Although less visible on the mainstream musical map than both her father and sister, Anouskha is no less the talent and has an impressively varied resume for someone who is only 26 years old.
As early as 8, Anouskha began her musical journey on a customized sitar made especially for her.
By 13, she made her recording debut on In Celebration, an album dedicated to the works of her father.
At 15, she forayed into conducting on her father’s Chants of India album produced by George Harrison.
By 1998, she released her first self titled solo album as well as being recognized as the youngest and first female recipient of the British Parliament’s House of Commons Shield.
In 2000, she released her 2nd solo album, Anourag, which catapulted her into the international arena with her first Grammy nomination, released a book entitled Bapi: The Love of my Life — a biopic portrayal of her father’s career, and starred in a 30-minute BBC documentary called Anoushka Shankar: Sitar Trek, which was a behind the scenes look at her on tour.
2004 saw her veer into acting in the film, Dance Like a Man which earned her a best supporting actress nomination from India’s National Film Awards. In the same year, she made the 20 Asian Heroes List in the Asia edition of Time magazine.
2005 was when she really began to find her own unique voice with the release of her 3rd solo album, Rise, which gave her a 2nd Grammy nomination.
In 2006, she made history as the first Indian to play at the Grammy Awards pre-telecast ceremony.
So what could possibly be left for this multi-talented star to achieve? Superstar status perhaps? Well, maybe the release of her newest album, Breathing Under Water, her most prolifically organic, first collaborative masterpiece and that too with the extraordinarily talented Karsh Kale, set to release in August, will make even that a thing of the past. I caught up with her to chat about this personal and professional milestone, so read on to discover the world of Anoushka Shankar!
Read On…
How did Breathing Under Water, the title of your newest album, come about and what does it mean to you?
I felt like I was doing the impossible, or what appeared to be impossible, because of all of the styles of music that my sitar-playing was working with — kind of like breathing under water. You’re not sure if you’re going to suffocate once you get in there or worse still, actually drown.
How is this album different from the four albums you’ve done previously?
It’s my first collaborative album. I’ve never worked in a duet kind of concept before. Genre-wise, it’s definitely different too. Rise was the first album where I stepped out of the classical Indian tradition, but this one is pushing that even further.
You state that, “One of the greatest aspects of creating this album was giving unabashedly full reign to my creative desires, pushing and being pushed far outside my comfort level.” Explain.
On this album, we had no boundaries. Karsh Kale and I were both allowed to be creative in any direction we wanted to be. We were going to support and explore that for each other. This was also made possible because a lot of the people I worked with on the album I’m very close to. I felt safe to share a lot of ideas that I may not have let come out in another setting. I was able to go much further as a creative musician than I have before. Sometimes that wasn’t easy because I was faced, in some cases, with types of music that I had never worked with before and that was very challenging.
Why at this point did you decide to do a collaborative album and that too with someone like Karsh whose musical style is very different from yours?
It kind of fell on my lap. We were just making music for fun one day, and it was honestly very surprising how easy I found it to work with Karsh. There was definitely a musical chemistry there. Seeing this made us both want to explore it. It seemed like there was potential to create an interesting record together.
Were you in a conscious place at this time to take yourself in more of a diverse musical direction or did hanging out with Karsh bring that to light?
After Rise, I thought I would make another classical album. What was interesting was that although with Breathing Under Water I experimented with many different styles of music, I took what I knew of classical music and applied it to all of these very different areas.
Karsh has stated that the central focus of the album and common thread that ran throughout the album was your instrumental voice. It was your voice that allowed him to figure out what to do around you. Was it a conscious decision to make your playing the central theme of the album or did it develop into this organically?
It wasn’t conscious initially. How it works for me is that the first half of the creative process I allow myself total freedom and that’s how you can give light to all of your ideas and how you can start to lay things down. Somewhere halfway through the process is when I switch from the creative side and start to think in production levels. And that’s when you start to look at all of your creations and see what you have and see if there are any patterns emerging or anything lacking. With this particular album, I would sit with sitar in hand while Karsh would sit with his guitar, and I would be creating as if I was a vocal while he would create as an instrumental band. We realized that the album was going to need a constant voice in the midst of so many musical genres so that’s how it all came about.
You are quoted in a press release as saying, “Globalization is an internal state of being and borders were made to be crossed …Breathing Under Water is a soundtrack of this journey.” You have a number of interesting collaborations on the album from your father (Ravi Shankar), sister (Norah Jones), Sting and Bollywood playbacks Shankar Mahadevan and Sunidhi Chauhan. Did these collaborations contribute to your journey or were they symbolic of your journey?
Both. We had a specific role in mind and wanted to say something that we felt that only they could say in the right way. People are playing different roles throughout the course of the album. At that point, they’re contributing themselves. They’re adding to what we are saying and completing the journey. So contribution and symbolism are inextricably linked.
The diversity of contributors to the album is so varied, I’m wondering how you were able to accomplish the bringing together of the album so that a listener has a sense of theme?
Well, for example, my father most significantly lends such a weight to the album. He symbolizes to me a source from where we were coming from in terms of crossing over and blending different genres together to accomplish a world music feel. Something he has been doing by contributing his music to the world stage for decades now. To have the original source on the album — which he is — is very significant for all of us which is why we called the tracks Oceanic the original waters.
You have Oceanic as two pieces on the album — Part 1 and Part 2. Explain this.
That was more of a technical decision because in Indian classical music you oftentimes have a raga begin with an alaap and this is what we did with the Oceanic tracks.
What about your sister Norah? How was she involved with the album?
For me, this was the first time writing a song with English lyrics and Norah was someone I wanted to work with for a long time. So I think that track came about more personally than symbolically because I love her voice and I love her music. She’s that person who has always encouraged me to do things that seem funny to me like writing a song in English and it was nice to get her on the album singing it.
And then there is also Sting.
Sting is a big focus in both Karsh’s and my musical journey. He stands out as a very mainstream example of the blending of musical styles that sound very organic. I’ve been friends with him for years and had constantly talked about working with him, but this was the first time that I felt that I actually had something to offer him that I felt was worthy.
How do you feel now having completed the album?
It’s always a funny kind of limbo when you’re in this in-between stage before the release of an album because it’s that letting go process and when you’re such a perfectionist, it’s so difficult to let it go and say you’re finished because there are so many layers to the album-making process — from the inception of the idea to the creative process, performance and post production. You kind of have to stop and breathe so you can look at the piece somewhat objectively in order to realize that the track is complete. I’m at the stage now where I’ve adjusted to the fact that the album is an entity outside of me, which allows me to finally say that it actually is complete. I’m really excited to get it out there and see what the response is.
Once we delve within ourselves, this oftentimes opens our senses to unknown parts of our being, which in turn can change us in some way or even change the direction of our lives for good. Has the experience of doing this out-of-the-box album had that effect on you, and if so, in what way(s)?
It sort of continued a really intense opening that began for me with Rise. It has kind of solidified that creative path as being a very valid one that I hope to retain as a focus. Yet, it has also brought back a level of youthful fun and energy to the process of creating and composing, which in a classical world you tend to take more seriously.
What do you hope people will get out of the album?
Music to me is so abstract and personal that I can hope that people will take something of meaning on some level out of experiencing the album. I honestly wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to what that is, as it kind of ruins that person’s experience by pre-conceptualizing. It’s almost like hearing the opinion of someone who has read a book or seen a movie before you and offers up his/her take. This preconception ruins the spontaneity of a person’s own perceptions
What did you get out of the album, albeit your perception being a conscious one?
For me, the album makes interesting points about possibilities in music today. I feel that there are very few albums that take music to the levels we did. Our edge is the fact that all of the people who worked on the album really come from all of the places that they communicate to the listener on the album. It’s genuine and real and honest. It’s natural, real expression rather than an experiment. The magic is in the fact that we were able to layer it all together so that it all belongs.
Are you pleased with your performance on the whole?
I really am.
That’s huge for a self-professed artist to admit to.
I got to do a lot that I’m very proud of, like producing, and even in terms of my sitar-playing, I’m very pleased with all the different ways I got to play.
I can’t wait to dive into it!
Tell me what you think. Honestly.
Only honestly, I will. In terms of fusion, today’s musical spectrum is probably more diverse and experimental than it has ever been before. Lines are becoming more and more blurred on many levels in life in general, which is also translating over into many mediums of expression. Bearing this in mind, how would you classify yourself as an artist?
I classify myself as someone who is genuinely attempting to retain and pass on in the future a certain level of the old tradition without it being watered down. And that too in a black and white manner because tradition is never static. So I’m not passing on what the music was like 300 years ago. I don’t have any desire for things to be frozen in time or to be bogged down with thousands of rules and regulations. What I do is give people the essence of what it feels like to go to a classical Indian concert. To really hear and feel what a raga is, opened and explored and performed in its own element as opposed to the way it sounds when you hear some bars in a Western song which may sound absolutely stunning, but it’s not the same as hearing it in its own element. I guess what I’m hoping is to continue to be both because I don’t want to live without either.
So to clarify, how would you classify yourself as an artist?
I’m extremely ambitious and also very insecure.
Really? Why?
I have a hard time believing that I have really good things in me to give.
Because you’re a true artist and true artists oftentimes find it hard to see perfection in themselves. So they are always on a perpetual
journey to find it, even when the world feels that they have.
I believe that you stop striving when you think you’ve gotten where you need to go, and a true artist never stops striving.
Where do you feel fusion music is headed as cultural globalization continues?
There’s such an exponential rate of development in life in general so I have a hard time picturing it. But since life is always translated or our understanding of it is communicated through art in general, as life mutates, so will all mediums of artistic expression.
Based on your experience making this album, where do you feel you are headed as an artist?
I admire people who push all kinds of boundaries so passionately and with so much skill, and I want that kind of life, and I want that kind of fire. The specifics of what that might be are going to change as I change.
Am I right in assuming that this album is the farthest away from your mentor, your father’s compositional style, and the closest to who you are as an artist and your understanding of who you are today as a person, or am I being presumptuous?
As my teacher, he’s definitely influenced so many of my own brain patterns. So even when there’s things that I do differently, I see myself having desires musically that my father loves. It’s the same as looking at someone’s genetic features where you can see one parent’s eyes and nose and another’s forehead and chin, but it’s still a face of their own.
At what point did you realize how your father was perceived by the world?
For me, my father was Ravi Shankar before he was my father because I lived in London with my mother and my parents only got married when I was 7 years old. I didn’t become a Shankar until then.
An individual’s relationship with their father, especially as a daughter and in our culture, is quite instrumental in helping us create our identities. This is also the case with an artist and his/her mentor. How does one deal with both of these being one in the same?
It’s quite normal for me because I grew up with this being my situation. It’s all I know.
Did you feel pressure to follow in your dad’s footsteps?
No, because it was made clear to me from the get-go by my parents that I should only play or want to learn to play if I love it. They wanted me to try it but beyond that it was my decision to continue.
Were/are you hard on yourself being that you are a sitarist and the daughter of the sitar maestro himself?
On the contrary, it made me more likely to be a bit of a brat because I would say, “Oh it’s only dad.” I was only seven. One thing my parents were really smart about when I was growing up was avoiding letting me feel too much pressure as it’s difficult enough to be disciplined enough to commit to learn the sitar or any skill set properly and with the right frame of mind. Also, my father was never harsher on me to prove a point to other students that he’s not favouring me either because that’s not who he is as a person. For him, the commitment is yours for you to take responsibility of. Without that personal commitment, there’s no real understanding of the art form.
How did you find or are you finding your own individual voice as Anoushka Shankar and not as Ravi Shankar’s daughter?
By being intensely conscious of the fact that I will always be my dad’s daughter. This led me to become intensely individualistic so that I could in fact have a sense of self—my self.
Having garnered such a massive public profile and having been stamped with the multi-Grammy award-winning label that Norah has, is there any sense or need on your part — now that from a public perspective, you’re coming into your own as an artist—to strive for similar success or even to compete?
Similar success — yes — as I am intensely ambitious by nature, but no — in terms of competing because whenever you do something like that, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You have to desire to do things from a personal space perspective. The second you start thinking about what someone else is doing, whether you succeed or not, you’re not ever going to be really happy. It was difficult for a moment there when my sister first became famous. Not because of her accomplishments or fame in itself but because it created such a moment for me and our entire family.
What was that moment?
The way the media decided to angle the story by flipping it on to me.
Explain.
Well, up until the point when Norah became really famous, there was never really any reason the media could find to write really horrible things about me as I grew up with the golden child syndrome — the daughter of, a child prodigy etc. But when Norah achieved the notoriety that she did, the media had a field day saying, “Look there’s another daughter and she’s more successful and she’s better.” And that was a hard thing to go through on such a mass scale because it was created out of so many untruths. I had never gone through such scrutiny before so it was really pivotal for me at that time. I was 20-21 years old at that time. It taught me about the nature of being in the public eye at a whole other level.
How did you handle it?
I learned that you have to let go of what is being said about you when it’s incorrect because you cannot keep trying to justify your perspective to media who want to make it into what they want in order to sell a story. At first, I wanted to correct everyone but when it’s coming at you at such a massive scale, you have to find that place where you have to detach yourself from all the untruths that are being written about you. This was hard for me in the beginning because it would make me angry that such things were being communicated to the mass public who had no idea of my relationship with Norah and how really wonderful it really was and is today.
So how did you learn to stop internalizing what was being said?
Unfortunately, I think it was more a notion of beating your head against a brick wall until you get too tired to keep doing that because the wall never comes down when you’re talking about media and their quest for a story.
How is your relationship today with Norah and your dad?
For us, there’s a great level of love, excitement and support for each of our voices.
Who do you hope to be tomorrow?
I don’t want to be someone who looks back on life and reminisces in my old age. I want to still be looking ahead and to the future to see what else I can do and how else I can contribute to my life.
First published in Summer 2007, www.AnokhiMagazine.com.
Photo Credits:
Photography by Pamela Springsteen
Open ChestTM is a trademark of RG Media Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved
