Winston Balman, the country singer and his listening room

Long before he made that resounding Delhi circuit debut, Winston Balman knew ‘country’ was his calling. Country music, to be precise, was his ticket to a riveting affair with a genre that had rarely gained traction in the circles that mattered. But there was Balman, determined to chart his course and make history.

Back in school, tucked away in an old English-like countryside in Dehradun, Balman first pulled his guitar strings, penned his songs. That was 2003, 18 summers before he would sit for a private chat with DH, inside an acoustic Clubhouse room tailor-made for his kind of music.

With hundreds hooked on to his late-night ‘Listening Room’ renditions, Balman is already a rage in Clubhouse, the audio-only social media platform. His vivid country lines filling the chat rooms with masterly vigour, Balman recalls how the release of his ‘Marijuana Highway’ in 2018 was backed by a decade of indulgent songwriting.

He always wanted his songs to be simple but packed with imagery. “I literally screen write, picturise like a movie, visualise an imaginary set,” says Balman. His songs prove him right, as the listeners are transported to a different place far removed from the limiting confines of their everyday lives.

The songs have a nostalgic edge for a reason. “Clement Town in Dehradun where I lived was a sleepy town. It was a place where retired people would come and relax. When Dehradun became Uttarakhand’s winter capital, the crowds that came were overwhelming. I miss the old place,” he says, not without a tinge of sadness.

Ears attuned to rock and pop, rap and blues, the young audience often go absolutely silent riveted to Balman’s old-world rendering. The intensity of his music, the ethereal power of the songwriter in him would let them go ‘once more’. As he puts it, “Clubhouse has been an absolute game-changer for me. The response has been of overwhelming love.”

For Balman, country music was almost a natural choice. “I grew up with a lot of country music cassettes that my dad would play at home. As a child, I was fascinated with the whole idea of cowboys and cowboy movies. I loved the music that came along. And then I met Bobby, a musician who seemed to be playing that music since the beginning of time,” he recalls.

Mentored by Bobby, Balman charted his road ahead. “When pop, hip-hop, rap and metal were cool, I stuck to good old country. I don’t mind playing rock and pop, even Bollywood. But I have always had this bent for country.”

In 2017, Balman recorded some of his songs and with a bunch of like-minded musicians put together ‘The Prophets of Rock’. His songs ‘Small-town Style’ and the ‘Hot Mama Blues’ rode the internet to win global fans.