Two years after Susmit Sen left the iconic band Indian Ocean , which he founded in 1990, he is still hounded by his fans to give a solid reason for doing so. His sudden exit from the band to which he gave a signature note and at a time when it was peaking is difficult for them to accept even today. But now, when they hear, know and learn that his new band The Susmit Sen Chronicles is bringing out compositions that were formed in his mind five years prior to the birth of Indian Ocean they appear pacified.
For these tunes, buried for over 20 years in his psyche, are finding fruition. His solo album, rightly called, Depths of the Ocean, literally digs these dormant notes from the deep. They are fresh pieces, once again like those very first notes that mesmerised our minds when he pioneered the Indian folk-rock genre. Of course, Susmit differs over the definition of fusion.
In the city to launch his memoir Ocean to Ocean and release an eponymous album he now wishes to reach out to as many people with “my music and as much ‘live’ as possible.”
So what’s his new music? “The endeavour is to make people understand that when you hear a song it is only the tip of the iceberg. I have made episodes to show people the entire iceberg.”
In his case the musical iceberg, one will infer, constitutes the gamut of disjointed thought processes, the half-formed tunes that strike serendipitously, and even his unshakable stance of believing in the goodness of man.
“I think, if you are a true artiste then your character shows in your art form. For me, being a good human being is of utmost importance,” he says. Just as Susmit seeks out local cuisine, local drink, organic life, and people doing humanitarian work he shuns crass commercialisation in life and music. He speaks with eloquence about a tree lit by glow worms on a rainy night in a village on the Nepal border. It is in these depths that one clearly finds the origins of the soulful riffs of his guitar. Being self-taught and with a passion that found him in his younger days playing through the night were reasons that could not contain the musician at the desk of a marketing job. He quit following his heart, as he did recently again, and then formed Indian Ocean .
Initially, the going was tough. There were no arenas to showcase his music. In the first five years, the group did only seven shows but the classical sounds of his guitar and the haunting lyrics of rustic songs were slowing leaving an impression.
As time and things changed the popularity of the band skyrocketed to a pitch when they performed 88 shows in 2010. Bollywood too began drawing them in. The band became a rage, leading as the country’s top bands. And then Susmit quit.
“It is not possible to do everything musically with one band. When certain thing starts rolling, inertia sets in. I needed to explore new areas of music, which were corroding my mind.” But it was rumoured that Susmit was against playing to the galleries and against a certain commercialisation but even today he prefers to let it pass. “I have done the music for Miss Tanakpur Hazir Ho , and that’s been well received,” he says adding that he is not against the idea of music for Bollywood to the extent that he should like the idea and share a synergy with the director, something that he did with Anurag Kashyap when Indian Ocean made the music for Black Friday.
On to a new phase and at peace with his situation Susmit, one guesses, is playing the role of a mentor. He comes down strongly on plagiarism and commercialisation of music which he finds rampant. “Musicians need to make money but how much? Piracy is a crime which should be punishable like when one is caught stealing. Let us not hide behind softer words like inspiration. You have copied the tune word by word,” he says strongly.
His love for Indian classical music comes from listening to the big four-Nikhil Banerjee, Ali Akbar Khan, Mallikarjun Mansur and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. “They had the capability to transport us to another world.
You can do that if you lose yourself in what you do,” he says hoping to do exactly that with his Chronicles , chronicling a new musical story.
Susmit Sen will perform at Hotel Casino on June 28 at 7 30 p.m. at the release of his bookOcean to Ocean .
