do too well with it because then you have to blow the air into the bag, and there's much more dynamics and techniques involved.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And I, As I said, I never had a teacher to go to, so I had only myself to figure it all out.
Speaker B:So the first.
Speaker B:First week, I didn't.
Speaker B:I didn't really get far with it.
Speaker B:So my dad came into my room, and my dad was like, listen, you know, I.
Speaker B:I know you want to do this and all, that's fine, but give yourself one year.
Speaker B:Like, because I've quit my job also at that time, and I was doing really, really well.
Speaker B:Yeah, I was doing really, really well with my job.
Speaker B:So I quit my job and my dad was like, I give you, like, one year.
Speaker B:Take one year and see if this goes somewhere.
Speaker B:If it doesn't, I would highly recommend that you, you know, do your thing or, like, get something like that.
Speaker B:But that was the only time my dad ever had that conversation with me.
Speaker B:The one.
Speaker B:The one year became two years until I really started doing something on YouTube, you know, and he never said anything or got it haunted me or anything.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, that's good support.
Speaker A:Is that how it started?
Speaker A:Like, the.
Speaker A:Like really getting out there?
Speaker A:Was that YouTube first for you?
Speaker B:Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker B:YouTube was the breakthrough for me.
Speaker B:And I never started YouTube because I wanted to become a YouTuber.
Speaker B:It was because in my circle of friends in.
Speaker B:In Delhi that I was in, you know, that Delhi music scene, yes, we all knew each other and people knew me as a singer, I knew them, etc.
Speaker B:So I never told anybody that I'm learning backpipes or I'm gonna do something with the backpipes.
Speaker A:Understandable.
Speaker B:That way I'm very secret, secretive until something's really final.
Speaker B:I really don't like to put things out there.
Speaker B:So I never told for.
Speaker B:Told for about two years to any of my, you know, known people there.
Speaker B:So my intention to put a video on YouTube was just to show how.
Speaker B:Because backlist are a very visual instruments.
Speaker B:Like, it has a bag and the drones and everything.
Speaker B:So my entire agenda was to show people that, hey, I don't just sing anymore.
Speaker B:I also play this instrument.
Speaker B:Check it out.
Speaker B:This is how it looks.
Speaker B:That was just the innocent idea of putting a YouTube video not.
Speaker B:Not anything else.
Speaker B:But that video did well.
Speaker B:It got a few shares, and then Someone told, hey, Game of Thrones is really trending.
Speaker B:You should really make the soundtrack of Game of Thrones and Backlash.
Speaker B:I did that, and that was the first video that got outside of my circle and started getting views from the U.S.
Speaker B:yeah.
Speaker B:And stuff like that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, wow.
Speaker A:Okay, here it is.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's incredible.
Speaker A:I mean, you telling the story of, like, all the layers, how it came together, the band breakup, leaving your job, the talk with your father where he gave you some time, which is very kind of him, the support that he had.
Speaker A:And I'm sure you appreciate that.
Speaker A:We all do, because of where you are now and what we're able to see you doing.
Speaker B:Thanks, parents.
Speaker A:Yes, thanks, parents.
Speaker A:So here's the question.
Speaker A:How did you bridge your background of classical Indian music or just that tradition with the Scottish tradition?
Speaker A:How do they come together?
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So first off, I.
Speaker B:I don't play the Scottish bagpipes there actually.
Speaker A:I know different types of bagpipes.
Speaker B:Oh, there.
Speaker A:Oh, how ignorant I am.
Speaker B:There are about 50 or 70 different types of bagpipe.
Speaker B:50?
Speaker A:Like 5.
Speaker A:Zero.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:In the whole world, you have bagpipes from Iran, you have bagpipes from Tunisia, you have bagpipes from the Arab side, Egyptian backp bagpipes, just Spanish backpipes.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:There were a couple of Indian backpipes also before the English invaded us.
Speaker B:So there are like many different kinds of backpipes, but of course, the most popular ones that we see are the Scottish Highlands.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So that's what it's known in the masses.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:So I.
Speaker B:I play the semi electronic bagpipe, wherein there are more stuff, scales, more keys that I could, you know, play around with.
Speaker B:It's more friendly for concert.
Speaker B:It has a few less problems that like traditional Scottish island has now.
Speaker B:And also the fact that I never intended to be a traditional piper.
Speaker B:I was very clear since the beginning that I wanted to do more of experimentation music with backlights.
Speaker A:Okay, makes sense.
Speaker B:Now to go back to your question.
Speaker B:When I started to play bagpipes, I started to play more with Celtic music and things.
Speaker B:But I was very, very sure that sooner or later I want to bring in Indian sounds and kind of mash that up and see how it goes, you know, because now since you're saying you've been a music director and you've also been in music, I think with us musicians, we're kind of gifted to kind of visualize and hear things in our brain before we actually sit to do it.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yes, for sure.
Speaker B:Here's what I thought I felt.
Speaker B:I found there was a lot of similarity in Scottish and Indian Punjabi music when it came to beats and when it came to the rhythm and, you know, just the culture, I think Scottish people are really loud, fun, proud out there, you know, so are a lot of Indian people as well.
Speaker B:You see the Punjabi culture, it's like very loud, proud out there.
Speaker B:The mentality.
Speaker B:And even their music, like bagpipes, are known to be an outlaw instrument, you know, a very, you know, respectable kind of instrument.
Speaker B:In the early century, it was more like for the outlaws and the cool kids.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So, yeah, hearing a lot of.
Speaker B:And learning a lot of traditional backpipe music.
Speaker B:And when I used to hear some of my Indian music, I'd be like, wow, this just might work.
Speaker B:Why don't I try it?
Speaker B:And then I did, and then it worked.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Holy smokes.
Speaker A:Little bit.
Speaker A:Mind blown.
Speaker A:Okay, so that makes sense.
Speaker A:So I guess that's something I hope I'm not.
