Singer Raghu Dixit talks about folk tradition, embracing AI in music, and his wedding

Raghu Dixit, known for his vibrant folk-fusion music, is channelling his energies into live performances, and is set to marry singer Varijashree

In a candid chat with Deccan Herald - Online, acclaimed musician Raghu Dixit opens up about life, love, and the shifts rocking the music industry. Dixit, known for his vibrant folk-fusion music, is channelling his energies into live performances. With the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) potentially disrupting recorded music, he believes the "only real thing that will survive" is the human connection of a live show. Acknowledging the "fear of the unknown" that AI presents, Dixit sees potential in adopting it as a tool rather than resisting the change.

Edited excerpts:

How has life been post-Covid? It's picked up, right? What about the music scene? Can you tell us a bit about that?

I have consciously avoided commissioned work. I've been focusing only on my music and collaborations with musicians around the world. I've released a new album called Shakkar.

That's your solo?

Yeah. The Raghu Dixit Project involved projects from around, I mean, musicians from around the world. Great collaborations happened on that, and that music is being played live nowadays with my band. The focus has entirely been on improving the live act more and more, because now the fear of AI is looming large.

Recorded music is soon going to be in troubled waters. Only real things will survive. The ability of a human to stand on stage and perform a song – that is never going to die.

Our focus is entirely on making the best act possible live, and that's stood us in good stead. We've done really well.

How challenging is AI for you now? Your compositions and your performance, have they taken a shift of sorts?

Actually, we don't know what is going to hit us. There's only fear right now. The fear of the unknown. So, without giving in to the fear, if you are solidifying your own skill sets and whatever virtues you are blessed with and enhancing them by practising more and becoming the best you can be with what you have as gifts, I think that is the only thing you can do.

Everything else is left to the way the world shapes it. So, you can't really fight the way the world is changing every day. Technology is rapidly changing, and it's not easy to keep abreast of what's happening and keep up with the pace at which it's growing.

So, instead of resisting it, it's better to learn to adapt to it and even adopt it, maybe. If AI can help me become a better musician, I would love to adopt it.

Why not incorporate AI into making music rather than going against the tide? AI is here to stay anyway. Isn't it?

Yeah, that's what I've heard. That's also a part of AI which can enhance a musician's ability to come up with newer ideas and better directions. For example, if you're stuck in a rut, maybe it can help you to move towards new directions. But then, AI is also imitating something that is already existing. It depends on the data that you have fed into the tool. It's not that AI is able to discover something new. That is still depending on the human mind to discover, to come up with a truly original idea. That power is still only with the human mind right now. Right now, I would say.

To use an AI tool to your own advantage also rests upon the musicians themselves. I should now open up myself and see if I can find myself friendly with AI, which I have not started yet, but I would love to.

You haven't started it yet? Definitely you are old school in that way. Right?

I am old. I was saying in terms of your approach to music, making music. Most true artists would love to come up with something on their own, depending on what inspires them, rather than AI telling them, 'Oh, if you do this, this is the new trend. You please follow this' or whatever. I don't know what AI can do right now. I'm still not yet accessing it as a tool. But I see a lot of my musician friends are talking about it, and it's quite amazing what people are able to pull out interesting stuff. I can also see a lot of non-musicians trying their hand with AI and they've come up with incredible stuff.

You are one of the few musicians who began writing, composing, and singing in the vernacular language Kannada. And you're still at it. You have a definite audience.

I can't claim that. Maybe in Kannada, I did that. At the national level, there was also the Indian Ocean. There was Aviyal in Kerala, which is almost contemporary. I'm very proud of the journey I've had so far.

Any thoughts about bringing vachanas into your music?

I have never said, 'Okay, this is what I want to do.' I read a lot of poetry. And sometimes the poetry springs out a melody to me. And vachanas, I've not been able to yet crack anything into them.

I also know that M D Pallavi is doing extensive work in vachanas, for example. So everyone has their comfort poetry. I love folk poetry a lot.

Vachanas have more intricate Kannada. I like more colloquial, rural Kannada for my style of music.

Probably, it is also that relatability in terms of the genre of writing that inspires me. The philosophy of the same vachanas is spoken in folk forms also. Like Shishunala (Sharif) has spoken something similar to what Basavanna could have written, for example. Thematically, as you can see across India, from Bulleh Shah down to Bharathiyar (Subramania Bharati), Kabir or Guru Nanak, the poetry they've written, they all finally lead to similar themes, similar topics and similar advice to humankind.

Otherwise, I'm very deeply interested now in doing a collection of Da Ra Bendre's poetry. Again, he's very close to the folk language in many ways. I've already worked on four or five songs of his. If I manage to crack another four or five songs, then I would like to do an album. His Sakhigeeta, for example, is only about his conversations with his wife and children. That's a beautiful topic to touch upon and make music out of that.

Varijashree has been your friend for the longest time.

For almost 15-20 years, I think. I have immense respect for who she was always. And she's becoming a mammoth force in the world music scene right now. Like she's done far more great work than just to be kind of restricted to an award (Grammy)... We kind of measure people with what they've achieved in terms of recognisable names and numbers and whatever.

What took you guys so long to say 'I do'?

No, no. There was no 'I do' situation. This is a very recent development. We actually became friends post-Covid. Before that, it was just an acquaintance. Early this year, it just naturally progressed into a situation where we could not ignore the fact that we do love each other and like each other. And we would love to be companions. She's a phenomenal person. I'm really blessed and happy to be 'the chosen one' by her and vice versa.

Absolutely. Does this also mean more collaborations together? Like, will you guys be making music together?

I don't think we can promise that at all. Because musically, we've done very few things together.

Any notable things that you...

Nothing whatsoever. We have not done any music on our own together. But we've definitely been opinion bouncers. Because her stream is so vastly different from mine.

Anybody who talks about us, the initial reaction would be, 'Oh, so are you going to make an album together?' It would be the most clichéd thing to do. We both know that it cannot be forced out of us. It comes naturally. When it happens, it might happen. Maybe we are probably driving somewhere together... We will wait for the music to come to us, rather than us chasing something. It cannot be a forced activity at all, whatsoever.

But we are deeply respectful of each other's journey as musicians and what we are striving really hard to achieve in terms of quality of music or the ambitions that we carry in our hearts for our music. We are deeply supportive, and that's the best part about us.

Both of you are Bengalureans, right?

Both of us are Bengalureans, but I was born in Nashik and grew up in Mysuru. I am a naturalised Bengalurean. I've been here for the last 25 years.

And when is the wedding?

End of this month it is!