What started as a club night in a London’s 93 Feet East in 2002, hosted by Groove Armada, has quickly grown into one of the most looked forward to alternative music events in the UK. In a span of eight years, the event has expanded to a span of 3 days and attracts some of the best Indie acts from across the world – a variety of acts from various music genres – electronic, rock, folk, etc – as well as circus performers, cabarets and other fringe acts.

Since it started, Lovebox has hosted acts like Goldfrapp, The Flaming Lips, Duran Duran, Simian Mobile Disco, N.E.R.D, the New York Dolls, and of course, Groove Armada, among others. Its 2009 edition marked a special event in the life of the Indian indie music industry with Raghu Dixit becoming the first Indian artiste to be invited to perform at the festival. Following in Dixit’s footsteps this year is folk band Swarathma, who played at Lovebox and two other music festivals – Larmer Tree and the Bedford river Festival – in the UK last week. Fresh on the return from their international sojourn, Swarathma is full of excitement at the prospects of Indian bands in the global market. Their second visit to perform in the UK, the band’s management at Only Much Louder has been stepping it up with the promotion – getting them a cool new iPhone application as well recently.

A folk band, Swarathma is possibly more widely known for the “act” they bring on every time they take the stage. What with a typical Rajasthani puppet Ghori and all the colourful clothing, and all that. The folk elements they use on stage – and in their music – know no regional boundaries. They might be from Bengaluru, but they’re open to using baul instruments and Rajasthani props along with drums and bass to create an act they think represents their music and their sensibilities. “We think making folk art contemporary by fusing it with the western influences most of us have grown up with is the most effective way to keep the folk alive” says Jishnnu Dasgupta, who plays the bass and delivers backing vocals for the band.

Swarathma believe that the response from an international audience is always interesting and mostly follows the same three step course – first, there’s curiosity, then comes the warming up as crowds begin to get on their feet and move a little and finally appreciation, since by the end of the show everyone’s swooning to the music, even if they don’t understand the language. And that’s exactly what they felt at Lovebox as well.

Ask them about the stage act that manages to get them a fair amount of accusations of banking on exoticism, and the response is crisp: It does help in the beginning but listeners wouldn’t stay if they didn’t like what the music. “It’s no longer possible for us to separate the act from the music. International audiences particularly appreciate if you carry an essence of who you are and where you come from with you” Jishnu points out. Straight from the horse’s mouth, as they would say.


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(Originally Published in The Sunday Guardian, Delhi)