A new wave of indie artists are eschewing coveted venues in big cities equipped with heavy duty music sets, spectacular lighting and aggressive promotions that lead up to good audience turnout for performances in serene small towns with niche crowds.
From Bollywood's veteran composer, Lesle Lewis, blues band Kanchan Daniel and the Beards to a boy band from Delhi, music makers in India across platforms are now looking forward to strum it up in small towns ranging from Kokrajhar in Assam to picturesque Kasauli in the hills.
At the recently concluded 5th season of Kasauli Rhythm and Blues festival, artists across genres performed on a single stage taking back nothing but smiles and cheers from fans both domestic as well as those coming in from countries like Sri Lanka, Switzerland and the UK.
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"Honestly, I love playing in smaller town festivals because I feel people love you for your music, they are real fans, they have come there because they love your music and I saw that tonight. I love to interact with people of India and they could be from anywhere," says singer-composer Lesle Lewis, a pioneer of independent music in India.
"At festivals like this you see people coming with their kids and they are actually enjoying the music, they have come for the music and that's how a festival should be, people are actually here to see these bands perform and listen to one band at a time, no option nothing," he says.
Riding on similar lines is a Hindi-rock band who goes by the name 'The Local Train' formed by musicians from Chandigarh and small towns of Haryana who grew up listening to Bollywood numbers 'Baazigar' and 'Ole Ole' which influenced them to pen music in Hindi rock n roll with a desi touch.
The band is a regular at campus gigs and festivals, which are often considered to be best performance spaces for both established and upcoming performances.
Taking in the towny vibe, the band has been on constant
tour for the past six months to places like Sonepat (Haryana), Kokrajhar (Assam) and Deogarh (Jharkhand) following the release of their debut album, 'Aalas Ka Pedh' last year.
"We did not want to be a metro band when we started out. We wanted to really get to the two-tier cities and smaller towns because we knew that these people really need exposure, so college festivals in the outskirts and away from the metros are important and through that I think we have reached to people who don't have access to alternate, independent music," vocalist for 'The local Train', Raman Negi told
